Gas Guage

In my '00 X-Star the gas guage went down about 1/3 and I put about 22 gallons in it. Then the next time I went out it didn't go down at all and I put 15 gallons in it.

I read some old posts about turning the key on and waiting then starting my boat. I will try this today.

Does anyone else have any recommendations.

Thanks,

Andrew

Depends are where your fuel level sensor is located. My B52 will say full all day until I put it in idle and it will drop or I'll check it while it is on the trailer. I found that I am about 1/4 tank off while the boat is moving.
Board More/Work Less!
J$

John boy,

My 2000 Centurion Elite-V does the same thing. If I slow the boat and it levels with no forward momentum it is fairly accurate.
Cheers!

I have a Centurion Lightning the gas gauge is worthless - the needle position has nothing to due with the amount of gas in the tank.

I don't think this is a difficult problem to solve, I don't know why manufactures don't install a decent sending system or modern gas monitoring system in these pricy boats!

I agree Edward, I don't understand why this problem hasn't been solved.

Anyways, our SSV reads empty when there's 10+ gallons left in it.

my guage is rather useless too, until I get it mostly empty. Then it says I have 1/3 or something stupid. Thats why I installed a fuel flow guage. Now I set it for how much is in the tank and it decrements using what is actually used by the motor instead of what is sloshing back and forth in the tank. It is accurate to within one gallon per tank. Navman makes them.

I would pull the fuel sending unit out of the tank, leave the wires connected, turn the key to "on" and move the sending unit up and down to see if the gauge responds correctly. If it doesn't, try running a ground wire from the sender to the battery ground or block. Sometimes they don't have a good ground. Then test it again and see if that makes a difference. The gauge is suppose to be accurate in the water when the boat is still. The gauge will move when the boat moves, because, of course, there are no baffles in the tank. Good luck.

The first person to invent a marine gas gauge that is accurate will be rich....

After seeing my gas gage at full until below half a tank, I wanted a better solution. A number of Tige owners have installed fuel flow meters, so I thought that I would give it a try too. I bought a Navman fuel flow meter and gage from Boater's World for $130 and also bought a $28 fuel filter/water separator from Overtons. The meter must have a filter ahead of it and should be installed in the vertical. This meant that I needed an additional filter added between the tank and my new meter.

It took about an hour to intall and works perfectly. After my first two trips to the lake with it, I recalibrated it. It is now off less than 1 gallon in 30. It will tell you instantaneous consumption, trip useage, and you can set it to alarm when you are down to a selected amount of fuel left in your tank. It is the best $160 dollars I have spent and sure provides a lot of peace of mind.

Thanks guys, so what I am hearing is that I either live with it or replace it with a fuel flow meter. It is weird because it will go down some when I am out all day. It appears that 1/2 tank is about empty for me.

Oh well it will do for now.

If you are not going to get Fuel Flow meter, then keep an eye on the hour gage.
Try to figure have many gallons you use in 1 hour.
This will give you another way of know how much gas you have left.

I came across this link, maybe this type of sender would work better ... only 40-60 bucks.
http://www.cpperformance.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=270

I have had the same problems with past boats but my 03 SAN gauge is spot on. After running the gauge to E I ran the hour meter (hours left until you run dry) to 0.0 on the way to the trailer...then filled it and it took exactly 39 gallons....full tank.

mine is pretty accurate as well in my 04 X-2.

Delta Dave, IMO it doesn’t mater what sending unit you have your still going to get bad information with a single standard gauge setup. The attitude of a boat changes dramatically which move gas back and forth in the tank. One sending unit can only report the gas level in at one point (front center, side, or back). If two or more sending units were installed in opposite corners and their signals averaged the resulting gas level would be more accurate. The fuel flow metering gauges are a good solution.

For my money boats from the high end inboard manufactures, the big three and others cost too much to not provide a better gas reporting instrument. I don’t know if fuel flow metering is or is not a standard feature on these boats, it’s not on mine. There’s an old sailor’s rule of thirds: 1) use one third for boating, 2) use the second third to get back, and 3) one third for reserve. If boaters follow that rule they are unlikely to get stranded, however if you can’t tell 1/4 tank from full then you can’t follow this rule. I’ve refueled on the water putting nearly $100 in the tank, 34 of 36 gallons, that’s’ cutting it too close.

I have a 01 SAN and she is right on also. I also had a 78 Mastercraft and it was dead on. I didn't know that there was such a problem with gas guage. I think they should fix this problem.