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Gas gauge not working.

18K views 28 replies 13 participants last post by  TheresHellToPay 
#1 ·
Anyone else's gas gauge nonfunctional? Not matter how much fuel is in the tank the needle sits on E. No service bulletin on it yet that I've found. I'll have the dealer check it out on my first service but wanted to see if anyone had a fix for this problem.
 
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#5 ·
my fuel gauge would stick on e, so i just tap it and it worked as normal, not sure what caused it though.
 
#9 ·
Perhaps a silly question, but is the sensor on the bottom of the tank plugged in? If I remember correctly there's a green and black wired plug on the rear-bottom of the tank. If you've pulled your tank for any reason you have to unplug that. It's very easy to forget to plug it back in.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Hi Vex, Thanks for your suggestion.

I haven't done anything to my bike, and I don't know very much about mechanics.

Is "rear bottom of the tank" somewhere inside the fairing? If possible, would you please post a picture about where the plug is located? Very appreciated!
i believe this is the plug... in this picture it's right above the air filter where, normally, your airbox sits.



some better pictures of the plug here...
http://www.kawiforums.com/showpost.php?p=1226195&postcount=15
 
#15 ·
Finally! Someone else with my same problem. I have an 09 250 and the gas gauge crapped itself the first long weekend I tried taking it out, under 100 miles at the time. Took it into the dealership and they found out the sensor inside the tank was bad. Replaced it and about a week later (a couple hundred miles put on it, a little over 200) and the gauge was broke again. Took it back in and it was the sensor again. They called Kawasaki. Got back to me and I was told that it's the gas that's ruining the sensors. I'm getting my 3rd one installed this weekend. Apparently its causing corrosion to build up on the sensor which destroys it. When they pulled everything off and let me look in the tank I could see the gunk hanging out at the bottom of the tank, a light brown color. Its the ethanol in the gas. With the emission laws forcing the gas stations to blend this crap into the fuel, they don't measure how much or how little since there is no set standard. I don't go to middle of nowhere gas stations either, I stick with highly traveled ones which usually watch their mixtures (or so I was told).

They shipped off my original sensor to Kawasaki so their engineers could take a look at it. Kawasaki said my bike was the very first case they have ever heard of this happening..
 
#18 ·
Yep, that sounds exactly like what mine did. I was still on the first tank of gas the dealer gave me when the gauge dropped to E and hasn't moved. And every tank after that I've put the highest octane in as well.. If you ever head up to your dealership to get the gauge looked at, I'm assuming its still covered under factory warrenty, when they check it out see what they say..
 
#19 ·
Do you used your trip meter at all to try to determine how much gas you have? I reset my trip meter every time I fill up and I go roughly 200 miles between fill up. I just used my gas gauges as reference only and I don't depend on it.

At the ~200 mile mark, my gas gauge is on the "E" and the most gas I ever put in my tank was 3.9 gallons while I was still sitting on the bike.
 
#20 ·
Do you used your trip meter at all to try to determine how much gas you have? I reset my trip meter every time I fill up and I go roughly 200 miles between fill up. I just used my gas gauges as reference only and I don't depend on it.

At the ~200 mile mark, my gas gauge is on the "E" and the most gas I ever put in my tank was 3.9 gallons while I was still sitting on the bike.
That's all I've been able to use since the gauge is broken. I usually go to 180 miles and then fill back up. Dealership guys said the bike should get over 200 miles to the tank but I fill up a little earlier just to be safe. Funny thing happened to me yesterday though. I was at 140 miles on the meter so a good 60 miles before needing to fill up, and about 3 blocks from home my bike shuts itself off. After I push it home (still in uniform) I pop open the tank and no gas. Still not sure how that happened. Filled it up completely and I only got 140 miles out of the tank. Let's just say I was not too happy. This is the first vehicle I've had that I've ran completely out of gas. :mad: My own stupid fault though. Should have looked in the tank and not relied solely on the trip meter.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I had one of those mystery tanks one time. I ran out of gas at about 220 miles on a tank (which turns out to be about 46.8 mpg). However, every other time I've filled up I have calculated my gas mileage to be about 55-58 mpg. Now I make sure to fill up before my tank has 200 miles. The needle usually reaches E on mine with about a gallon left in the tank.

GreezMunky, be sure to test your gas mileage over a long period of time. If it continues to be that bad you may want to look into it more. Like I said, I randomly had one of those tanks also.
 
#28 ·
I had one of those mystery tanks one time. I ran out of gas at about 220 miles on a tank (which turns out to be about 46.8 mpg). However, every other time I've filled up I have calculated my gas mileage to be about 55-58 mpg. Now I make sure to fill up before my tank has 200 miles. The needle usually reaches E on mine with about a gallon left in the tank.

GreezMunky, be sure to test your gas mileage over a long period of time. If it continues to be that bad you may want to look into it more. Like I said, I randomly had one of those tanks also.
Will do, thanks for the advice. Yeah this is the very first time it's done that to me so hopefully it'll be the last. Glad to hear I'm not the only one though that this has happened to.
 
#29 ·
The pump only allows me to fill up 1 gallon, but the fuel gauge shows it has only about a little bit more than 1/2 tank.[/quote]


Did you try pullin the nozel out a lil farther so the automatic shut off didnt engage on the pump :Laughing rolling: sorry i couldnt rezist.
 
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