I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange. Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much. The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated. Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

--
Cheers
Clive

On Sun, 26 Jan 2020 15:39:23 +0000, Clive Arthur wrote:

I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange. Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much. The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated. Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

I got a similar effect when I filled up my AdBlue tank. It righted itself
a mile or two leter, though.

--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 26/01/2020 15:39, Clive Arthur wrote:
I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange.Â* Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much.Â* The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated.Â* Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

I've had the same thing with a Zafira on more than one occasion. It's
righted itself either later in the journey or the next time I have used it.

SteveW

On 26/01/2020 15:39, Clive Arthur wrote:
I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange.Â* Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much.Â* The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated.Â* Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

seen this before. what you see on te dash is heaavily damped to prevent
the numbers going up and down and frightening punters but there is an
override that will instantly register large changes.

It should sort itself out.




--
"First, find out who are the people you can not criticise. They are your
oppressors."
- George Orwell

On Monday, January 27, 2020 at 8:31:07 AM UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 26/01/2020 15:39, Clive Arthur wrote:
I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange.Â* Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much.Â* The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated.Â* Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

seen this before. what you see on te dash is heaavily damped to prevent
the numbers going up and down and frightening punters but there is an
override that will instantly register large changes.

It should sort itself out.




--
"First, find out who are the people you can not criticise. They are your
oppressors."
- George Orwell

Fuel tanks on cars look more like some internal body organ out of ones gut. The very irregular shapes make them hard to measure the contents.

Generally I find they are forgiving and will go a little further than anticipated except for one humpty dumpty Hillman Hunter I had which would stop dead once they needle hit zero

On 26/01/2020 15:39, Clive Arthur wrote:
I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange.Â* Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much.Â* The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated.Â* Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.


That model commonly suffers from failure of the sender device.

Neigbour has been asked to fix a couple, and when he discovered
the price of the replacement sender unit, the owners decided to
just use the trip meter to warn them when to refuel.

On 26/01/2020 15:39, Clive Arthur wrote:
I put some petrol in the car today , not much about 10 litres.

It didn't seem to register on the gauge, that's a bargraph with limited
resolution but even so that was strange.Â* Stranger still was that the
'miles to go' figure didn't change either, it stayed on about 90 miles.

I've never seen that before but I usually put more in, albeit
infrequently, it's not used much.Â* The only difference today was that I
parked at the pump on the 'wrong' side because the garage was busy, and
wasn't close enough to get the nozzle in fully and it was upside down.
The petrol did go in the car and not on my feet.

I had assumed that the fuel gauge was a float on an arm jobbie, but
maybe it's more complicated.Â* Any ideas?

It's an 04 Citroen Xsara Picasso.

The next day the 'miles to go' was still 90 miles and I commenced my 100
mile round trip journey.

Up till about 30 miles, mostly motorway, the miles to go crept up to 130
miles, then started to decrease. Of course, this figure does often
increase a little depending on the changing MPG, but this amount was
quite unusual, as if I was being topped up by an invisible tanker as I
drove, which I suppose can't be ruled out.

Anyway, I got home with 80 miles left which is about right for that journey.

I do like that old car. One of the passenger doors stopped locking for
about a year, didn't matter much, then it fixed itself at the same time
as the various dashboard messages decided to change to German.

--
Cheers
Clive