Hey Namsters:

On rare occasions, I turn on the ignition, start the car, and the gas gauge does not go up at all. (yes, there was planty of gas in the tank).

Usually, all I have to do is shut it off re-start it an it goes to the correct level, but another time, it refused to work until may three re-starts.

Any thoughts or experiences with this? ('04 MCS, no eng. mods)

Thanks all,

Mario

 

Hasn't happened to ours, but we have Nav, so the gas gauge is an LED bar. . .have you tried rapping on the gauge to see if it might be something mechanical sticking? I had a Suzuki motorcycle that did that - tach wouldn't come up, I'd rap the faceplate and BAM - there it was.

Or it could just be the ghost of Lucas again. . .

 

I tapped on the gauge's face a little, but maybe I should have tapped harder..


Thanks for the input

 

Mine does the same thing. No pattern to it. '03 with v39 software. It did it with v36, too. However, it does not always begin working simply by turning it off then on again. Seems to have a mind of its own with this.

Tapping does nothing to help. A hammer, maybe.

 

I have the same problem from time to time. I took it to the dealer a few months ago and they "fixed it" while scratching the hell out of my door at the same time. Now it is doing it again on and off. It seems as though it happens when it is wet outside but maybe that is a coincidence.

 

My 04 MCS/JCW with Nav also suffers from the same malady.

Bear

 

Not sure if this is related, but when I owned my corvette, certain fuel would cause a problem. Had something to do with the sender in the tank. Many had the problem and a fuel cleaner or switching fuel would cure the problem. Similar problem where the gas gauge would show full then nothing.. intermittent...

 

There was a recall campaign out for C5 Corvettes built prior to MY2003 for problems with the gas guage sending unit. If memory serves, the problem was sourced with elevated levels of sulphur in the fuel which corroded the sending unit. When I owned a Land Rover D90, I noticed that the gas guage would show a widely varying level based on which direction the car was turning (turn one way and you have a full tank; turn the other way, and your tank is 1/2 full...). With my 2005 MCSa, I have noticed one time after a fill-up that the gas guage was showing the tank as only 3/4 full. Next refill and the guage was indicating full when the tank had just been filled.

 

I am having this problem too. It only happens the 2nd or 3rd start after a fill up. It sits right on E with the light on and 0 miles till empty

 

Had the gas gauge not work on second occasion. Tank is nearly full, but needle sits well below the empty light and OBC reads --- miles to go till empty on start up. Turned off the car, pulled key, restarted...works again? Bad Sensor? What gives? Who has had it fixed/taken in?

 

Mine has not done it in a long while. I assumed it had something to do with installing the Magnaflow.

 

Someone try disconnecting the battery for a few minuites. You never know.
Its most likely the sensor though

 

Mine has done this twice, both times on the first startup after a fill-up. Back to normal after one or two starts. On the first occasion, the farther I drove, the higher the needle would go, as if I was making gasoline as I drove (I wish ).

 

it only has happened when I get a full tank, first time last month

 

My mini (03) did the same thing this past saturday. Started the car and the gas gauge did not even register anything and I had a full tank of gas (even the red low fuel light was on)... I took it in to Mini of Concord and David Savell (came to the rescue again) diagnosed the problem and found that it was the two sending units for the saddlebag fuel tank. Should have it back running again tomorrow.

 

Just got mine back today....Paper work states ....fault code 11

" 14411 fuel level sensor 0000005 .40 1614080 1.50 Read fault memory fault 11 tank sensor 2 stored found high resistance in sensor replaced fuel ' level sensor 2/fuel filter side".

Does this mean there are 2 sensors and only one was faulty and only one replaced????

 

Mine has been doing it on and off, but more frequently now.

When I fill up it works fine. After 2 or 3 drive cycles it doesn't register. Then it slowly comes back to normal, over about 50 miles of driving. During recovery, it resumes where it left off after each drive cycle.

Example. Drive 10 miles, guage moves up 1/4 tank. Turn car off. Next time, begins at 1/4 and slowly moves up.

I'm scheduled for a service in a few weeks.

 

I had the same issue yesterday. The previous night I filled up, drove 5 miles and parked it. The next morning, the guage did not register any gas, OBC reported --- range. Restarted the car, no change. Drove a mile, parked it, came out an hour later, no change.
Drove 150 miles with the guage on empty. Stopped for a minute and restarted, and the guage was back to normal again and has been working since.
This is the first time I've seen this happen, I'm around 28k mi. Hopefully it won't happen again.

 

Hey Guys,

This happened on my nwe '06 MCS (with Nav but doesn't really matter) from the day I picked it up. Sometimes it would work fine, and others it would throw me into the red, even with a full tank.

Anyway, yes, there are 2 sensors in the gas tank(s). The tanks are bascially saddlebagged with a connecting tube. There's a sensor in each tank. One of mine was throwing a fault but they replaced both of them just to be sure. It's not a recall thing, but the dealer definatley knew about it. Since the replacement of the 2 sensors, about 3k miles,I haven't had any problems..

Take your car in and have one, if not both, of the sensors replaced and you should be good to go!

Happy Motoring!