Faulty fuel level needle?

[Acrab]

Hi,
I tell you a detail that has happened to me with the fuel level indicator. The fact is that the other day the reserve turned on when I was getting home and I left it like that, although I was surprised because I could have sworn that I had enough gasoline, but I wasn't sure. The next morning I start the car and to my astonishment the level of the needle rises a half a quarter of a tank more or less, that is to say, that in theory it had the gasoline that I thought. In any case, I give him €40 and the fuel level stays at a little less than half of the indicator. Today I had to go to Seville and to my surprise I notice that the needle goes down too fast, in fact, when I got to Seville I was halfway through the last sector, already close to the reserve. This was clearly not normal. I have filled the tank in Seville and I have come home, 130 kms, without the stop needle having moved, something normal on the other hand, and as another colleague indicated previously, with the full tank the needle does not move (at except me), until after about 200 kms. The gauge has been calibrated the same when filling the tank (that was my intention when filling it, to try). We will have to observe how he is marking (I have verified that from the middle he goes down faster) Has something similar happened to someone?

Excuse my english
Thanks.

[ApertureS]

I believe the needle, much like the coolant one is not directly linked to the sensor.

 

It will display what it thinks it should based on your mpg and such.

 

I also have found my light to come on and next morning I’m 40 miles up and an extra bar on my cockpit.

 

and I think it’s pretty standard that the first 1/4 of the gauge lasts 3/4 of the time on these cars. Takes forever to drop the first bar then it just falls away after that

[Acrab]

Yes, but the same thing happened to me in Seville. When I restarted the car to return home, the needle had risen a little less than a quarter of a tank

[Patent]

I find the fuel indicator to be damped weirdly in these cars (and in the last two VAG cars I had before)

 

It takes forever to drop from full, then quickly drops in the bottom half of the gauge.

 

I'd just use the range indicator to plan your trips, it's normally reasonably accurate 

[J.R.]

It's not the damping but the software that decides what level to show, the fuel measurement is astonishingly accurate especially with twin senders on the saddle tanks, however below approx 3/8 of a tank it progressively removes indicated capacity in order to create the 5-7 litre reserve capacity that exists when the guage shows zero and the maxidot shows zero miles remaining.

 

The range indicator is spot on for a full tank if you use the reserve capacity otherwise below 3/8 of a tank it starts to lie and when it shows 1/8 or less it is complete BS.

[Patent]

So what you're saying is, when the needle is on the bottom stop and the range shows 0 miles, there is actually still 5 litres of fuel in the tank as a reserve? 

[ApertureS]

6 hours ago, Patent said:

So what you're saying is, when the needle is on the bottom stop and the range shows 0 miles, there is actually still 5 litres of fuel in the tank as a reserve? 

Feel free to keep driving and let us know 😂😂😂 

we’ll call it an experiment 

 

 

but in all seriousness I can see that being the case. I agree the trip counter is almost spot on most of the time.

 

compared to the rental corsa I had which dropped 50 miles on the trip counter for a 10 mile journey 

[Patent]

I have an iV with the tiny boot mounted tank fuel tank, I'll stick to filling up when the light comes on!

 

I had the exact same issue in a rental Corsa on Tenerife. 150km indicated range. 15 minutes on the highway and suddenly the range is blank and the light was flashing angrily!

[Hozz]

I had a 2016 Superb and the fuel gauge behaved normally and I could trust the readings.

I now have a 2021 Superb which remains on full for the first 100 miles and goes down quite quickly from the halfway point.

In particular though I do not trust it when it gets near empty.

I have filled it with 64 litres when it still shows a quarter full.

As the tank is supposed to only hold 66 litres I feel something is wrong.

[anewman]

With Skoda Connect Lite, the detected fuel fill amounts are way off the actual amounts.

[J.R.]

On 25/07/2022 at 12:13, Patent said:

So what you're saying is, when the needle is on the bottom stop and the range shows 0 miles, there is actually still 5 litres of fuel in the tank as a reserve? 

 

Absolutely 100% correct. More like 6 or 7 litres from my testing on my various cars, the Yeti being a common rail engine I dont want to run it out completely the lowest that I have gone was to have 1.25 litres of fuel remaining (filled up with 58.25 litres) and I had driven 60 miles since the guage was on zero and the Maxidot said zero miles remaining.

 

This is a post from a long time ago that illustrates the point

 

 

[J.R.]

On 25/07/2022 at 19:00, ApertureS said:

Feel free to keep driving and let us know 😂😂😂 

we’ll call it an experiment 

 

I have already done it on every tankfull for the last 16 years!

 

I have also ran each vehicle dry (except the common rail Yeti) to establish just how far I could push the envelope.

 

People that fill up as soon as the fuel warning light shows are refuelling 4 times to my 3 times, OK, call it 5 times to my 4 times, nonetheless thats a lot of wasted time over the life of a vehicle.

 

But hey, like most of us when I started motoring it was just putting in a couple of quid at a time when I had the cash.

[Patent]

This is actually interesting. I'll try to run the iV down to near 0 and see how much fuel it actually takes!

[Jakester]

On 25/07/2022 at 18:53, Hozz said:

I had a 2016 Superb and the fuel gauge behaved normally and I could trust the readings.

I now have a 2021 Superb which remains on full for the first 100 miles and goes down quite quickly from the halfway point.

In particular though I do not trust it when it gets near empty.

I have filled it with 64 litres when it still shows a quarter full.

As the tank is supposed to only hold 66 litres I feel something is wrong.

 

Yep, I had this recently - filled up with nominally 1/4 of a tank still showing, but it ended up putting in 57l which is more like 5/6 of a tank, which surprised me (particularly with fuel prices as they are in the UK!)

[JR RS]

I've driven an additional 30 km after the Range Left hit 0 km, with the needle on "empty".

When I reached the petrol station - I put in 74L of fuel that day.

 

I never fill up when the fuel warning light turns on.

I always wait till the Range left is between 10 and 20 kms.

Been doing that for the past 5 yrs with no issues and the fuel level gauge has always been "predictable".

 

p.s. mine has the optional larger fuel tank (1Z2), which adds another 10-15L or so, to the standard 66L tank.

Edited 2 August, 2022 by JR RS

[Hozz]

I don't think a larger fuel tank is an option in the UK.

Not sure whether to risk running mine down to zero on the basis that I put in 64 litres when it showed a fraction under a quarter full and the tank is supposed to be 66 litres.

[ApertureS]

37 minutes ago, Hozz said:

I don't think a larger fuel tank is an option in the UK.

Not sure whether to risk running mine down to zero on the basis that I put in 64 litres when it showed a fraction under a quarter full and the tank is supposed to be 66 litres.

On ETKA i cant even find a PR code or part option for a larger fuel tank - Not just for UK but Europe in general. Maybe not an EU option or maybe not an option at all?

[varooom]

13 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

On ETKA i cant even find a PR code or part option for a larger fuel tank - Not just for UK but Europe in general. Maybe not an EU option or maybe not an option at all?

OM1 to OM8 iirc

O1O

 

But they all decode to "Fuel Tank"

No idea on capacity 😆

Edited 2 August, 2022 by varooom

[varooom]

Cannot edit my post, some forum bug there.  Feature to stop clowns editing posts for changing the narrative.

 

@JR RS 1Z2: Increase in initial standard fuel filling, sadly nothing about tank size increase, that will be down to another PR code.

 

0I0 to 0I5: Fuel Tank, size not specified

0M0 to 0M9: Fuel Tank, again size is not specified

Edited 2 August, 2022 by varooom

[ColinD]

It might also be that after an hour you cannot edit.  This is a protection as we’ve had in the past folk play silly and edit posts, ether to change the context in an argument, or spammers to add in content that we’ll not then see, or other reasons. A few bad apples and all that. Supporters via freedom do not have this restriction. 

 

That’s my initial thought

[varooom]

@ColinDThanks, makes sense and can see why.  The issue with writing a post on a mobile/tablet device seems to happen where it looses the plot. If you cannot recreate the fault I might be able to make a recording at some point if needed.  I think it happens when a smiley is added, but need to check and repeat.

[JR RS]

the larger fuel tank is certainly an option in some markets, and i've seen it on the options price list for one of the european markets (either portugal or spain or similar) - i'll see if i still have that. 

 

0M4 is the standard 66L fuel tank.

1Z2 is the  Increase in initial standard fuel filling

 

my build sheet, from erWin Skoda shows both 0M4 and 1Z2 PR codes.

 

if u don't have the larger fuel tank, it will only show 0M4., i.e. standard 66L tank

if u have the larger fuel tank, u'll see both PR codes.

[JR RS]

found it - attached PDF.

its the available options for the Skoda Superb in Bosnia/Croatia.

 

prices r shown, ex. VAT.

 

this was shared from a discussion back in 2018.

 

21-1496898482-superb--dodatna-oprema.pdf

Edited 3 August, 2022 by JR RS

[varooom]

3 hours ago, JR RS said:

the larger fuel tank is certainly an option in some markets, and i've seen it on the options price list for one of the european markets (either portugal or spain or similar) - i'll see if i still have that. 

 

0M4 is the standard 66L fuel tank.

1Z2 is the  Increase in initial standard fuel filling

 

my build sheet, from erWin Skoda shows both 0M4 and 1Z2 PR codes.

 

if u don't have the larger fuel tank, it will only show 0M4., i.e. standard 66L tank

if u have the larger fuel tank, u'll see both PR codes.

I have the classic 1Z2 on my PR codes, but no mention of any tank whatsoever!

 

I apparently left factory without one.

PR codes.txt

[varooom]

Just had more time for a little digging on my car

 

 

So it actually uses the 2x shown PR Codes to determine the tank that is fitted to the car

 

As seen here when I open the group, the part highlighted is fitting my car (part number is changed due to updates)

 

 

PRCode: 0N1 = Standard rear axle
PRCode: 1X0 = Front wheel drive

 

It goes to show you that what we think we know, and how VAG actually determine the actually fitted tank doesn't align with what we think.

Markets vary, so odds are some will specify the previous list of PR Codes for fuel tanks.