Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Got a GQ 1990 model. When the fuel gauge reads empty it takes 60-65 litres to fill it. Which means with the standard tank I have 25-30 litres left when the fuel gauge reads empty. Is there any way recalibrate the gauge to read empty when the tank is empty. Or has anyone fitted a secondry gauge thats is accurate.
Thanks

yeah common problem this its the feul sender in the tank ,

i have the same problem my tanks full when it reads 3/4 just havent goten around to doing anything baout it

i think most GQs were a 95L tank mine is its an 1988 GQ lwb


matty

Lift the mat in the back of the wagon rear, the bit over the fuel tank. There is a panel there that allows you to get at the sender unit of the original tank, and you can pull the sender out, bend the arm down a little, and put it back. It would be a trial and error thing to get it set right, although there is a 'volt meter' guide to what the resistance of the sender unit should be at its lowest point and the highest point, check the manual for that!

If you adjust the sender unit so that it reads EMPTY correctly, it will almost certainly sit on FULL until you've used about 20 litres of the tank! So, you can have it read incorrectly at the empty end, or incorrectly at the full end!

If it's a diesel, the rotary pump uses the diesel fuel as a lubricant and coolant for the pump, and the guage is set to read empty with about 20 litres left 'cos it needs some fuel left to cool and lubricate the pump properly!! Maybe not 20 litres, but better safe than sorry! If you ever run a diesel fuel tank dry enough to stop the engine, you have almost certainly put a helluva lot of heat (and muck) into the rotary pump, at the same time you took away all its lubrication!! While you might get away with it at most a couple of times, you won't get away with it often, and a new fuel pump WILL cost more than $2500!!

Is it worth that to have the fuel tank show EMPTY accurately? Or can you live with knowing that when it hits empty, you have to fill it within the next 100 k's??

Not worth $2500 in my book!! I'll live with it reading empty early, then I know I have to fill within 100 k's!!

Common issue - dodgy fuel sender. Although... it's not an import jap safari is it? I think some of these have a 65 litre tank.

Every nissan I've ever owned has gone to about minus 1/4 on it's fuel guage. They will show well below the empty line.


You get used to judging it for highway trips and around town why would you deliberately run that low anyway?

Remember you've probably got a fuel warning light too.


On my model (1989 SWB) the tank was about 86 litres, so the -1/4 tank thing is just about spot on.

yeah i get close to jugging it mines i think is the 95L 88 lwb GQ
i know i can get to holbrook from dandy on full tank fill up there and get to campbell town no probs sitting on 100 all way

Will check the resistances first. If they are cool. Will try bending the arm to get the correct reading. Thanks

If it's a diesel, the rotary pump uses the diesel fuel as a lubricant and coolant for the pump, and the guage is set to read empty with about 20 litres left 'cos it needs some fuel left to cool and lubricate the pump properly!! Maybe not 20 litres, but better safe than sorry! If you ever run a diesel fuel tank dry enough to stop the engine, you have almost certainly put a helluva lot of heat (and muck) into the rotary pump, at the same time you took away all its lubrication!! While you might get away with it at most a couple of times, you won't get away with it often, and a new fuel pump WILL cost more than $2500!!

While this is more-or-less correct - the pump does not pump fuel back into the tank, and so the amount of fuel you have left in the tank - be it 5, 10, 15, 30 or whatever litres makes no difference to the cooling / lubrication capacity to the pump.

A diesel pump only needs one microscopic bubble of air to shut down the engine - so if your engine stops due to fuel starvation, the chances of damaging your pump are minimal.

I've run rotary pumps out of fuel more times than I can count, on tractors, 4wd's diesel cars etc. and certainly no damage has ever been evident from doing this (one particular vehicle would have been 50+ times out of fuel: and that's what I can remember - the engine in this vehicle was overhauled @ 300k, it went on to do another 200k on the original Denso pump).

Although ... still not a top idea to run out of fuel if you can avoid it.