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Got scared out of my wits this morning on the way to work as suddenly the fuel gauge crept down to empty from just over a quarter of a tank in a period of less than 30 seconds. I gritted my teeth and waited for the car to start spluttering as the light came on but it kept on going, which I suppose was a relief! A few miles later I looked in the mirror to see I was being tailgated by the same mid-life crisis in a Nissan 350Z that I saw half a second away from a head on collision yesterday morning, and when I looked back to the dash, light was out and gauge was showing correctly again and stayed that way for the rest of the journey. May be irrelevant but it was VERY wet this morning, I may have to swim home. Fingers crossed it'll stay OK but just in case... any ideas folks?!
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My Escort occasionally does the same but I set the trip every time I fill up so I know I'm OK.
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I had a similar scare a couple of weeks ago when the fuel gauge in my Mk2 Mondy took a sudden plunge. When I turned on the ignition next time I used it, though, things seemed to have righted themselves and it is still OK. Like jc2, I always reset the trip every time I fill up so I maintain a good idea of fuel use.
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Look on the bright side, my old 98 mondeo used to still show that it was a quarter full when it ran out.
Was annoying the first time, but at least I was less than a minutes walk from a petrol station.
The second time on the M3 at midnight was a very different prospect.
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My mk2's gauge is for show only - always has been. Stays rammed on the stop at full for about 120 miles, then drops fairly progressively for the next 100 miles to a needle's width over half where it stays until about 350 miles. Then it drops to a quarter where it will stay until it runs out. Very occasionally it will plummet to zero and put the light on, but will usually climb back up to a quarter (amusingly with the light still illuminated).
The one and only time the car has ever left me stranded was down to this (coincidentally, also on the M3 at night!)
I can't be bothered to fix it, so just zero the trip when I fill up and start looking for petrol stations at a given mileage (530-550 in the TD usually leaves a few litres reserve). It's standard practice on a motorcycle, and I have no problem doing it in the car.
Cheers
DP
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Might be a faulty sender in the tank - pain to replace...
Might also just be grounding contacts in the dash. My V6 had a period when various things would settle to zero - including the speedo. Once it was beyond the top of the scale and settled to the max speed.....!
Fix was easy - take out the instrument panel (various screws around to undo, button heads to remove). Take it apart (amazingly easy) and it is in 2 parts connected via a collection of pinch connectors - some of these had become loose. Just squeeze them together a bit and put the whole lot back together again.
Since I did this a year ago it's been fine.
Another symptom before it happened was needles jumping to zero suddenly and then back to where they should be, it would do this a few times (as the connection came and went) then settle to zero gently.
Search for 'erratic speedo' on fordmondeo.org for more info.
Jake
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