Fuel Sender Unit

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Mon May 17, 2004 1:44 pm

Hi

Anyone had any experience of changing the fuel sender unit.

Looking at the manual a special tool is required to remove the threaded cap nut.

Has anyone tried to remove this without a special tool, if so how did you do it.

Going to save myself 2 to 3 hours of Audi rates if i can do this myself.

Thanks

Post by **Morpheous** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:30 pm

You can do it if you or one of your friends has a large pair of Snap On swan neck pliers, This nut is plastic and F tight, so when undoing it use gentle small nudges or you will distort/damage it.
You will be working against the rubber seal, similar to when undoing the oil filter, gentle slow movements and you should be ok.
Make sure you got less than 1/4 tank or you will be mopping up.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Tue May 18, 2004 8:26 am

Cool, thanks for that. Looks like i will be speaking to someone to borrow some swan neck pliers then.

Anyone got any idea why Audi say that this is a 2 to 3 hour job. I cant see it taking anymore that 1/2 hour, if the nut comes undone okay.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Thu May 20, 2004 12:15 pm

Okay, so I changed my fuel sender unit last night. I removed the plastic nut with some swann neck pliers. Turned out to be an easy job and took me less that half an hour. All now working fine.

I will be speaking to my Audi dealer later today and I will be asking them why they quoted 2 to 3 hours labour for this job. STEALERS :piss:

Post by **Dippy** » Thu May 20, 2004 1:21 pm

2 hours to find the pliers, half hour to do the job, half hour to calculate your bill.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Thu May 20, 2004 1:45 pm

That sounds about right, or maybe 2.5 hours to make sure that they reach thier target!

Post by **KayGee** » Thu May 20, 2004 7:16 pm

What was wrong? Mine has just stopped working except on full throttle when it reappears. Ease off and dissappears again...will have a prod around sat guessing a loose connection of broken wire somewhere.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Fri May 21, 2004 8:47 am

There is a very fragile wire that connects to the float, obviously this float moves depending upon the amount of fuel in the tank and this wire moves with it. In my opinion this wire is never going to last forever and it is this wire that probably is causing the problem.

It is an easy fix, so there is not even any need to buy a new sensor, however i bought my new sensor before taking the old one out so did not see that it was so easy to fix.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Fri May 21, 2004 4:25 pm

So here is the responce from my friendly Audi dealer.

The 2 hours that they quote is from their computer system, (probably dictated by Audi). This 2 hours probably allows enough time to drain off the fuel tank.

My response to them was that if they needed to drain off the tank (they need to nearly empty so that they dont have to put thier arm in the petrol), then they should tell me and I would have given the car to them with an empty tank, not difficult.

From now on, when they quote a job to me they will investigate the times involved to prevent this from happening again.

It makes you wonder that if they did this job for me and it only took them 20min, would they still charge me for the full 2 hours, i bet they would!

Post by **KayGee** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:57 am

Thanks Simon, I guess if the sender unit isn't to dear (how much was the unit?) replacing the whole thing is probably a wise move. Filled it up last night so will do it next weekend.

Post by **s4jersey** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:58 pm

My old man used to work in the mechanic trade and they used to always book out whatever time the manufacturer said the job would take, so a 3 days gearbox repair done in 5 hours would net his employer a nice profit and him a nice bonus in his pay packet....

If my local Audi dealer is anything to go by then I am sure they do exactly the same.

I am waiting on a fuel sender to arrive as we speak, as after 12 months, 2 replacement dashboards and constantly telling them it is the sender at fault the local audi dealer still could not fix the oscelating fuel gauge the useless bunch of halfwits.

Post by **JonnyX** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:31 am

A guy at my local dealership (Whites Camberley) told me that the technicians are bonused on
the delta between the booked time for the job and the actual time for the job.

Whenever I take my car there I watch the forecour like a hawk to see when they take and
return my car - I will never just leave it. At £85 an hour they are taking the piss
anyway. e.g.

Replace tie rod end:
Quoted time: 1 1/2 hours actual: 45 minutes. Tried charging me for this as well.
Headlight range adjustment:
Quoted time: 1 hour actual: 30 minutes. Again, tried charging for this.

Saved myself about £150 including VAT just by checking that they do their jobs
properly. I wonder how many people actually pay these quoted labour times at
rates which are already nearly 3 times the national average?

Anybody want to startup an Audi dealership in Surrey/Hampshire? Should be able
to run it for a year or so then retire to the Bahamas

Post by **BlackShadow** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:11 pm

Was just looking a this thread, as I have been having similar problems with my fuel gauge, and I guess by reading this, the fuel gauge sender needs replacing. The first article by Simon S4MTM refers to "the manual". Which manual is this, please? The only manual I've seen is the Hayes one, which specifically excludes the S4.

Post by **KayGee** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:31 pm

Bentley do two manuals workshop manual and service guide. One covers what to do in detail, other one assumes it is being read by qualified technician. Says replace spark plugs for instance rather than steps needed to be done to replace spark plugs....

Hope that helps. My collar I removed with large drift and rubber mallet, tapping each lug in turn until unscrewed.

Post by **SimonS4MTM** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:28 am

Bentley Official Factory Repair Manual, available from Ross-Tech at a reasonable price when you purchase VAG-COM.

Be careful with the drift method as the collar is plastic

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