Fuel gauge tellin me lies

[Irishdude]

Hello there
I have r1150gs adv.2002
Last week turned the key, pressed the button on the remote for the alarm ,heard the fuel pump turning on and usually at this point I see on the fuel gauge the bars popping up showing how much fuel there is in the tank, but there was nothing so I turned it off cause I thought maybe I imagined the fuel pump going on cause of the ear plugs and tried it again and this time it worked, whew it must have been my imagination and i'm not goin mad.
Till today...
I was nearing empty yellow light was showing, so I filled her up everything looked normal ,so I went on me drive around the dutch countryside, then I noticed that fuel gauge was showing 3/4 full ,for a sec I was thinking ,jasus I must have been drivin for ages but I wasn't , then the guage showed no bars and few minutes later 3 bars,
Has anybody any ideas what might be wrong with the fuel guage.
Thanks

 

[shuck raider]

Dud connection? Have alook at the connector block behind the long panel under the tank on the RHS, the sender joint often suffers corrosion. Clean up and squirt of WD may help

 

[Deleted account 250319001]

My Tank bag strap sometimes affected the connector and gave me false readings. Once I became aware of this I rerouted it. It’s not lied since.

 

[Comfy Old Boots]

Hello Irishdude. I've a 03 gsa. same thing here. You might find the rest of your fuel on the other side of the tank if you need it Ie drop bike to right and it's like an instant refill Just untill you get to the nearest petrol station .

 

[david a hall]

like he said leen the bike over to the right, long way, so get a mate to help

 

[Irishdude]

I'd just filled her up , there was noway I used up all the fuel on one side of the tank hehe,
But then again I was driving like a lunatic because of the fresh country air and sunshine.
Its weird what its doin and its not done that before this week.
I'll be taking her for a drive tomorrow, and i'll check to see if she is still lying to me .

 

[Irishdude]

Well its still at it, one minute its reading the fuel good then its saying no bars.
I took a look at the connectors under the tank and all seemed well, but I was in a hurry to enjoy the bike so i'll have to take a closer look during the week.

 

[david a hall]

Tip it hard over to the right, then tell me its still doing it

 

[Irishdude]

Oh lean it far over to the right ,I'll give that a shot at work tomorrow ,there should be loads of blokes there if it falls to help me pick it up.
Thanks again

 

[Carl]

mine did the same thing... when I changed the fuel filter I reformed the little spring contacts on the end of the float arm and cleaned the contacts, been fine ever since.

 

[Irishdude]

I did the leaning over thing seemed to work till today, Fuel guage went to full then empty to half full, but its not a show stopper I'll have to take it back to the garage where I bought it while its still under garantie, Pain in the neck though , its a 2 hr drive on the motorway to get there unless I go on the back roads then it should take 3 hrs or more.
I'd be not too sure about taking it apart meself, I'd hate to see it off the road cause of me.

 

[david a hall]

try it again, i get a feeling the float snags,and that seems to fix it, mine goes like that and lean it over and its ok 4 ages after that.

 

[Irishdude]

Meself and a mate from work Have just given the bike a big lean to the right and a good ole shake, Lets see how it goes cause its a long ole drive to the garage and the coffee there is not the mae west.

 

[L]

They all do that at some point Don't rely solely on the bars, but use the milometer! Dodgy connections, illbalanced fuel in the tank... several reasons, but none to be concerned about really.

 

[Adventure Stu]

similar sort of problem

lately my gauge on my 54 plate GSA shows blank when the fuel tank is full. However after about 100 miles when the level has dropped a bit the bars reappear and i get a more accurate but again intermittent bar display.

 

[Redotto]

similar here

I thought it was me but...

I have a GSA 02. When it sits on its side stand at anything less than full, it 'loses' a bar or two (more if less than 1/2 full) but they reappear after a few minutes vertical.

What bothers me is that my bike has the larger adventure tank, but when I fill up after the yellow light comes on I can not squeeze more than 23-24 litres in. Do I have 6-7 litres reserve?

Plus I seem to get 230 miles before the yellow light comes on...which given I have been doing some longish runs (2000miles covered in 3 weeks) is a bit disappointing. Any thoughts?

 

[Stewart H]

these fuel tanks are an amazing shape, so the gauge response will never be linear, then theres the fuel that can remain on the left side, sloshing over whenever, the gauge on the older bikes is a simple float arrangement, there are too many variables to allow the gauge to be accurate, going up and down is about as good as it gets, my orange light comes on with about six litres left but if on a run then when it first shows theres likely to be a dollop of fuel remaining in the left side, if I stop and move the bike about I can get two bars reappearing, its only a guide, use the tripmeter or put a can of fuel in your pannier and ride till it stops, noting the distance run.

Stewart

 

[Irishdude]

Meself and a mate from work Have just given the bike a big lean to the right and a good ole shake, Lets see how it goes cause its a long ole drive to the garage and the coffee there is not the mae west.

Its two days later and its still working after giving it the shake on the right hand side...

 

[david a hall]

Its two days later and its still working after giving it the shake on the right hand side...

 

[Irishdude]

Ah Well it's a week later and it has gone again.
Has anybody got a picture of what the inside of the tank looks like or the part thats sticking, maybe its time I get me hands dirty and I can fix it meself , maybe...