Fuel Tank Sender

[BIG_MVS]

I have an early ish car (1988) that has a problem with the fuel level going up and down all the time but was fairly accurate on the whole. I have replaced the sender with the one from a later car (1990) and the level is constant which I thought fixed the problem. However this reading is way off (says I have 2.2 Gals but have a 2/3rd's full tank) and just goes down, even after putting another £15 in at the pumps. I have reset the computer by disconnecting the battery and holding the computer button down for 5-10 secs.

Anyone know if the later sender will work on an early car or not? If not how do I fix my old sender?

I have looked on the search facility but it doesn't mention early/late sender compatability??

Cheers,

Martin

[stephendell]

Anyone know if the later sender will work on an early car or not? If not how do I fix my old sender?

Last time I looked it would appear they have now all been superseeded with the late type.

I'll check again to make sure though.

[BIG_MVS]

Anyone had this problem?

If not I'll put the old one back in with the more reliable reading, if not jumping up and down all the time. Someone mentioned fixing this with a bit of soldering to the float or something?

That was Dave 'Miles'..... search

I found my late model sender had got fuel inside the plastic float, and yet I could not squeeze it out. Strange!! Of course this caused the float to sink inside the stainless tube. I drilled a .5mm hole in it, drained and then used some fuel tank sealer to encapsulate the float.

This fix has been good for a year. I also found that unlike normal fuel guages the sender when the tank is full reads high ohms (220?), and when empty reads maybe 12, the exact opposite of "normal" cars with voltmeter style guages. I am a bit vague about the actual resistance figures, but you get what I mean.