Fuel gauge dosnt always work

[mriaz]

Hi all, im new to this site. I am a new owner of ford galaxy 1.6 tdci, 61 plate (2012). Its got a problem with the guel gauge. When I go to start it and the fuel gauge moves, I have no problem, I can drive miles and miles.  But some times the fuel gauge wont move, either first time of the day or it could be that ive done a journey and go to start it snd the fuel gauge won't move.  When it doesn't move the car will do few miles and just stop. For example I took the car to work yesterday,  did a few stops on the way home and it was all good.  But next morning yhe gauge didn't move so I left the car home. Tried it after work and its fine. 

Last time the car stopped on me I called Green Flag. He plugged his computer into the car and it kept on saying that there's no fuel in the car, but actually I had half a tank. The recovery guy wouldn't believe me so he put Ã,£10 fuel in and that didn't make any difference.  I had to leave the car standing for 3 to 4 days before it worked again. 

Can anyone help me please??

[insanitybeard]

So if I understand what you're saying correctly, you mean that sometimes the fuel gauge doesn't register properly (i.e, it shows empty) and when it does this the car won't start? I think I'm right in saying that some newer vehicles won't start when the fuel level drops below a certain level in order to protect their fuel systems.

If this is the case, then a likely scenario is that when the fault occurs, because the engine management thinks there's no fuel in the tank, it's preventing cranking/ starting. The most likely cause of incorrect fuel readings is the sliding electrical contact or 'card' which is located on the sender unit in the fuel tank, some older Fords suffered problems with these registering incorrectly or going open circuit, so much so that Ford made the 'card' available as a separate part to avoid having to keep paying for complete new sender units on warranty claims (before this you could only get the card with the complete sender unit at considerable cost)!

The parts diagram I've linked may not be the correct one for your vehicle, but if it is there's a chance you can get the card separately to the sender (it's the part labelled 9A299 in the diagram).

It's possible this may be a known concern in which case a word with a Ford dealer explaining your symptoms or even an online ETIS search may bring up a TSB relating to the fault.

[mriaz]

Hi Paul, thats correct the fuel doesn't register correctly.  I did guess it might be fuel sender related.  But I didn't know that you could buy the card separately.  Thanks for that, becouse I would have gone out and brought the complete unit.

But I will take your advice and speak to a ford technician.  Can I get to the unit from inside the car ie take the back car seat out and lift the carpet up?

Riz

[insanitybeard]

Unfortunately the Mk3 (to my knowledge) doesn't have a handy little access flap in the floor (unlike the Mk2) in order to access the sender, so the tank has to come out. The procedure for removing the tank on the Mk3 was recently added to the reference library here (that procedure is for a petrol model but I imagine they'll be similar).

Just make sure that the parts diagram I linked is applicable to your model, because the sender cards are probably not all the same, so you need to make sure you can get one which suits your spec of vehicle.

[mriaz]

Thanks for that bud. The procedure explains it well. I'll update you once I've got it fixed, I'm going to have a look at it, otherwise I'll take it to the local garage.