Fuel gauge misreading?

SK193 · Mar 14, 2013

The other day I noticed the fuel gauge in the March started to have a mind of its own, I was driving down a flat straight road when it went up from between empty and a 1/4 to about 3/4 to full, and stayed there for a few seconds then went back down.
And today, it was reading nearly empty so I went to fill up and as I got to around 20 litres the pump clicked and I thought it was just a faulty pump as micra tanks usually have around a 40 litre capacity iirc so I carried on but then a few secs later it started to overfill (woops). When I started the car then the needle went up slowly but only to the 3/4 mark not full. Also sometimes when I turn the car off the needle doesn't go fully back to its resting place, it reads just above empty.
Has this happened to anyone before or can anyone explain what's going on/what's wrong?
The fuel light does work when it's on/near empty although it only comes on for a short time then goes back off so after all this I don't know whether to believe it or not.

Rangerallen · Mar 14, 2013

Sender unit could be faulty

pollyp · Mar 14, 2013

gauge needle is sorta viscous dampened and tends to bind over age.

just need to remove the clear cover and twirl the needle round several turns with IGN on to loosen the viscosity, then it'll twang in place before the viscosity thickens up.

SK193 · Mar 15, 2013

pollyp said:
gauge needle is sorta viscous dampened and tends to bind over age.

just need to remove the clear cover and twirl the needle round several turns with IGN on to loosen the viscosity, then it'll twang in place before the viscosity thickens up.

I had a similar problem with the Micra, and I tried turning the needle around and changed the sender unit but neither of them fixed it.
I'll have a go at moving the needle around tomorrow and see if that sorts it out. Will I need to turn it around and then move it back to where it should be or will it go back to the right place itself?

xXturtleXx91 · Mar 15, 2013

I have this issue too but the needle sits lower than its original resting point and whenever i brim her with jungle juice it never reads a full tank on the gauge.

frank · Mar 15, 2013

xXturtleXx91 said:
I have this issue too but the needle sits lower than its original resting point and whenever i brim her with jungle juice it never reads a full tank on the gauge.

you can nudge the needle to wherever you want it on mine

Robodestro · Mar 16, 2013

mine just floated around, would go all over the place. only happen when i ran it empty more than a few times. always wondered if it was gunk in the tank clogging the sender like it does with carbs/fuel filters

SK193 · Mar 17, 2013

Mine works roughly, although it has started to move around/go up then go back down itself more in the last week or so. I've got a spare sender unit though so i'll change that and see if it fixes the problem

Fuel gauge misreading?

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