Club 80-90 Forums

My fuel gauge seems to have stopped working. Checked all the fuses and other basics however no joy.
Is there a way to check the gauge is working before I drop the tank and replace/check sender? Want to rule the gauge out first if possible.

Also anybody know which fuse is related to the fuel gauge?
Thanks

Before you do anything drastic with the fuel tank I'd check the Voltage Regulator behind the dash cluster.

It is a 10V regulator, and is often the culprit with this sort of thing.

Here's the Wiki Info to start you off.

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/VW ... uel_gauges

Im going to borrow this thread if that is okay. I have 2.1 wbx syncro, wich has the same symptoms. Fuel gauge aint working, and yes i have changed the voltage regulator, with no results. All the other gauges work. Any suggestions where to go next? I suck at electrics by the way.. lol

Mine stopped working recently after I removed the binnacle to fix the odometer. If you do the following, you can prove out what's faulty:


The fuel guage is two parts and you need to find which one is faulty, either the guage in the dash, the sender in the tank or could be a bad connection. The tank sender is a variable resistor connected to ground so if you ground the wire in the dash that goes to it you will find out if it is guage or sender/ wiring and go from there. IIRC checking the sender means dropping the tank.

looks to me from a search on here to be pin 7 on the dash multiplug Lilac + Blk (Fuel Gauge sender)

also worth just removing and reconnecting the dash multiplug first could just be a bad connection there and checking the earth points behind the glove box which rust up due to windscreen leaks above.


So it's basically saying push a small wire into the Pin 7 (lillac + black) which is plugged into your dash cluster and hold it down to a bare earth. The guage should go to full, if it does you know its working, and suspect your tank sender or wiring in between, or a bad/dirty multiplug connection too. If it doesn't then the guage maybe faulty but they hardly ever die (apparently) which maybe true as I must've caught the needle on mine putting it back in which caused it to drag on the face. Flicked back up it now works ok.

Im suspecting its bad connection or sender, as i have tested with 2 different instrument clusters. Sender unit is accesible trough wheel whell on the driver side, removing tank would mean removing engine..