givemethebighammer
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 12:46 AM |
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Sensitive Fuel Gauge
My VDO fuel gauge seems to be very sensitive to any change in inclination. The needle moves even on the slightest slopes. Is there any way of
"damping" it? I only really know how much fuel I have when the car is stationary on a flat surface.
thanks
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RazMan
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 12:49 AM |
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Is your tank baffled (or maybe just confused  ) Ideally you want to place the sender in a baffled 'pot' to prevent it from bouncing
around too much.
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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givemethebighammer
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 01:00 AM |
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Yup, tank is baffled and the sender is in one of the end compartments. The sender is one of those float on a wire arm type things. I guess with the
tank being a tall, long and narrow design means that small changes in the cars inclination have a big effect on the fuel in the tank?
I was hoping some would say " just solder a 5K resistor inline with the gauge" or something similar.
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RazMan
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 07:46 AM |
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Although it is probably not that simple there must be a way to buffer the signal from a sender unit. It will probably mean a small amount of
electronics though - maybe VDO can help?
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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oliwb
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 08:49 AM |
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Funny my Tiger does the same thing ETB guage. Think it must be the Tiger supplied tank. Though its great going round a right hander as I seem to
fill up the tank.....just need to move somewhere with lots of roundabouts and I'll never need to stop for petrol again! 
If your not living life on the edge you're taking up too much room!
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caber
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 01:46 PM |
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Hey Oli has found a reason to live in Milton Keynes
Caber
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 01:59 PM |
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That must be a first... hard to find any good reasons to live in MK. (ducks behind parapet!)
Went through there a few weeks ago, from East to West - about 2 miles and 15 roundabouts!
David
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BenB
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 03:02 PM |
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The early fuel gauges used bimetallic strips heated by wire heater wraps (around the bimetallic strip) to move the needle. The coil in the tank was
the same so the signal fluctuated but because the bimetallic strip took a while to respond to increased current from the sensor coil (therefore heat
from the heater wrap) it stabilised the signal. Simple but clever....
You can get anti-slosh circuits (Ford make quite a few) but not sure if you could get them to work with an aftermarket dial- probably not!!! One of
the advantages of the pillar-with-a-float-in-it type sensor is that they only have small holes to let the petrol in / out- this automatically provides
a degree of dampening....
The float-on-a-wire ones do wobble around a lot. But you get used to it!!!!!
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givemethebighammer
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| posted on 13/1/07 at 09:52 PM |
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thanks for the info everyone. I think I'll just have to live with it. Imagine what my fuel gauge is doing on a lap round Donington, I never know
what's left in the tank!
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