Hi everyone,

Over the weekend I drove my 1.4 Fabia Comfort '02 from Nottingham to London and back. On the way out of Nottingham I filled up the tank from what the gauge said was half full. £40 later it still hadn't clicked (usually from half it takes about £25 - £30) which made me raise an eyebrow but thought nothing of it. On arriving in london 2.5 hours later the gauge still hadn't moved from the very top which I thought really odd, then on the return journey it only just started moving about an hour in. From experience a journey like this should drain about half a tank from full.

I'm assuming Esso haven't secretly released a magic super economy fuel, so i'm guessing that something's wrong here. Any tips and advice would be really great!

Cheers

You've probably inadvertently filled your reserve tank too mate which holds an additional 10 litres. When I brim my Fabia and fill the reserve tank too the fuel guage needle stays on full for damn near 150-200 miles! You'll probably find that the needle drops like a stone to the empty mark now - from reading what others on here have said about it, all Fabia's do it and it's nothing to worry about.

The only reason the gauge would show a permanently high reading was if the float in the tank was stuck or the sender wire was shorted to the chassis. The fact that the gauge does slightly change the reading now, shows it is working. I would think the same as Big Mikey.. and you are just too good at economy driving.

Cheers guys, i'm a real tight arse when it comes to economy driving! Like to average around 52MPG. Well i'll keep that in mind Big Mikey, thanks, didn't realise Fabias had reserve tanks, presumably that fills up automatically when it's been used up? I'll stick with it and hope that it doesn't die on me!

I think it's actually an expansion tank rather than a reserve tank which is used to collect the petrol vapours. By pressing the 'nipple' on the inside of the open filler flap you can let air out of the expansion tank and replace it with fuel. It's not really recommended on petrol vehicles though as the fuel tends to 'expand' more than it does on diesel ones. Glad we could put your mind at ease anyhow. Welcome to the site by the way.

There's sort of a button to the front of the car inside the fuel filler, when this is pressed you can hear air escaping (or something) and you can fit more petrol in. I would not recommend doing this unless you're going on a long trip, particularly with petrol as if you drive home and put it on the driveway in the sun, the petrol will expand and you've just filled the reserve it would have expanded into so it has nowhere else to go.

OK thanks a lot guys, great to have the info so quickly. Big help.

My Car does something similar and i was looking for info on this, (stais full for a long time, then drops to empty very fast) but mine has the added bonus that the needle doesnt reach the totaly empty mark (complete travel of the needle)

what i did was this, let the tank get totally empty then filled 9 liters then adjusted the level on the fuel sender to the start of reserve (reserve is supposed to be 7 liters in my manual so i put in 2 more to save the fuel pump and the margin of error)

havent filled up yet, í'll post on monday to see how it goes

edit. if that doesnt give me the full travel of the fuel gauge i'll remove the lever of the fuel sender and install a slighty longer one (i'm presuming 1.5 cm more should do it, but i'll calculate that when i do it fi i need to)

Edited 14 July, 201114 yr by Cepheuz

I adjusted the fuel sender lever as previously posted and filled the tank, the needle went to completetly full and after 30km (a gallon give me 37Km) it started moving. now its in the middle of full and 3/4 mark (so 1/8 of a tank out) and the car has been driven 80+Km, so yes, bending the level worked for me, but i am very tempted to extend the level by 1.5cm to get more acurate readings

Edited 17 July, 201114 yr by Cepheuz

As above sounds like the expansion tank. I filled mine up and did 180 miles to 1/8 of a tank then it leveled out to 3/4 soon after.

I wouldnt fill me expansion tank but when filling the normal tank I can get just over a hundred miles before the needle will behind to move, it's just shows really how big the tank is in comparison to the needle, wonder how far I could travel once the red light comes on?? Lol hmmmmm

I wouldnt fill me expansion tank but when filling the normal tank I can get just over a hundred miles before the needle will behind to move, it's just shows really how big the tank is in comparison to the needle, wonder how far I could travel once the red light comes on?? Lol hmmmmm

Ive traveled just over 40miles with the readout saying 0 miles left in the tank

Ment the GF had to fill up the next day when she borrowed it.

I wouldnt fill me expansion tank but when filling the normal tank I can get just over a hundred miles before the needle will behind to move, it's just shows really how big the tank is in comparison to the needle, wonder how far I could travel once the red light comes on?? Lol hmmmmm

That's exactly the problem, you fill up (normal without the expansion tank) and 100+ km after the needle starts to move, then it moves very fast to empty, and in my case it goes from 1/4 tank to leaving me stranded in less than 40km without reaching the completly empty position (it stud halfway the reserve mark). i adjusted for a more acurate reading but leaving 2lts after the needle reaches completly empty. so i am very tempted to buy a large wire and construct my own float level 1.5 cm longer to get the full range of the tanks capacity and still leave 1lts after completly empty (for emergency and to save the fuel pump)

if i fill the expansion tank the needle would start to move after drving for 2 weeks (again, after it started moving it would go to empty lightning fast) and that's not acurate at all

I've filled up twice in the past week, first time I brimmed it and today put £20 in.

When I brimmed it the needle was hovering just below full but slowly went up as I started to drive where as it should go straight to full as soon as the ignition went on and today from filling up from empty the gauge slowly went to half when driving rather than instantly going to half full.

Could this be a sticking level sensor in the tank ?

I've filled up twice in the past week, first time I brimmed it and today put £20 in.

When I brimmed it the needle was hovering just below full but slowly went up as I started to drive where as it should go straight to full as soon as the ignition went on and today from filling up from empty the gauge slowly went to half when driving rather than instantly going to half full.

Could this be a sticking level sensor in the tank ?

Possibly, or a faulty fuel gauge. You also need to make sure the fuel cooler is working correctly, as it's there to stop very hot diesel, that has been through the injector rail but not used for combustion, being returned to the tank, while too hot. Very hot diesel will destroy the fuel sender. Duff fuel gauge can also be due to voltage regulator problem, on voltage control unit, that will normally show up on a full VCDS scan though.

Thanks Moggy.

When I brimmed it a few days ago it's the first time in a long time that I had so just thought it was down to putting roughly the same amount of fuel in each time and as said the gauge was just below full but went to full slowly after a bit of driving and when returning to the car later the gauge instantly went to full same as today, after going out in the car earlier the gauge instantly went to half where as when I filled it up it slowly crept up to half.

The gauge seems to work fine so I'm guessing it's down to the sensor in the tank ?