Car showing E fuel???

[Jamo]

Put £10 of petrol in my car to do a 2 mile little local trip, car was showing 1/4 tank.

Park car up come back out couple hours later turn ignition key and the gauge is in the red with the petrol symbol showing

Test started the car, ran no problem, switched it off

I'm mighty confused? didn't risk the journey as it was too late at night to be getting stuck but what the hell could of happened here?

[madpugger]

Could be a couple of things I guess.

I remember as a kid me and my dad spending three days trying to get a 100 quattro CS running again with a similar symptom, turned out to be a bad earth. It could be the case for you, but unlikely as the fuel pump works?

It could be a fuel leak? (Had one myself recently) but that would need to be a fair leak I guess.

[pixsaudisex2]

It could just be eating that much fuel now jamo..

[Rusty]

£10 = 50 miles of normal driving, 25 miles in town in my 'stock' mota.

Not sure you meant Cat there mate

[Trist28]

Dodgy sender in the fuel tank, Ive had 2 avants that do this at the lower end of the gauge, it will go to empty for no apparent reason! I believe its possible to clean the contacts somehow, Im sure its been talked about on here before. I never bothered, just got used to filling it right up, then clocking roughly how many miles id had from the tank. Is a bit strange driving when its flashing red saying you have no fuel and 0 miles left, yet you drive for 30 lol....

[Jamo]

It's never happened before, i'm totally at loss why it's all of a sudden happened if it's the sender.

I'll have to try and work out how to get to the pump as one of the screws is rounded and has no head pattern ( thanks however did that previously )

[TDi90]

someone drilled your fuel tank ?

[Jamo]

You couldn't get Verne Troyer under my car on it's current springs.......

[Trist28]

Fire it up and check you have no fuel leaking from anywhere, fuel lines are prone to rusting as are unions on the famous (not a service part) fuel filter that is a c**t to remove. The sender is in the tank and fairly easy to remove from memory. Bet if you stick another tenner in it will shoot up to over 1/4 tank and say you have 100+ miles. Ive taken a tank off an Avant and it a bizarre shape, I think it may have kind of a reserve bit and if run very low will take an extra 10 litres or so to even start registering. Ive drained a tank, then stuck a gallon in and it still says empty. No answers but a few ideas

[terrybullwon]

Bad earth I would say, it's down in the foot well, br gr or br yellow wire iirc

[dest]

Have you checked this

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27470

[S2Ian]

mate my diesel a4 does it all the time, it will display similar things, even sometimes when i put fuel in it it will display the fuel light with a tenner in. or the fuel needle sticks on the red drive for a bit and it mooves...

i guess its jsut a faulty fuel level sender? or the float is going wrong??

[Knight Rider S4]

I have this problem to with my avant ...same Trist have just got use to knowing how many miles i will get out a tank ..need to have a look at the earth as James has mentioned and was going to go through the calibration thing on S2central to see if that helped

[Knight Rider S4]

Have you checked this
http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27470

This fixes that actual guage part but you need to calibrate the autocheck and fuel guage part I think that were my problem lies I think

[Jamo]

Bad earth I would say, it's down in the foot well, br gr or br yellow wire iirc

Well I think your right, went to check the car, started and the gauge went back to normal

I'll have to look into the grounds, could also be the new ground on the reverse IM which is the main ECU grounds for the sensors I believe