No Low Fuel Indications

[jcturner3]

My low fuel indicator has stopped working. The light does not come on and the odometer does not switch to the "find a gas station, dummy!" mode. Is this an indicator that the sending unit has gone bad? Anyone had any experience with this? The gauge itself still works.

[MikeWa]

You have a Venture that will never run out of gas. There were very few of these made. Sorry couldn't help myself. Yes it sounds like the sending unit is gummed up or bad.

Mike

[etcswjoe]

Just a thought If all your bars disapperar I would think it would be the guage not the sending unit.

[jcturner3]

Thanks Joe...

 

I like Mike's answer!...A bike that never needs gas...Haha!

 

I'll try removing the sending unit and spray it with some carb cleaner to see if that helps any. Thanks.

[jcturner3]

Just a thought If all your bars disapperar I would think it would be the guage not the sending unit.

 

Joe...

The bars are all there until the gas gets down to where there isn't enough for the gauge to display. It should then switch over to the Fuel Odometer and the low fuel light should come on all BEFORE I have to switch to Reserve. When I bought the bike it worked this way, but now it doesn't.

[V7Goose]

I have never had to diagnose this circuit before, but here is what I can glean from the shop manual and schematic. It seems that the low fuel warning light is triggered by the thermistor inside the sending unit - probably increases temperature when the gas gets low enough to not cool it. This actually makes sense with the fact that the low fuel light starts very dim and gets brighter as you get further into reserve. I can find no indication of how the reserve fuel trip meter gets triggered on unless the increased current flow through the thermistor provides some feedback through the sending unit. If this is true, then the problem is probably just a burned out low fuel indicator bulb.

 

Here are two tests to try. Unplug the sending unit next to the ignition switch and check for +12V on the Green/White wire coming from the bike harness with the key ON (anything between 10-12V is fine). If you do not have that voltage, replace the low fuel light in the dash. If you do have power to the Green/White wire, then check resistance on the sender unit plug between the Green/Red wire and the black wire - that is the thermistor, and it should be just over 1Kohm.

Goose

[Rick Haywood]

I have a similar problem, everthing on mine works except the warning light. It will go to the 3rd odometer and track the miles on reserve but the light never comes on.

[V7Goose]

You might also want to verify you are not getting a flashing self test error code from the fuel gauge.

 

When you first turn the key on, all of the fuel gauge segments will come on in the usual "bulb" test, just like most of the idiot lights. After they go out, if there is anything wrong with the fuel sending unit, you should get a error code for a short while. If the thermistor is bad, the one segment on the left side of the gauge should flash eight times, rest, then repeat for three cycles. If the sending unit is bad (unlikely, since you said the gauge works normally), then the single right segment of the gauge will flash the error code.

Goose