Fuel Gauge Quit, still shows Empty after filling - any ideas what's happened?

[DaveMcC]

I have a 2017 Spyder RT Ltd. It has 30,000 miles on the odo with no problems, until today when I fueled up. The gas gauge (analog) shows Empty, even though I just put 4.6 gals in of Premium non ethanol gas. Checked the gas cap and everything seems to be okay.
Any ideas what’s happened? My closest dealer is 250 miles away.

 

[Peter Aawen]

You might want to check the other side of the dash to see if the Temperature gauge has also quit - both the Fuel gauge and Temp gauge are on the same circuit, so if BOTH 'fail' at the same time, it's probably a circuit related issue, maybe a fuse, relay, or a wiring short, etc?? But if just ONE of those two gauges has failed, I'd guess that it's more likely to be that gauge itself, or possibly the sender for that gauge.

I hope, for your sake, that it's not the sender - getting the gas tank out far enough to access the pump/sender unit is not the simplest of tasks, and then there's getting the fuel pump & sender unit out after that, fixing/replacing whatever the issue is, then you hafta reverse the whole process! However, while doing all that yourself is a bit of a pain and takes a fair while, but if you hafta pay someone to do it, don't think that'll be any less painful, cos it'll really hurt your wallet instead!! Because it's not a quick & easy job and it takes a fair while just to get the tank out far enough, the time involved adds significantly to the labour costs involved!

There is already a little bit of discussion to be found here on the Forum if you search for it, not much on actual 'failures' tho, but that's starting to change now that some Spyders are getting on a bit, racking up the miles, and components are aging/wearing...

Good Luck!

 

[Mrmikey]

Does the sender use an arm moving across a resistor strip or is it electronic? If it's an arm, wonder if you could reach in with a coat hanger and see if you could move the arm up and down a bit to see if the gauge changes.

 

[jjc54]

Try the "Peter" thing first but if your extended warranty has expired just reset your trip odo every time you get gas and get gas at 180 miles and I venture to guess you will never run out of gas. I say this because checking mine and my fill-up records with over .5 left in the tank mine was going about 230 miles. We are in the hight of riding season and this is a winter project! I assume yours is quite extensive there in MT. Start tracking your fuel usage if you are not doing that already.

 

[Snowbelt Spyder]

I have a 2017 Spyder RT Ltd. It has 30,000 miles on the odo with no problems, until today when I fueled up. The gas gauge (analog) shows Empty, even though I just put 4.6 gals in of Premium non ethanol gas. Checked the gas cap and everything seems to be okay.
Any ideas what’s happened? My closest dealer is 250 miles away.

Rarely, the resistor strip wears out, but it does happen. But try this first. Many people - many, many people, have eliminated those analog gauges. What you do is remove the screws that you see, holding the cluster display into the dash. Reach behind there and unplug BOTH the temperature and fuel gauge connectors from behind the gauges. This will automatically shift the temperature and fuel gauge indication to the little bar graphs on the center LCD, as shown in your Owner's Guide. They will be on opposite sides, though. Fuel on the right, temp on the left. Then you see if the fuel level is accurate on the digital display. If it is, it's not a sender problem, just a gauge problem. At this point, you can decide which direction you want to go. Replace the gauge or something else. High probability is that it is a gauge problem. Plenty of suggestions on this forum as to alternate uses for those two analog gauge holes if you remove the gauges and use the holes for something else.

But even before any of this, you should just give it a good, solid tap with a knuckle.

 

[Bfromla]

Could also try standing on peg/floorboards & rocking whole bike multiple directions (w/o Injury or damage)

 

[jzeiler]

I don't know what type of float the Spyder uses but I chased a bad sending unit in an MGB for two days. I could have 1/2 tank and jack up that side of the car to remove the sender and when it was mechanically operated it would go from full to empty out side the tank and it would show empty when it was put back in and the jack lowered. I added a ground and no changes. Long story short the plastic float was damaged and was full of gas, of course it would not float. Popped it off the arm and grabbed a wine bottle cork and I was back in business.