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Fuel Levels

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craig(at)craigandjean.com
Guest

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject: Fuel Levels

One problem with capacitive probes is that they are sensitive to the

composition of the fuel. You will get different reading with 100LL vs. car

gas. I suspect that different ethanol blends will give different readings

but I don't know how much. I recall being told by the instrument maker MGL

in South Africa that they don't use capacitive probes because the

composition of auto gas there is inconsistent enough to cause significant

errors.



-- Craig



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ashontz

Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Posts: 723

Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 12:13 pm Post subject: Re: Fuel Levels

This would explain why I ran out of gas, for the first time in 13 years, in my pickup truck a few months ago. The gauge works and was reading a little less than 1/4 tank.



 	  craig(at)craigandjean.com wrote: 	
		  One problem with capacitive probes is that they are sensitive to the

composition of the fuel. You will get different reading with 100LL vs. car

gas. I suspect that different ethanol blends will give different readings

but I don't know how much. I recall being told by the instrument maker MGL

in South Africa that they don't use capacitive probes because the

composition of auto gas there is inconsistent enough to cause significant

errors.



-- Craig



--

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SafeAirOne

Joined: 18 May 2008
Posts: 17
Location: Manchester, NH

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject: Re: Fuel Levels

 	  ashontz wrote: 	
		  This would explain why I ran out of gas, for the first time in 13 years, in my pickup truck a few months ago. The gauge works and was reading a little less than 1/4 tank. 	




You have a capacitance fuel sender in your pickup?  Most are simple float-types...



-Mark

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ashontz

Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Posts: 723

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:31 am Post subject: Re: Fuel Levels

I've never seen the sender in my '85 Nissan, but I'm guessing it's capacitance due to the fact that my 91 suburban obviously has a float because the needle jumps around all over the place when I make a turn and the fuel sloshes around. The pickup truck doesn't do that, it takes it's good old time coming up to level after I fill it up at the gas station. It acts like it's a capacitance type sender.



Interesting concept though that an ethanol blend would change the characteristics of the sender signal. Good argument for a float type sender.



 	  SafeAirOne wrote: 	
		   	  ashontz wrote: 	
		  This would explain why I ran out of gas, for the first time in 13 years, in my pickup truck a few months ago. The gauge works and was reading a little less than 1/4 tank. 	




You have a capacitance fuel sender in your pickup?  Most are simple float-types...



-Mark

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dougsnash

Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 281

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 5:19 am Post subject: Fuel Levels

Andy, it has been my exprience that automotive senders

are almost exclusivly float type senders.  I belive

the lag time in the fuel readings is a function of lag

built into the gauge.  My reasoning is that the

circuitry for the capacitance type sender would be

more complicated and therefor more expensive with

little added benifit.  Automotive companies would not

spend the additional amount on something that is not

obvious.



Of course with an import vehicle, anything is

possible.



Doug MacDonald

CH-701 Scratch Builder

NW Ontario, Canada



Do not archive



--- ashontz <ashontz(at)nbme.org> wrote:



 	  Quote: 	
		   

 <ashontz(at)nbme.org>

 

 I've never seen the sender in my '85 Nissan, but I'm

 guessing it's capacitance due to the fact that my 91

 suburban obviously has a float because the needle

 jumps around all over the place when I make a turn

 and the fuel sloshes around. The pickup truck

 doesn't do that, it takes it's good old time coming

 up to level after I fill it up at the gas station.

 It acts like it's a capacitance type sender.

 

 Interesting concept though that an ethanol blend

 would change the characteristics of the sender

 signal. Good argument for a float type sender.

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