Austin A6 3.2

I have a strange, recurring effect with my fuel gauge:

When my computer lights up the "Gas" warning (when the indicator reaches the red area in the gauge) and I turn off the car, the gauge will show the gauge "completely empty" and the trip computer will show 0 miles left on the current tank of gas. This happens even if I only drive one mile after the "gas" warning came on.

Any ideas how to fix this???

Thanks!

greenie

Austin, it could be a bad fuel sending unit.

ryoung

At home, I drive up a very steep hill to where I normally park. If I have 1/4 tank or less when I shut the car off, the next morning the guage's needle doesn't budge, and the trip computer shows 0 miles left. I used to hold my breath driving a few miles to a gas station.

I took the car to the dealer, and he replaced the fuel senders and wiring harness (there was an old A4 recall with similar problem), but no change.

The inverted saddle-shaped gas tank results in an A8 fuel guage quirk. There's a level transmitter on each side, the signals are averaged and buffered in a non-obvious way, and there's two fuel pumps; one transfers fuel from one side of the saddle to the other.

The bottom line: I think this behavior is "normal".

BTW: At Road America last year, on the last lap of the last session, the fuel guage was on empty, and I think the trip computer was reading 4 miles left, when the motor sputtered in almost the last corner. I backed off and drove directly to the track fuel pumps. I was about 1/2 gallon from empty, and since I average <7 mpg on track, the fuel guage seemed spot on accurate. The motor only sputtered during cornering as what little fuel was left sloshed away from the pick-up.

Austin A6 3.2

Randy,

Thanks for your reply. I experience this behaviour when parking in different locations, including the parking garage at work which I would assume is perfectly flat.

The thing that irritates me is the fact that the gauge works correcly if I don't shut the car off, but will not display at 1/4 full tank when I park it. It only seems to happen AFTER the little gas pump icon comes up in the trip computer display and the car is turned off.

I hope that's not "normal", since I should be able to go about 50-70 miles on what's left in the car when the warning comes on.

I don't drive the car hard (public streets), so I would think that the gas doesn't move around in the tank enough to give reasons for "wrong" readings.

Thanks again for your reply!

ryoung

When it happens to me, I always find I have 4-5 gal left in the tank. There's not that many flat spots in Pennsylvania, but I don't recall this ever happening except when I park at home.

greenie

and twin fuel pumps. The average is taken between the two and the sending unit is supposed to send the correct info. There was a recall to replace the sending units because a number of us experienced the fuel guage suddenly reading empty while driving!