Gas gage stuck on Full

[pasini510]

I winterized bike and took battrey out . Now my gage always reads full.  has anyone had this happen ?

[Conrad]

Sounds like a new one.

Is the float stuck? Take 'er over a sweet jump and see if you can jar that float lose.

[pasini510]

LOL,
Im far from Evil Kineval

[Mister Tee]

Have you ridden it at all since you first noticed that?

[Conrad]

LOL,
Im far from Evil Kineval

I wasn't thinking of the Snake River, more along these lines.

Napoleon Dynamite Bike Jump scene

The first jump, not the second. 

[pasini510]

Thats funny, I rode about two gallons out then stopped and refilled , still showing full, rode another 70 miles , still shows all the bars on gage. The manual says to take to the dealer but I would rather not since no warrenty left.

[Conrad]

Take her out for about 150 miles and see. I wouldn't worry till you do this. Mine will show full for a long time and then all of a sudden it'll start showing fewer bars, it's not exactly linear.

[VirginiaJim]

It's either the sending unit (stuck float, bad unit), wires to the gauge, or the gauge itself.  My bet is the sending unit as it's been sitting for awhile.  What year is it?  At the very least you'll need to remove the tank and take out the sending unit to test it.   I doubt very seriously that it's the gauge.

We did have someone with that issue in the past forum, I think.  I think it was the sending unit.

[B.D.F.]

Just another undocumented benefit of KiPass....

As Conrad said, the gauge tends to hang a bit on the full mark if the tank is filled until the fuel level is over the splash plate in the filler neck. Ride the bike for at least 100 miles and the gauge should drop.

Brian

Thats funny, I rode about two gallons out then stopped and refilled , still showing full, rode another 70 miles , still shows all the bars on gage. The manual says to take to the dealer but I would rather not since no warrenty left.

[maxtog]

Take her out for about 150 miles and see. I wouldn't worry till you do this. Mine will show full for a long time and then all of a sudden it'll start showing fewer bars, it's not exactly linear.

I have yet to drive ANY vehicle with a truly linear fuel gauge.  And this is pretty strange, considering that everything is digital, so correcting the input with a map would be super easy.  Makes me wonder if the designers WANT them to be non-linear???  (And I can't imagine WHY that would be a good thing)

[Conrad]

It's either the sending unit (stuck float, bad unit), wires to the gauge, or the gauge itself.  My bet is the sending unit as it's been sitting for awhile.  What year is it?  At the very least you'll need to remove the tank and take out the sending unit to test it.   I doubt very seriously that it's the gauge.

We did have someone with that issue in the past forum, I think.  I think it was the sending unit.

Yeah, you're right Jim. There was someone who had a bad sending unit. It's very suspicious in this case though, happening over the winter storage period.

[Conrad]

Have you ridden it at all since you first noticed that?

Tee, so you're saying that the guage won't drop till he rides it?     

Ya think? 

[B.D.F.]

The sending portion of the fuel level readout system is still analog and almost certainly accounts for the errors in linearity. The actual readout itself is digital and could be corrected as you point out but the easiest thing to do remains 'nothing' in the digital world as it was in the analog world. :-)  The easiest thing for vehicle manufacturers to do is to stick a generic fuel gauge system on a vehicle and accept the inaccuracy. It is not so much that they could do better as it is we really don't want them to do better (read: increase the vehicle's price).

Brian

I have yet to drive ANY vehicle with a truly linear fuel gauge.  And this is pretty strange, considering that everything is digital, so correcting the input with a map would be super easy.  Makes me wonder if the designers WANT them to be non-linear???  (And I can't imagine WHY that would be a good thing)

[Conrad]

Thats funny, I rode about two gallons out then stopped and refilled , still showing full, rode another 70 miles , still shows all the bars on gage. The manual says to take to the dealer but I would rather not since no warrenty left.

What about the range indicator? Any action there?

[maxtog]

The sending portion of the fuel level readout system is still analog

Well, of course.  The real world is, afterall, analog

and almost certainly accounts for the errors in linearity. The actual readout itself is digital and could be corrected as you point out but the easiest thing to do remains 'nothing' in the digital world as it was in the analog world. :-)  The easiest thing for vehicle manufacturers to do is to stick a generic fuel gauge system on a vehicle and accept the inaccuracy. It is not so much that they could do better as it is we really don't want them to do better (read: increase the vehicle's price).

Correct me if I am wrong, since I don't know, but I thought most of the dash on the Concours is fully ECU controlled and is connected to the ECU through a digital bus.  If this is true, then the ECU is already generating the information for the fuel gauge display and could easily correct its non-linearity, and at no cost....

[B.D.F.]

The range indicator is based on the fuel level sending unit too so if that is broken, both readings (range remaining and fuel level) will be incorrect.

And the range indicating system is just plain ole' wacky <technical term>. I tried to use it for the very first time on a trip last year and the more attention I gave it the worse its performance was. The remaining range did decrease but at a lesser rate than the rate at which the miles used on that tank increased; if carried far enough it seemed to indicate that I would never have run out of fuel.

Brian

What about the range indicator? Any action there?

[B.D.F.]

Depending on how you choose to work with it- a true digital tank readout is no problem- the analog resistance dial could easily be converted into a pulse counter that simply 'watched' the fuel float move up / down.

That was the point in my earlier post- at no cost. It absolutely would cost something to add an offset table to weight the fuel gauge to be more accurate. Just about the only thing in the world that is truly free is doing nothing, which is exactly what Kawasaki (and I believe, everyone else) does to correct the fuel level readout. It is just a matter of how much time / effort / materials are used on each given thing; Kawasaki could easily put 90 valve stems in place of the straight ones on a C-14 that can be more difficult to use.... but not at zero cost.

There are those companies who strive to provide a product that has all of these small issues addressed but historically the product fails in the marketplace due entirely to the sale price.

Brian

Well, of course.  The real world is, afterall, analog

Correct me if I am wrong, since I don't know, but I thought most of the dash on the Concours is fully ECU controlled and is connected to the ECU through a digital bus.  If this is true, then the ECU is already generating the information for the fuel gauge display and could easily correct its non-linearity, and at no cost....

[gPink]

Is the range fuction also tied into the throttle position sensor?

[maxtog]

Is the range fuction also tied into the throttle position sensor?

No.  The range function is tied the the average MPG computation.  That is computed based on fuel delivery calculations (which the ECU knows, because it is telling the engine exactly how much fuel to use) based over X amount of time.  Fuel remaining is a function of the fuel float gauge, which the ECU also knows.

Now the magic- multiplication!   Average MPG x Estimated fuel remaining = Estimated range.

[stevewfl]

KiPass even fills the tank on yours???  Wow, my Kipass has been known to raise the octane and performance of the fuel, but my tank hasn't been stuck on "full"