Fuel Gauge

Why does the fuel gauge in my 02 Zafira take 220miles before it gets from
full tank to 1/2 tank. Then goes 75 miles to Empty?

 

cause like every flippin vauxhall car, it has a naff reading system!
well know they are crap!!


mike

 

same here on my astra tds, stays full for weeks then whoosh empty

 

We at least get 360 to half full, then another 100 to empty from ours
oil-burner

 

Not only is the measuring system pretty naff in the majority of most
vauxhalls but its also a bad design flaw with the cars, not dangerous in any
way, just crap.

basically the fuel tank gets narrower at the bottom so it can hold less
petrol, but the masuring gauge just "thinks" of the tank as a square or some
other prism in which the thickness is consistent all the way down, which we
know - it isnt.

SO, if you want to fix it, invest hundreds of pounds in a really expensive
gauge system that takes the shape into account, or fit a new fuel tank. But
personally, id just live with it.

hope this info helped

 

Speaking as an electronics engineer of sorts then I wouldn't think it
would take much time / money to add a circuit into the system to
correct the signal from the sender in the tank; so that the gauge
could allow for the shape of the tank. maybe one day...

 

I just punch the trip-mileage reset each time I fill up. Much more reliable
IMHO!!

(As a matter of interest, anyone here know anyone ever who used the trip
thing to measure length of a trip? I certainly haven't!)

 

Martin raved thus:

:: I just punch the trip-mileage reset each time I fill up. Much more
:: reliable IMHO!!
::
:: (As a matter of interest, anyone here know anyone ever who used the
:: trip thing to measure length of a trip? I certainly haven't!)

I use it for this purpose all the time.

Abo

 

it should have been really straight foreward by now, you dont need a
complicated float unit, all they had to do was place the potentiometer in
such a way that for each different reading the amount of fuel remaining was
in constant relation. its not rocket science vauxhall.
how many cars nowadays have square tanks ??? so if toyota, VW, peugeot,
nissan etc etc etc can manage it why not vauxhall.

 

Because Vauxhall / Opel /General Motors seem unable to get the basics of
their cars to do as expected. I would prefer an accurate tank gauge and a
windscreen wiper pattern that clears right to the edge of the screen on the
drivers side than the 'nice touches' but at the end of the day irrelevant
items such as the slow illuminating interior light seem to be more
practical. -A light switch on the actual front interior light would have
been 100% better than combining it in with the light switch mounted on the
drivers side dashboard. Driving up the country with the wife navigating and
wanting the interior light switching on / off can be a real pain. The glove
box light was not good enough for her -.

By the way, I think I am going to check the routing of the headlamp and
windscreen washers. During the drive up last night, the water did not
freeze for the rear screen but in typical Vauxhall format, the jets at the
front froze in no time. Ideal when salt spray is in the air !! (I know
perhaps more screen wash concentrate is needed, but 25% should have been
enough. I suspect either the feed pipes pass through an area exposed to the
wind more than the jets themselves because all 8 blocked at once and only
thawed after a 1/2 hr stop when they all started at the same time even
though the air temp was -2.5.

Gio

 

you could put some lagging on the pipes, or maybe its the jets themselves
that are freezing up, some manufacturers have heated nozzles now to combat
this,

 

Thanks Steve, just tracing the pipes but the weather has gone very cold and
I have nipped into the house.

Gio