testing fuel level senders

[jht3]

does anyone have values for each of the senders? i've heard the two sender gauges need to see 3 ohms full and 70 ohms empty but i'd like to know their individual readings.

with ~3/4 tank:
one of my senders is reading open (drivers side)
the other is reading 15 ohms (pass side)

i'm thinking the open sender is broken

[Jean]

I'll check it this weekend and post the results from 325i if that will help.

[jht3]

yup, 325i would be just fine

[jlevie]

On that car, the senders are 0 ohms for a full tank and 74 ohms on empty. Your guess that the open sensor is bad is correct. And 15 ohms would be about right for a tank near 3/4 full.

[jht3]

so with both senders in series, 0 is full and 74 is empty. but what is each sender's range?

roger on the dead sender. i took it out, shook it, and it started reporting values. but it was still all screwy

[Jean]

if you run them in series range would be 0 to resistance of 1st + resistance of 2nd sender

According to the TIS the level sensor should show 3 ohms with the float at the top and 72 ohms with the float at the bottom

74 Ohms -> empty
35 Ohms -> at 1/4 + 1/16 tank
24 Ohms -> at 1/2 tank
16 Ohms -> at 1/2 + 1/8 tank
11 Ohms -> 3/4 tank
5 Ohms -> full