Niggles: Fuel gauge & door window sealing

dj_efk

dj_efk

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Hi guys,

In the long interval since I last showed up on here I've moved to Singapore for 3 years. I checked on what it'd take to bring my coupe here but we're talking way more than prohibitive in terms of costs! I just have to contend myself with researching solutions for issues and coming up with action plans for it for when I get back! 2 things that are annoying me at present whenever I drive it:


(1) The fuel gauge doesn't work as it should. When I fill the tank the needle shoots straight to the full on turning the key, then after around 30 - 40 miles starts dancing between its two stops when i hit bumps in the road before dying altogether as I get towards half a tank. It doesn't help when guessing how much range I have left that I think my engine is out of tune as it guzzles petrol at the rate of under 20 imperial miles per gallon. I get around 225 miles out of a tank but then that may be because I don't exactly hang around

I have so far changed the sender unit (tricky to get with the smaller 2800CS tank) and corrected / switched the location of the 3 wires going to it as per advice given on here. Little or no change. My next thought was the gauge itself rather than the voltage stabiliser as the temp gauge behaves normally, however the low fuel light is always on so I'm not sure. Can anyone help with this? !

Pictures: apologies for this but I'm on an iPad and cannot seem to attach them as they're too large on photobucket so please copy and paste into your browser.

Here's a link to a picture of what happens when I fill the tank:
http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/photo5.jpg

Here's the old sender vs. newly bought / installed: http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/photo22.jpg

And here's the wiring changes I've done to suit:
http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/photo32.jpg



(2) The last major work I had done on the car was to pay a professional a large sum of money to rebuild my window regulators and align the glass so they all wind smoothly and seal as they should, however there is still a gap between the top edge of the glass and the door aperture seal of a few mm on the driver's side and in the same place and also the rear edge to rear window seal on the passenger side, which the guy says there is no further adjustment left to cure. he has worked on a number of our cars and even owns a coupe himself so no reason to doubt his ability, and he spent a huge amount of time on it, however I know this problem will drive me mad at speed. It looks to me like some VERY careful bending of the guide on the back edge of the opening quarter light windows might help but am happy to hear suggestions?

Pictures- RHD passenger side:

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/Attachment-1_zps5479286b.jpg

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/Attachment-1_zpsb56bd500.jpg

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/Attachment-1_zpscebc77bd.jpg


Driver's side:

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/Attachment-1_zps335a29cd.jpg

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/Attachment-1_zps63256e6d.jpg

Thanks
 
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Door fit

Dear Mr. DJ,
I don't know what the problem is with your windows, but your door fit is terrible.
On the one side the door is considerbly low and on the other side it looks like it's rotated a bit. In both cases the fit is exacerbating any misfit issues at the top/rear of the windows. Get the doors right first.

John
 
Thanks John, I had not considered the fit of the doors and agree they look bad in the photos. This puzzles me as normally the fit of the doors looks ok and I have never noticed there being a problem. See pics that show each side of the car:

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/DownloadafterTravelling-Feb2012521.jpg

http://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz206/dj_efk/BMW/photo.jpg

Does anyone else agree the door alignment is out? i know the specialist did check this and on one side (i think the driver's) he said it was maxed out due to whoever fitted the front wing not thinking to factor in the adjustment range of the door.
 
Looks like the doors weren't shut all the way in the original pics. Did he adjust the rubber stops correctly on the window regulators?
 
I didn't take the original pics so you may be right. Yes I believe he replaced / adjusted the stops as required
 
Typically if the window isn't going up all the way it is being stopped by the rubber bumper which is adustable. Other than that it could be the track keeping it from going up but it's likely one or the other and a quick removal of the door panel will allow you to investigate.
 
dj_efk said:
The fuel gauge doesn't work as it should. When I fill the tank the needle shoots straight to the full on turning the key, then after around 30 - 40 miles starts dancing between its two stops when i hit bumps in the road before dying altogether as I get towards half a tank. It doesn't help when guessing how much range I have left that I think my engine is out of tune as it guzzles petrol at the rate of under 20 imperial miles per gallon. I get around 225 miles out of a tank but then that may be because I don't exactly hang around

I have so far changed the sender unit (tricky to get with the smaller 2800CS tank) and corrected / switched the location of the 3 wires going to it as per advice given on here. Little or no change. My next thought was the gauge itself rather than the voltage stabiliser as the temp gauge behaves normally, however the low fuel light is always on so I'm not sure. Can anyone help with this?
Click to expand...

I get the sense that you are in Singapore, your coupe is in the UK, and your interactions are via photobucket and the occasional visit. Getting this sort of problem sorted out without hands-on contact is tough - it may have to wait until you are reunited with your car.

You have two problems: Neither the analog gauge nor the "digital" fuel warning light work as they should. The odds are good the two problems are related, and of the two, the warning light is the simpler to debug. Find the cause for the light remaining on, and you may find the cause of the gauge problem.

The light circuit is pretty simple: one end of the light filament is connected to switched +12, the other is grounded through a contact in the fuel tank sending unit. Clearly the bulb is getting power, since it shines all the time. Evidently the ground side is shorted. It would be interesting to know if the bulb goes out when the wire is disconnected at the sending unit. If he bulb stays on, the short is in the wiring between the gauge and sending unit. If the bulb goes out, then the sending unit is bad (yes, I know it's new), OR the connections to the sending unit are incorrect (which might also explain the gauge behavior).

Another possibility: The gauge, sending unit, and wiring are all good, but the connections at the gauge have become scrambled.
 
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Hi Jay,

Your sense of the situation is correct! Unfortunately I won't get to hands-on troubleshoot this further until I return to the uk for Christmas, it would be nice to have a plan for when I do however!

This seems very sensible. Perhaps I should just forget what i thought i saw on the wiring diagram, remove the sender and try the 9 different combinations of the wires vs. what terminal and tip the sender each time to test it!
 
The fuel gage should work with the sender out of the trunk and key on. then you can tilt and shake the sender to get the float to any level you desire. If you take the tube that surrounds the float off (tiny nut at the bottom and maybe a crimp or two) you can move the float by hand.

The purpose for all this is to check that the float actually makes contact with the two wires on which it rides, for the full float travel. You could even snug up the float contacts a tiny bit to ensure better contact, as long as it will still travel up and down freely.
 
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