fuel gauge dilema

[74sLeeka]

my missus bought a 1990 celica (st165, right?)
and the fuel gauge should say full but it makes it about 3mm above empty and stops..

we havent located a manual yet, so could anyone tell us how to test the gauge please

my mate is 2nd year auto elec, he said "bit too many pins that i wanna play around with"

cheers fellas..

[BeRad]

the 162s ive had have had a similar problem, the problem i encountered was the floats being damaged. Pull the back seat out and undo the bolts out of the top of the tank, youll be able to access them inside the car so dont stress, pull the fuel sensor out, it has 2 floats. you should find that the bottom float or both have been broken off, or damaged so they can not function properly.

a 90 model will be a 184...

[BradW]

Bit of a tip before you remove the tank unit (feul gauge sender).
If the car is fuel injected, before removing the fuel lines from the tank unit, disconnect the wiring for the fuel pump and start the engine a few times. It probably wont run. If it does, it will stall.
This is done to reduce the fuel pressure in the lines before you remove the hoses. If you don't do it you will have fuel squirting everywhere in you car.
If you aren't sure which wires are for the fuel pump, then just disconnect all the wiring to the tank unit.

[jonra23]

To check if it is the sender without pulling sender out of the fuel tank pull the fuel gauge wire off the sender terminal at the tank, with the ignition turned on get someone to watch the gauge and short the sender wire to earth, the gauge should go to full, do not hold it down too long or could damage gauge.

If it goes to full sender is faulty, if it doesnt the problem is somewhre else in the gauge circuit.

regards
jon

[74sLeeka]

cheers boys, thx 4 the advice

[takai]

To relieve pressure you can also just take the fuel cap off. Saves a lot of hassle.

[Vios-GT_07]

gee.. u guys beat me to it..

was gonna say sender... and yea fuel cap is one way to do it, but i'd still disconnect the wiring and crank it anyway..

erm.. you could test the sender with a multi-meter as well just to be sure because i've seen a few gauge clusters on the fritz and doing funny things..

[BradW]

To relieve pressure you can also just take the fuel cap off. Saves a lot of hassle.

This wont relieve the pressure in the fuel lines on a fuel injected car.

[takai]

This wont relieve the pressure in the fuel lines on a fuel injected car.

Post pump it wont matter. He is only dealing with the fuel floats which are in tank. The pressure will be maintained after the pump of which he cares not for this purpose.

[BradW]

Post pump it wont matter. He is only dealing with the fuel floats which are in tank. The pressure will be maintained after the pump of which he cares not for this purpose.

Unless the pump and fuel gauge sender are on the tank unit together like most factory intake pumps are. I am not totally sure on the setup on this model celica though so, as you said, it might not be a problem but it is better to be safe than sorry, especially when you are dealing with possible high pressure fuel lines .

[mrshin]

People often get excited about 'high pressure' fuel lines, it's not like the pressure is exactly high though! All you'll get anyway is a bit of a squirt+dribble, it's not like an industrial hydraulic line or even a diesel (CRD) pump for that matter.

[takai]

Boooyah, Diesel pumps. 15bar.....
A lot of the EFI tanks have the pump and floats on different access hatches. I know the AE92 Corollas were like that.

[74sLeeka]

ok.. thanx for the helpful info, this forum rocks!

the car is efi, and ill just do both to be safe

i'll do it tonight, so if u dont hear anything, guess i fixed it

cheers

[74sLeeka]

ok ok im a lazy ass and am only just gettin around to lookin at it now. i cant get the sender unit out cause one of the hoses from the sender is bein painful to remove is there a trick to gettin it off? or a way round it? i thought about undoin the hollow bolt but it is tight as and i dnt want 2 fk it :s ne help would b appreciated cheers. -blake