gas light

[rede30]

My gas light never came on in my red car but in my black 90 is it is coming on at strange times. I just started driving it and at first the light came on right when it hit red but the next time it came on right past half tank. I have never had this light so i dont know what is going on. What is going on?

[DaN]

Is the fuel gauge accurate?

There is a set of contacts that close in the fuel sending unit when the tank reaches 1.5 gallons, this provides a ground for the low fuel light.

So maybe the contacts are closing for some strange reason at the wrong time, or you have an intermittent short to ground in the brown/grey wire, between the sender and the cluster.
This is where I would start, but maybe there is a common problem i'm not aware of.

[rede30]

Thanks for the tips i just want to be sure the light doesnt come on for any other reason.

[DaveInLA]

Are you sure you're low enough on fuel? My manual says it comes on when there's 1.6 (or 1.2?) gallons left. In my almost 3 years with this car, I've only seen the light come on twice. I usually fill up when there's still about 3-4 gallons left.

[AdironRider]

I always heard the gas lights in most cars are supposed to come on when youve got approx 50 miles left of gas in your tank. Seems about true on the e30, but Ive never really pushed the envelope past 20 miles or so into the red.

[netcsk]

I've ran mine down to the point the OBC simply showed dashed lines for the distance to empty. I ran about 4 miles in that range. Haha.

[jht3]

there is a contact point in the sender that is supposed to close, turning the low fuel light on. i have no idea why yours is all over the place

i bought a new VDO sender this year and have never seen the low light. it used to work great w/ the older sender. wtf? recently i hooked my old sender back up and the light wasn't working until i shook it around pretty violently. i'm pretty pissed about this, but can live w/ no low fuel light.