Ok, was thinking today, wanted to get some thoughts.

The fuel level sending unit, and thus the gauge, are very inaccurate on our cars due to the design of the gas tank. The level is a simple electric sender with a swing arm and float on it.

Has anyone tried to take a measure of the voltage being sent for various levels, and using those measurements figured out a set of resistors to correct the tank??

Granted, you'd have to fill the tank up, and knowing exactly how much gas you put in subtract out XXX amount at a time and take a reading, but think it could be done??

Then there's the matter of separate resistors possibly being needed, OR some way to make it linear and progressive I.E. the more voltage being sent the greater the resistance to keep the gauge in check.

Does anyone find this feasible??? No stealing ideas either, I'm gonna patent this!

 

The tricky part is that its a single voltage being sent to the PCM so you would need different resistances for different voltages. But also it would require possibly higher voltages then the sending unit is giving off as well. An electrical guy would be able to build a small circuit to achieve this. But it would still fly up and down a quarter tank or so during hills and acelleration and breaking.

If the sending unit could be in a cylinder with a few small holes in it, inside the gas tank then it would stop a lot of the sloshing around, or a few baffles in the tank would help too. That combined with a mini circuit would allow the guage to be read somewhat more accuratly at all times.

 

I thought of making a correcting device a long time ago. It was more that I was capable of doing. I know what the values are to make the gauge read different levels, It's just a matter of taking the actual resistance readings from the tank's sending unit and converting them to what you want to see on the gauge.

I just got used to the way the gauge is and don't worry about it any more.

 

Yeah, I figure most just live with it, but it's always been a quirk that has bothered me.

I forgot about the PCM part. I may look into this a little more and see if I can't come up with anything. Seems like it would be something to do to occupy my time in a constructive manner.

 

The PCM is not involved. The in-tank sender feeds the gauge and doesn't go to the PCM.

 

Oops I meant guage not pcm Same difference though... I guess i cant edit old posts using the new forum format? weird...

 

That's what I thought. Makes the job somewhat easier.