Date:         Mon, 23 Jun 1997 23:51:13 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Linda Bartnik" <lbart@preferred.com>
Subject:      Re: Fuel Gauge inaccuracy

An interesting note to this correlates with the common problem of rusty
Vanagon gas tanks.

No one wants to buy a new gas tank when the old one rusts out on top (as
they do).  New ones are outrageously expensive.

So people go to a junkyard to get the tank.  Well in a junkyard they
typically move the vehicles around with forklifts.  Well when they lift
Vanagons with forklifts, they tend to dent up the gas tank on the bottom.

If they dent up the gas tank on the bottom on the driver's side, then the
travel of the fuel guage sending unit can be restricted.  

For instance, my '81 has a junkyard gas tank dented in the bottom on the
driver's side.  The gauge stops moving toward empty when it gets just
inside the red zone.  I've never run out of gas because I was warned about
this by the PO (thanks Rick!) but when the needle gets down there and the
trip odometer gets up around 210 I start to get very nervous.  

I have gotten into the habit though of keeping a logbook for the Vanagon
and so reset the trip meter every time I fill up with gas.  This way I can
keep a running total of gas mileage.  Using the trip meter like this also
helps me avoid running out of gas.  

BTW, speaking of gas and fill-ups, I lost the gas cap from my Vanagon the
other day.  I left it on the roof as I drove off.  The gas cap was not an
original Vanagon locking cap but rather one from a Rabbit (the non-locking
type with the five projections which allow you to get a grip on it).  I
like that a little better than the original locking cap which I have on
there now (thanks again Rick for giving me those extra gas caps!)  What
makes me nervous about the locking cap is that it's old and I don't trust
it.  One day I'll be far from home and the lock will break and then I'll be
SOL when I need gas.  I could have sworn I had an extra Rabbit cap but I've
looked through all my extra parts and I can't find it.

So if anyone has a Rabbit cap they wouldn't mind parting with for cheap,
I'd appreciate it if you contact me.  If not, I'll just use the original
cap and cross my fingers.

Thanks,
Sean

----------
> From: Jim Thompson <uvx196@juno.com>

> Ari -
> 
> Vanagon gas gauges have a notorious habit of becoming "optimisticly"
> inaccurate when the fuel level gets low and close to the red zone
> (so-called reserve area) of the gauge.  Generally speaking from the
> owner's manual, when the needle hits the red you're supposed to have 2.5
> gallons left to get yerself to a gas station.  I've seen it dip as low as
> half-way thru the red zone on the gauge.  However when the tank finally
> empties out, the sender (or the gauge - or both I really don't know) has
> the habit of causing the needle to slightly drift back up showing just
> over a quarter of a tank of fuel left to drive on.
> 
> This has happened in my 80 Vanagon (now sold off) and I have a few other
> friends with Vanagons that this has happened to as well.  When your tank
> empties out (as you and maybe others have found out already), the van
> starts to slow down due to the lack of fuel slowly becoming unavailable
> in the FI system.  Because the fuel is used to "cool" the fuel pump,
> running it dry can (but not always) overheat and destroy the pump.  An
> area to be very careful as pumps are NOT cheap.
> 
> Don't always trust the gauge.  I use the odometer and the gauge as a team
> to keep track of the fuel and of course the mileage I'm getting as well. 
> I always fill up between the 1/4 to 1/2 mark.
>