Fuel Gauge.

[andyglym]

You are not going to want to read this .....
I had the same problem with my car, seems to happen a lot as the cars get older?
When the gauge showed 1/4 full on mine, it was actually in reserve and after I found that out the hard way, I just learnt to live with it and read 1/4 full as empty....

 

[NZ00Z3]

The fuel pump/sender is located low down the side of the tank. I fill the tank then drive 300 miles to bring the fuel level down before trying to remove the fuel pump.

 

[Eddie Zedder]

You could run an instrument cluster test just to make sure your guage is ok. Details here.

https://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20201

 

[mrscalex]

You are not going to want to read this .....
I had the same problem with my car, seems to happen a lot as the cars get older?
When the gauge showed 1/4 full on mine, it was actually in reserve and after I found that out the hard way, I just learnt to live with it and read 1/4 full as empty....

That was actually what happened with my XR3i. I thought it was just running badly and it had just happened to break down twice. I was never going to think it had run out of fuel when it was registering 1/4 full. And it took the Ford garage 3 attempts to realise it wasn't that and that it was the float as well. Mind you they really were useless at that garage. It lived semi-permanently up there for the first 2 years until I blew a fuse and they gave it to the RS mechanic to sort out. He put up-rated injectors in and it drove lovely after that. Until the gearbox fell apart around 30 months old & 35k miles...

I remember well on one occasion I had the float issue and I was bunny hopping down a 70 mph dual carriageway at 5 mph. I was actually pulled over by the Police for driving too slowly!

 

[mrscalex]

The fuel pump/sender is located low down the side of the tank. I fill the tank then drive 300 miles to bring the fuel level down before trying to remove the fuel pump.

You can actually empty the fuel tank in seconds by removing the input pipe to the fuel filter, sticking it in a bucket and bridging the fuel pump base across the appropriate sockets. I did that with my 3.0 project to clean out the old fuel where it had sat for 2-3 years before trying to start it. Interestingly I started off by removing the outlet pipe from the fuel filter but the pressure coming out is much slower than going in so it would take a lot longer.

But however you do it @Murray Wall offers sound advice as you will potentially flood your cabin with fuel otherwise.

 

[Kiwipom]

I know this threads a few months old but rather than start a new thread....my fuel gauge has been a bit suspect as it’s been showing near empty but it then only takes 35 or so litres to fill it, today after a 30 min drive it was showing 1/4 full but after leaving it parked in the sun for a few hours it started up and showed zero with the orange light on. It took 30l to fill it but it is still still showing empty. On the cluster test the gauge needle moves the whole range full to empty etc.

The carpet is not cut where the sender is, so I guess the chances are it’s not been messed about with to date. From what I can tell from the net the sender on my right hand drive car is behind the passenger seat (eg on the left of the driver).

I’m puzzled by the fact the sender is said to have a low resistance to indicate empty, and high resistance to show full, whereas dodgy/dirty electrical contacts on the sender you’d think would result in it going “open circuit” or very high resistance? But presumably my probably dodgy sender has a low resistance when it should be high?

Any advice on what to check or try next before trying to get the sender out?

Edit: I’d rather leave disconnecting the battery until last resort as I don’t know the radio code, assuming the business radio and cd stacker has one.