S13 Fuel light issue, Everyones input needed.

[Mishkin_707]

Ok so I have searched here, other forums AND google, there are no follow ups on solving the problem, from what i've read, it's a common issue.

I want to get Everyones input before I dig into this, I'm in the process of making how to videos on YouTube, anyways this issue has bothered me for years, my fuel light never comes on, in the 11 years I've owned my S13 I have only seen my fuel light come on one time, I had it parked on my steep driveway and it barely illuminated but it came on, since then I've run my car very low to where I park my car on the left side of my street and my car wouldn't start because the fuel won't reach the fuel pump because it's on the right side of the car and even run the car completely empty to see if it would illuminate with no success, I have a question for people that DO HAVE a working low fuel light, when you turn your key to the ACC without starting your car or when you do start your car, does the low fuel illuminate like the oil, check engine, battery lights? Also when you have low fuel, at what point does the low fuel light come on? As in 1/4 tank.

Also have any of you had a personal experience in fixing their fuel light?

Lots of people ask "what's in the fuel pump that sends signal to illuminate the low fuel light?" "what wires are for the fuel light?" "is there a sensor for the fuel light?" and so on.

FSM doesn't tell me what wires are for the low fuel light.

I have an 89 S13 coupe with the HUD. let's here Everyones theory, fix, fails and what you've tried, I don't care for the "you shouldn't let you car run that low anyways because it messes stuff up" I have had my car since 2001 and it's been my daily all 11 years and I have religiously run car on little to no fuel since day one and my car is still running.

I dont want to hear " who cares" because I do and I'm sure very few others do care also.

[Pro ViZIon]

There's a sensor I believe on the fuel pump assembly around the float. It basically just grounds out in the fuel I'm guessing. My light works but my gauge is inaccurate. Once I hit a 1/4 tank, if I'm making any right turns, any at all my gauge drops well past the 0 marker. But my light won't usually come on till the needle is almost pegged. Also when I turn on the car with low fuel the light won't appear immediately, rather after a few minutes of driving.

[ATLspeed]

Mine stopped working but I'm not even sure when that happened

[Mishkin_707]

Mine only came on once in 2004 I believe, since then I have tried, Tuesday it's supposed to be 50 degrees so I'm gonna pull the cluster out and change the bulb then the next few days I'll run as low as I can and see what happens, if not I am willing to dig deeper and fix the issue and will post a "how to" for the people that care

[soryu]

my fuel light comes on but it barely illuminates then it turns off.
this happens all the time.(just above the E line)
if i keep driving for around another 8 to 12 miles then it turns on barely lit then regular brightness by this time the gauge is at the E line or under it.
i was also wondering if there's something wrong with the light.
or is this normal for s13's?

[KiLLeR2001]

Check the bulb and contact points on the back of the gauge cluster first.

[RyanS13]

My fuel light works it always has.

It comes on just below the E (my fuel gauge is weird, its at E with about 3 gallons left).

At first it comes on really really dim, and as it gets lower it gets brighter and brighter until its fully lit. I've never had a problem with it once, and I've had the car for about 30,000 miles. The chassis has 202,000 on it.

[joemon]

Mine comes on at almost pegged below E.
Just get your tank as empty as u feel comfortable with then take note of the gauge and trip meter miles(if it was reset to zero when last full up was) and full your tank up all the way and see how close to 15.9gallons you get to.

As far as I know 240sx have a 15.9 gallon tank.

Minus tank size with how much gas u put in and u will know how much gas u had b4 filled up.

Gas light may not go on till u get to at least 2 gallons

[RyanS13]

Mine comes on at almost pegged below E.
Just get your tank as empty as u feel comfortable with then take note of the gauge and trip meter miles(if it was reset to zero when last full up was) and full your tank up all the way and see how close to 15.9gallons you get to.

As far as I know 240sx have a 15.9 gallon tank.

Minus tank size with how much gas u put in and u will know how much gas u had b4 filled up.

Gas light may not go on till u get to at least 2 gallons

Mine usually comes on right at about 13.7-13.9.

[Mishkin_707]

Great info guys, I know I've run my car completely dry on a level surface (my garage) so that makes be believe the light isn't working, I will start tearing things apart in a few minutes

[Mishkin_707]

I'm also thinking I should add an LED bulb, that way when power goes to it it will light up instantly and bright, unlike a regular light bulb that can come on dim at first and get brighter after a little while, an LED will be fully lit when it gets power to it.

Sorry for the multiple post, I'm on my iPhone and I can't edit my posts for some reason, makes my iPhone crash if I hit the edit button

[jclarkness]

Did the LED fix your issue? Do you have any updates?

I have the same problem and I am interested in what you find out.

[TypeXFan]

my 1st s13 my fuel gauge and light worked properly, but my newest one the fuel gauge is off by a 1/8th of a tank, and the fuel light never turns on, im assuming it has something to do with the sensor on the fuel pump, i havent gotten around to looking into it as i have other electrical issues to deal with atm.

[Nicelyphe]

Mine hasn't worked since my SR swap, Personally I just use the gauge instead. I also think my gauge is off as-well. Dam cars lmao, Not going to worry bout it too much =\.

[grimm199]

I have gotten my S14 UNDER the E and my light doesnt come on. I have only owned her for a few months so I dont really worry about it right now, but if someone can help find a sure fix to this, I may actually do it.

[Mishkin_707]

Ok need my question answered, to the people who's light works.... When you turn your key to the ACC or ON, does the fuel light pop on really quick light the check engine, oil, and battery lights? Need this info ASAP

[KiLLeR2001]

Ok need my question answered, to the people who's light works.... When you turn your key to the ACC or ON, does the fuel light pop on really quick light the check engine, oil, and battery lights? Need this info ASAP

I'm almost certain nothing comes on for the gas light when in ACC/ON position. It's usually a greenish-yellow color and not red like the other indicators.

Damn, the last time I saw that little indicator was back in 2008 before I did my SR swap. It appeared almost below the E and my car started idling rough begging for more gas lol.

[Mishkin_707]

Thanks killer, just trying verify, I tried watching start up videos on YouTube and watch to see if I can see the gas light pop on when they turn their key, on one it did look like it did and on some others it appears it doesn't.... So I'm not sure if it does or not.

[KiLLeR2001]

If you really are curious you could always siphon the gas out of your tank and see if it comes on. :)

But yeah I'm 99.9% sure it doesn't come on, wish I could check for you but my car is down at the moment.

[DennisC]

I usually run my S14 all the way down almost a quarter tank past the E mark and the gas light will turn on when I have about 1-2 gallon of gas left in the tank.

[Mishkin_707]

@killer, I would try it but I filled up to the top lastnight, but before I filled up I went all week without getting gas and ran this sucker till the gas needle was at 'E' and wouldn't start at all, I would have checked my cluster with my voltmeter but I couldn't find it and was too lazy to pull out the cluster for the millionth time

[KiLLeR2001]

@killer, I would try it but I filled up to the top lastnight, but before I filled up I went all week without getting gas and ran this sucker till the gas needle was at 'E' and wouldn't start at all, I would have checked my cluster with my voltmeter but I couldn't find it and was too lazy to pull out the cluster for the millionth time

A lot of the times it will be the cluster contact points where the bulb housing locks into. I'd pull the cluster out and check the bulb, it's most likely gone bad if you've never changed it. This would be a good time to upgrade your cluster to LEDs. When you take the bulbs out make sure there is metal to metal contact on each housing, when I took my cluster out a lot of them had poor contacts and I had to clean it up.

Check out my thread I made couple years ago, it actually shows the gauge cluster lights on and no gas light!

http://zilvia.net/f/chat/353488-gauge-cluster-lighting.html

[Mishkin_707]

Yeah, when I pulled the cluster out a few days ago I did change the bulb with an LED but didn't even think to check and clean the contacts, it's going to be 50 degrees out today so I'll pull my cluster out and check and clean the contacts, I bet it's something that easy too....lol thanks for the helpful tip

[NooKa]

There's a sensor I believe on the fuel pump assembly around the float. It basically just grounds out in the fuel I'm guessing. My light works but my gauge is inaccurate. Once I hit a 1/4 tank, if I'm making any right turns, any at all my gauge drops well past the 0 marker. But my light won't usually come on till the needle is almost pegged. Also when I turn on the car with low fuel the light won't appear immediately, rather after a few minutes of driving.

Mine just started doing this nonsense at the 1/4 mark last night. Drove to a movie with roughly 1/4 tank. Left a couple hours later and saw my gauge buried. Kept fluctuating all over the place, from pegged bellow E to 1/4 tank. Really annoying. Anyone have an idea as to what causes this?

And to the original poster, my current fuel light doesn't work (haven't checked bulb/contact points yet) but on my past 2 S13's, it does progessively come up to full illumination. Typically it does take very long once it starts, a few miles between dim to fully lit.

On another note, is it safe to say that if your fuel gauge works properly, the low fuel light should work as well.

Happy hunting, and I hope this is resolved. Little issues like this make me want a newer car.

- Nick

[Jtuned_andy]

I have an opposite problem as others with my fuel light, mine is constantly lit no matter how full or empty. When I got my car the corner bulb was burnt out so I replaced all of the cluster lights with wide angle LED's and they all work great but now I see that my light is on all the time.

Any suggestions on that? problem?

[Vatche]

I have an opposite problem as others with my fuel light, mine is constantly lit no matter how full or empty. When I got my car the corner bulb was burnt out so I replaced all of the cluster lights with wide angle LED's and they all work great but now I see that my light is on all the time.

Any suggestions on that? problem?

you probably have bad wiring somewhere, or the wire is being grounded when it shouldnt be, whatever it is you should check it out



OP: I have been asking around for 6 months about this same problem. I have been told by 3-4 people that their fuel light bulb comes on at ignition ACC before ON

In my coupe that I have had for 10 years, similar to you, I have 89 HUD with SR. my fuel light used to work the first few years. But i never looked to see at that time if fuel light bulb came on at ACC. Everything on my cluster works great. I have checked all bulbs and tried 5 different bulbs in the fuel light socket with nothing working.

I also have an issue with my fuel guage only going up to 3/4 after a fill up, it never did that before.

I would assume after years of daily driving and tracking and abuse, i also think i have a dent in my fuel tank from a jack now too, I also had installed a walbro 8 years ago which is still working great. Nothing I have done has changed the bulb or guage.

A few times my guage went to full, which blew my mind, I thought I had figure it out. But I was wrong.

I tried putting a dohc regular analog cluster in, fuel guage still at 3/4 and fuel light doesnt come on.

In my opinion. I believe it is the sending unit in the fuel tank.

for the 3/4 thing, I bet it has something to do with the floater dislodging or something like that. I think since this thread is so recent, I am going to go pull my fuel pump and check all of that so I can take pics and try to get everyone answers.

Last but not least I bough a 91 Hatch recently and the fuel light is the same bs, doesnt come on.

[Mishkin_707]

@ jtuned, do you know if your fuel needle is reading correctly? Does sound like its being grounded out somewhere, maybe the sensor in the fuel tank is stuck "on"

@vatche, I can't get a straight answer about the light coming on at ACC people say yes it comes on and others say no it doesn't come on, one thing i just thought of was to turn the car on to the ACC but not starting the car then pulling out the fuel sending unit out just enough for the floater to go down as if there was no fuel and checking the cluster to see if it illuminates, I may do that today.

Can anyone with a working low fuel light post a pic when their car is low and it's lit up? I want to see how low the needle is when it's supposed to come on "normally"

[KiLLeR2001]

The last time I saw the low fuel light on my car was back when it was SOHC. By the time I saw the light my car was on the verge of fuel starvation, it was running extremely rough.

Currently, my DOHC cluster works in its entirety and with ACC on the only thing that happens is the clock illumination and the radio turns on.

[Jtuned_andy]

@ jtuned, do you know if your fuel needle is reading correctly? Does sound like its being grounded out somewhere, maybe the sensor in the fuel tank is stuck "on"

The gauge operates fine, it will go up and down. It doesn't seem to stick anywere in the needle range. I have run the tank pretty low but not to the point where it stalls out.

Does anyone know what part of the tree that drops into the fuel tank are the wires for a sender unit. would a break in the line cause a constant light?

[Mishkin_707]

Thanks killer, loving the info, it got rainy out so I didn't pull my fuel pump but I may just put a jack on the right side and lift the car see if it lights up, better than pulling the fuel pump, sorry I haven't kept up with this but I am still working on this and WILL finish this and post up every finding, trial and errors and the fix, thanks everyone!

[Corey121]

Mine has never came on but guess what.. when the needle gets to the E i got and get some fuel.

[Mishkin_707]

Well thank you bill nye, you've earned a gold star for effort

[Corey121]

Well thank you bill nye, you've earned a gold star for effort


;) Nice i try lol

http://www.maniacworld.com/grass-car.jpg

Its power by Liquid nitrogren

[Mishkin_707]

;) Nice i try lol

http://www.maniacworld.com/grass-car.jpg

Its power by Liquid nitrogren

Likewise little guy

But seriously, like I said in my first post I'm doing this for the people who do care about this, it's mindless to some but for people like me the little mindless things are the things that are the most pain in the ass when it doesn't work

[lbogkush]

if key is on acc/on = if your fuel is low it will be lit if you have fuel it wont be lit at all

[Vatche]

if key is on acc/on = if your fuel is low it will be lit if you have fuel it wont be lit at all

Doesnt sound correct because multiple people have the light always come on at acc but not when car is on
Acc is to show you bulbs work far as i know.

[KiLLeR2001]

Doesnt sound correct because multiple people have the light always come on at acc but not when car is on
Acc is to show you bulbs work far as i know.

Not how it works on my S13.

http://tehl33tsite.com/240sxdd/black240/clusterevive.jpg

The picture above is what I see when its at ignition ON with running lights turned on to illuminate the cluster. If I turn it back to ACC the red bulbs in the bottom right corner turn off. With ACC on all I get is clock illumination and power to the radio.

[Vatche]

Yes that was a misunderstanding on my part. But i meant at the ON position the bulb should come on when car is off.

[lbogkush]

Doesnt sound correct because multiple people have the light always come on at acc but not when car is on
Acc is to show you bulbs work far as i know.
multiple people must not be checking idk :(
Yes that was a misunderstanding on my part. But i meant at the ON position the bulb should come on when car is off.

dont get mad young sir am not trying to be rude and was going to stay quiet on your quote on me but your wrong agian as killer2001 stated gas blub doesnt come on when car is key turned on acc/on NOT STARTED
only if gas fuel is low the gas light blub will come on lit showing you that u need gas right away since killer is analog mines is digital let clear this out

notice how car is on but NOT STARTED on both cluster because needle is on 0 (ZERO)
http://tehl33tsite.com/240sxdd/black240/clusterevive.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/dzz1g3.jpg
ill have a pic of gas light lit when am low on gas i know gas is already low but its not low enough LOL :mad:

[Vatche]

well. I have been trying to get to the bottom of this for awhile. I guess I have just been misinformed by people or looked at dashes on cars that had electrical problems.

My gas light in my digital cluster on my coupe never comes on anymore, even when I am at 16 gallons empty.

My new analog dohc 91 hatch is around the bottom dot and i fill up 11.3 gallons. I havent risked going below that on the hatch yet. Time to get risky and push its limits then.

Or I could just continue to get gas at normal intervals. I just wanted this fixed on my coupe because I have been on a mission to fix all the wrongs. Especially in my coupe since when I fill up it doesnt go past 3/4

[cotbu]

I'm with lbogkush & KiLLeR2001on this one.
And if your filling up with 11.3 gallons that's a quarter tank on my 93 dohc cluster
You got about 4~gallons to go before that light even thinks about coming on!

Anyway! These cars are pretty old, and not everyone electrical system is up to par.

[KiLLeR2001]

And if I remember correctly its a pale greenish color indicator, not red like the others. If you really wanted to get to the bottom of it you could take out the fuel pump assembly and make sure the floater mechanism is working properly. But most importantly you need to check the bulb contact surface with the cluster. Initially, when replacing my bulbs to LED some of them weren't making good contact so I cleaned them all up and made sure they worked before installing the cluster back into the car.

If your gas gauge works fine, as in its relatively accurate I would almost guarantee its either a bad bulb or a bad contact point with the bulb housing to cluster mating surface.

[lbogkush]

here it is with gas light on with key turned to acc/on not started needle is at 0 (ZERO)


http://i40.tinypic.com/8y4xgk.jpg
NOW I REALLY NEED TO FILL HER UP :rant:

[KiLLeR2001]

^ lol nice. Your fuel pump is not going to be happy.

[lbogkush]

^ lol nice. Your fuel pump is not going to be happy.

part out coming soon LOL:rl:
btw nice led's on cluster

[Vatche]

yeah, i checked the cluster first, tried a second cluster, im pretty sure my issue has to do with the sending unit or floater