Hey guys so my 02 vtr fuel light always flashes empty , I’ve pulled the float out of the tank and held it up to the full position and still shows empty , the contacts were touching too and still nothing , I’ve been looking everywhere online to get a new unit but can’t find one for the life of me , any help would be appreciated <3

 

Assumption: "flashes empty" means it is alway lit.

Looking at the wiring diagram, the contact in the fuel level sensor provides a ground signal to light the fuel light. Are you saying the contact is always made no matter the position of the float arm?

 

uh idk like you know how at the bottom of it it has this like little copper arrow looking thing that moves when the float moves and touches these little metal fin things yeah even when those touch the full position it still says empty

 

I think because gas in the tank sloshes, there is a intentional buffer between the position of the float and what the gauge displays.
I thought mine was broken until i realized that if i moved the float to the "full" position and held it there, the fuel level display would
slowly get to full. It would take a full minute or more of holding it in that position.

 

Hold up, I keep forgetting all yous with your fancy 00+ models have a sci-fi fuel guage rather than a blinky light. So, sorry for my erroneous input above.

I'm not familiar with the 00+ sending unit, but its output appears to be a variable resistance/voltage. If you check it as Zkarma outlines and it's still just flashing empty, can you unplug it and check the output with an ohmeter to see what it's doing when you move the float position? I would suspect the hysteresis is built-in to the fuel gauge rather than the sending unit.

How does the guage behave with the sending unit unplugged? If it flashes empty same as with it plugged in and the resistance check of the sending unit looks OK, my guess would be you have a problem in the wiring between the two.

 

checked all of that stuff with a multimeter and it seems fine so idk

 

oh weird well I’m taking it to get blueslipped (inspected ) for a roadworthy today so I’ll see if anything changes on my ride