Odd fuel gauge behaviour

**SebRogers** · 10-05-2009,08:40 PM

Can anyone shed any light on this? On three separate occasions over the past few months my fuel gauge has not reset itself to empty when the ignition is turned off, resulting in an over-read of the quantity of fuel left. The gauge seems to sort itself out slowly over a period of several ignition cycles, so that a day or two later it's all back to normal.

Since the DIS range display isn't affected and seems to behave normally even when the gauge is behaving erratically, would I be right to assume that it's a mechanical / electrical issue with the gauge itself?

Cheers all!

**Marco34** · 11-05-2009,11:03 AM

Hi Seb

I suspect so. My temp gauge played up the same. It was all over the place. Not a sender issue. I had the dash out and took the back off. The fuel and temp gauge are identical, they are seperate to the whole cluster and pop out easy on their own.

More than likely you will have dry joint. There was faults with these gauges. That would be my first check. I fixed mine this way. Very easy. You can see about 4 joints and one was very bad!

You can get the cluster out easy. Not sure if you have done it but, take of the little panel inbetween the +- and service buttons and you'll see two torque screws. Under those. Take the side panel of near drivers door. With some pushing from the back and some long no pliers gripping little clips near the torque screws you can tease it out. Then undo the two connecters on the back. You can have it out in 5 mins with no fuss. Some philips screws on the back and then you expose the gauges.

Worth a go. I'm certain that's the prob.

Marco

**benjie** · 11-05-2009,11:40 AM

Silly question - You don't leave the keys in the ignition (even with ignition off) whilst fuelling do you? The older A3's & A4's used to have the same problem that you're getting because some owners were leaving the key in the ignition (in the off position) when they refuelled.

**SebRogers** · 13-05-2009,07:55 PM

Thanks guys

Benjie - didn't know about that and I'm not aware of doing it, but I'll double-check every time I fuel up from now on to make sure that's not the culprit. Marco - thanks for the breakdown. Doesn't sound too difficult and I'll certainly give it a go if I continue to have trouble...

**benjie** · 14-05-2009,10:44 PM

Originally Posted by SebRogers

Thanks guys

Benjie - didn't know about that and I'm not aware of doing it, but I'll double-check every time I fuel up from now on to make sure that's not the culprit.

To be honest, it's more of a problem that was on the previous model(s), but the B6 goes all the way back to 2001ish, so... maybe?!