Fuel Guages

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Originally Posted by Cuppa

Another good idea, And another 'yes but' answer......... problem for me would be a)recognising any suspicious joints, & b) fixing them. Have never had anything to do with such things. If I tried I could easily envisage multiple attempts at removing & replacing the dash not knowing if everything was working or not.

Now there's an opportunity for someone familiar with that sort of soldering work. Buy dash clusters from a wreckers, test them to ensure they are working correctly & then sell them to folk like me with a guarantee they are fully operational. I'd buy one if it only meant pulling the dash apart the once. ANY TAKERS? Rodney would you be the man?

Out of interest would the mileage recording of my vehicle be retained, or would it show the mileage of the donor vehicle?

Cuppa

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If your half decent at soldering I'd do all the joints, though it would be a time consuming job to heat, suck away then redo each one. And I was wondering about the mileage also but I think I remember it was stored in the ecu? Happy to be wrong but if it was in the display I'd be wary of buying a 2nd hand trol lol

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Originally Posted by rafa

I have been thinking more about when mine started to go wrong, my auto electrician wired in a red arc dual battery system to the third battery in the pod to charge while driving, from the second battery under the Bonnett, he ran a heavy duty positive wire to the third battery, then earthed to the pod. I noticed over the last couple of weeks that the third battery was not charging properly, He has comeback saying may be earthing to the aluminium body was not satisfactory. And has run a heavy duty her back to the chassis. I think this is around the same time that my fuel gauges were mucking up, could it be a coincidence? I am yet to see the error come up with the fuel gauges with the new earth, I will post more later

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With 3 batteries each earthed individually surely its not an earth issue, well not on the battery side

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Originally Posted by megatexture

With 3 batteries each earthed individually surely its not an earth issue, well not on the battery side

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I was meaning the earth he ran from the pod battery to the pod he said turned out not up to scratch. It just seems strange that around the time the redarc dual battery system got installed to the the third battery that my previously ok Guages now are not ok. Hmmm

You may find your earth is broken up into sections along your 4x4,
one earth will be near engine the second may do dash the third the seating area and forth the cargo area,
Something along those lines. you cant expect just one earth off the start battery to do the whole 4x4

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Originally Posted by megatexture

If your half decent at soldering I'd do all the joints, though it would be a time consuming job to heat, suck away then redo each one. And I was wondering about the mileage also but I think I remember it was stored in the ecu? Happy to be wrong but if it was in the display I'd be wary of buying a 2nd hand trol lol

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Further reading suggests mileage changes with change of cluster, but that it is possible to get this changed. Would have to make you wonder how many Patrols are sold with dodgy mileages!
Found this mob on from Adelaide advertising their service on ebay - anyone know of them or have any experience with them?

All of these components plug in, a can of contact cleaner and pulling the plugs apart to clean and check they are in fact making a good electrical contact may fix your problem.
A common fault across a few instruments like yours Cuppa suggests the cluster has an earth or plug problem. Even a possibility an earth cable has not been reconnected during some wiring of mods.
Be a pain to remove and resolder the cluster connections if you don't have to.

Ok, have had a look at the manual (should’ve done so before) & of course none of the tests are likely to be helpful because of the intermittent nature of the problem, but I can see that pulling plugs apart & giving them a clean would be worthwhile & potentially fix the problems. So I’m looking at giving the connectors for both fuel tank gauges (and maybe the FPC connector?) a spring clean. Trouble is I am unsure how to find them. Do I have to remove the instrument cluster to access the connectors? And are they easy to identify?
What is contact cleaner? I have a pump spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, would that be ok?

The other van has a can of contact cleaner in it, I will have a look when I see my work mate during the week.
CRC CO contact cleaner is one we use.

Hi All

Had similar problem when dual battery installed. Fuel gauges would under read and then move back up so really had no accurate idea how much fuel left.
The under tray 2nd battery was only earthed to tray mounting point, so when Battery World up here in the Bay recently installed solar panel and regulator, they ran another earth wire from 2nd battery back to same point on the block where main battery was earthed.
Problem solved.

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Originally Posted by Wizard52

Hi All

Had similar problem when dual battery installed. Fuel gauges would under read and then move back up so really had no accurate idea how much fuel left.
The under tray 2nd battery was only earthed to tray mounting point, so when Battery World up here in the Bay recently installed solar panel and regulator, they ran another earth wire from 2nd battery back to same point on the block where main battery was earthed.
Problem solved.

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Any chance you might draw a wiring diagram of your full charging setup & post it or PM it to me? This intrigues me. My aux batteries are earthed similarly, to the aluminium pod, & from the pod to the chassis via a tray mounting point too, but I can't for the life of me understand how this could have any effect on the instrument cluster. My aux batteries are charged via a dc to dc charger & by solar. Essentially the two battery systems are separate. I can't see how using the chassis as a common earth would have any effect, let alone how providing a further direct negative connection between the two batteries could help.
I don't doubt that your problem was fixed, but I would like to understand exactly how, if that extra earth is responsible.
Any chance that whilst the work was being done that any other connections may have been disturbed?
And what size wire did they run back to the block? I'm tempted to run the extra earth like you have, but with an inline switch so I can run as is, & when the fuel gauge problem occurs, flick the switch & see if it immediately comes good.

I might wait to see if this solution works for Rafa.
I can't remember if the gauge problem on my vehicle preceded the installation of my aux batteries or not.

Cuppa