Fuel gauge problem
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:31 pm
Something strange happened last night.
I went to visit a friend who lives a fair distance away, so I had paid attention to my fuel level. When I arrived there was about a quarter tank left and the DIS was estimating about 80 miles left.
When I left his house, the car beeped at me, showing nearly empty on the gauge and 15 miles on the DIS! There was only 212 miles on the odometer (since I last filled up).
Although I had not smelled any petrol, I couldn't take a chance of running out of fuel on the way home so I filled up at a Shell station nearby. I squeezed 47 litres into the tank, so that proved there was no leak.
Starting up the car, the fuel guage only reached about 3/4, so I concluded that it was buggered. However within about 10 minutes of the journey home, the guage had slowly crept up to the full position. This morning it showed just below full, correctly accounting for the distance I drove home.
The only peculiarities about last night were that the car was parked on a fairly steep slope (facing uphill) and it got very cold.
Anyone else had a similar experience? Is this just a temporary thing that can happen or should I expect to have to repair something?
I went to visit a friend who lives a fair distance away, so I had paid attention to my fuel level. When I arrived there was about a quarter tank left and the DIS was estimating about 80 miles left.
When I left his house, the car beeped at me, showing nearly empty on the gauge and 15 miles on the DIS! There was only 212 miles on the odometer (since I last filled up).
Although I had not smelled any petrol, I couldn't take a chance of running out of fuel on the way home so I filled up at a Shell station nearby. I squeezed 47 litres into the tank, so that proved there was no leak.
Starting up the car, the fuel guage only reached about 3/4, so I concluded that it was buggered. However within about 10 minutes of the journey home, the guage had slowly crept up to the full position. This morning it showed just below full, correctly accounting for the distance I drove home.
The only peculiarities about last night were that the car was parked on a fairly steep slope (facing uphill) and it got very cold.
Anyone else had a similar experience? Is this just a temporary thing that can happen or should I expect to have to repair something?