JAB225

I'm out of warrenty (~60k miles) on a 2001 225 coupe and trying to avoid unnecessary (and expensive) repairs. I know a number of you have had instrument cluster problems and some have had bad sender units in thier gas tank. I'm hoping someone out there has had a similar experience and can help with my diagnosis.

My gas gauge is beginning to exhibit strange behavior. It stays pegged at full until you drive about 200 miles, then the gauge significantly over reports how much gas is left in the tank (after about 250 miles it still shows ~3/4 full instead of the correct ~1/4 full). The other quirky thing is even after 200 miles, at initial start-up the gauge still shows pegged at full; only after the car is fully warmed up does it begin to slowly decline to the (still incorrect) value of 3/4 full. Next time you start the car up, it's pegged at full again, then slowly declines again.

Anyone have these particular symptoms? If so, was the problem the instrument cluster or the sender unit in the tank?

Very early in my experience with this car (at about 8k miles) I had another funky problem with the gas gauge where it would tend to bounce around from the correct to various incorrect readings; service initially replaced the sender unit with no effect. Only after the central information display started acting up (sometimes only portions of the LED screen would illuminate) did it occur to the service dept that it might be a cluster problem. Cluster replacement solved both issues that time.

TTKAZ

As far as the fuel readings -same problem here. It was my fuel sender unit in the reserve fuel pump. From what I understand the quattro TTs have two fuel pumps and 2 fuel sender units. But others had their guages replaced. You can have your dealership or repair shop test the wires, I think this can pinpoint if it is the gauge or the sender.