Lately my mini has made a strange buzzing when I turn it on, from the dash area, specifically right near the fuel gauge. Duh.

Today I went to turn it on and the gauge didn't even move, it just stayed in it's little "cubby" hole at the bottom of the speedo. I shut the car off, and turned it back on, and the gauge slowly drifted up to about a quarter tank and the gas light was on (the tank is nearly full, I filled it yesterday.) I drove for about 10 minutes, and shut the car on and off again, and the gauge immediately went to a quarter tank instead of "drifting" to a quarter tank. Does this sound like a problem with the gauge, or the fuel level sender?

 

This is pure speculation, but I read that when the needles vibrate at start up they are re-calibrating. Perhaps it recalibrated incorrectly? Not sure if disconnecting the battery and re-connecting would help?
Something simple to try first, at least.

 

I don't know if this helps or not but I had and still have the same probelm with my 87 BMW 325i . I have replaced the gauge and the problem hasn't been solved. So I'm left with the notion that it has to be the fuel level sender.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I wasn't aware the mini had a self-calibrating fuel gauge. Very interesting. I'll try the battery disconnect later.

 

Well, that is a guess, and I could be dead wrong. Mr. Goodwrench I ain't! But it seems like a simple enough thing to try. Check out this thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...brating+speedo

Is this what your car is doing?

 

Sounds like your battery is in it's death throes. I just replaced my OEM battery (May '02 build MCS) with an Optima Red Top. The OEM wasn't showing any death signs but I sure didn't want to risk getting stranded on almost 5 year old battery.

.....Les

 

You may want to try doing a cluster reset.
It's the procedure on here and MINI2 that everyone thinks is a ECU reset.

 

Actually, it can't be the gauge, other than calibrating itself wrong. The gauge itself is a simple stepper motor that accepts a digital signal from the processor that gets its info from the CAN bus, which reads the fuel sender. If resetting the gauges don't work, you just have a bad sender.

Me.

 

Well turns out the gauge isn't broken. It eventually creeped up to it's normal position, and operated normally after that. Has a mind of it's own, this car does...

 

I had the same problem. I had a fuel sensor replaced and the problem was solved.