Beetle fuel gauge

Had to park my daily driver and take my spare Beetle. Fuel gauge is WAY past the full mark.

Stopped and topped off the tank since I had no idea how much fuel it had in it. Only took about 5 gallon.
After fueling up the needle was even further past the full mark. Shut key off and needle goes to just below the 1/2 mark. Guess that will be the new temporary empty.

Only thing I can figure is somehow the needle slipped on the peg. I don't think it's a sending unit problem.
I guess I'll have to pull the cluster, remove the cluster glass and reset the needle to empty and see how that works.

I don't recall if the cluster needles have a detent index or not.

It’ll be interesting to see if your plan will fix it. Hopefully it will.

I would try this:

Go into the Instruments, and do the Output Tests. This should sequentially work all the lights and sweep the gauges. See if the fuel gauge sweeps from empty to full like it should.

If it DOES NOT, see if you can find where the sender level is in the Measuring Blocks (VCDS may have a label file). Jot down what that number is, as this is your "full". Drive the car and check that figure again (you may even compare this figure to another car) to see if it goes down.

Trying to determine if the issue is with the sender (not likely) or the gauge itself (more likely). Because if it for some reason is with the sender, that is easy to try and recalibrate or, if necessary, replace. But the gauge may be more of a pain. There are places that can fix it though. You needn't replace the whole cluster.

Thanks oilhammer. I'm still working 7-14 hour days. No free time right now to delve into the problem. Just have to go by the trip odometer and the just below half is probably empty.

I didn't know that you can go into the gauge with VCDS. That's good info.

Appreciate the help.

I have some other clusters I could use. Of course I'd have to get an immo delete on the ECU.

As a quick test try unplugging the sending unit at the tank.
Does the beetle have an access door under the rear seat?
Not sure if the tank is under it.

It's under the back seat on the passenger side.

I did the reset with VCDS as suggested by oilhammer. NO JOY. But at least I learned something new. The range of reset moved the needle marginally. I'm thinking it's a problem with the gauge itself. I'll try unplugging the sending unit,but will be surprised if that helps any.

Took apart a parts cluster I have and there isn't any indexing detent on the back of the gauge needle. The needle can be placed in any position. So, I'll run it and watch it and see if the needle has a good range of motion. If so, I'll remove the cluster and reposition the fuel needle.

This happened to me as well. It seemed that my battery was getting low and caused all sorts of electrical issues and the fuel gauge was all crazy. Once I got the car running after sitting for a while, the gauge just corrected itself and has been fine ever since.

Almost felt like reseting limp mode by shutting the car off and restarting it.

PB_NB said:

This happened to me as well. It seemed that my battery was getting low and caused all sorts of electrical issues and the fuel gauge was all crazy. Once I got the car running after sitting for a while, the gauge just corrected itself and has been fine ever since.

Almost felt like reseting limp mode by shutting the car off and restarting it.

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All the other gauges seem fine, although the trip odometer was at zero as if there was a disconnect of power. So , that could be as you are saying happened with your's.

Just going to run it and watch it for now.

That was the same with mine. Everything else was fine. Then after a day or so, I started the car and it was like a switch was thrown. The needle went back to normal.

Sounds similar to yours.

PB_NB said:

That was the same with mine. Everything else was fine. Then after a day or so, I started the car and it was like a switch was thrown. The needle went back to normal.

Sounds similar to yours.

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Yes. As I said: for now I'm just going to run it and watch it and see what it does.

PB_NB said:

That was the same with mine. Everything else was fine. Then after a day or so, I started the car and it was like a switch was thrown. The needle went back to normal.

Sounds similar to yours.

Click to expand...

After a week and two fuel ups the fuel gauge went back to reading correctly. Must just be some sort of glitch.