Low Fuel Warning Light?

[Glasact]

Hello to all.
I'm a Newbie here, but sure I've come to the right place. My Daughter just purchased a used 2002 Sportage with 59,000 miles last week. She did not get the owners manual with it. Our problem is: On the gage panel is a small orange light that looks like a gas pump. I assume its a low fuel warning reminder. When she took delivery the tank was almost empty and the light was on. After she completely filled the tank the light went out, but came back on about 5 minutes after leaving the station. The fuel gage came up to full indicating the tank was full and has now dropped to indicate about half a tank which should be about right. Fuel gage seems to be working right. The light seems to have a mind of its own and cycles on and off at random. My question is where should I start looking to fix the light.


Thanks,

[Sea Cliff Wizard]

Originally Posted by Glasact

Hello to all.
I'm a Newbie here, but sure I've come to the right place. My Daughter just purchased a used 2002 Sportage with 59,000 miles last week. She did not get the owners manual with it. Our problem is: On the gage panel is a small orange light that looks like a gas pump. I assume its a low fuel warning reminder. When she took delivery the tank was almost empty and the light was on. After she completely filled the tank the light went out, but came back on about 5 minutes after leaving the station. The fuel gage came up to full indicating the tank was full and has now dropped to indicate about half a tank which should be about right. Fuel gage seems to be working right. The light seems to have a mind of its own and cycles on and off at random. My question is where should I start looking to fix the light.


Thanks,

The fuel tank unit.

[Glasact]

Originally Posted by Sea Cliff Wizard

The fuel tank unit.

I kind of thought that myself too. Do You have any information as to what I need to do to get to it? I haven't ever worked on a Sportage before or for that matter even looked to see where the fuel tank is located.

Thanks for the input!

[Sea Cliff Wizard]

Originally Posted by Glasact

I kind of thought that myself too. Do You have any information as to what I need to do to get to it? I haven't ever worked on a Sportage before or for that matter even looked to see where the fuel tank is located.

Thanks for the input!

Sounds to me like you should not be messing with this problem. Fuel is explosive.

[LMP]

As described in the KIA service manual,
" FUEL SENDER ASSEMBLY
The fuel sending system consists of a float, float arm, and a variable resistor. Fuel level is measured by the position of the float in the fuel tank, and is indicated by a gauge in the instrument panel cluster assembly.

Then the fuel level changes, the float position changes. The change in float position increases or decreases the resistance of the variable resistor. The change in resistance causes the position of the fuel gauge readout to change."

ALl of this seems to work normally since the fuel level indicator moves up and down correctly but the alarm light goes on erratically. IN SEVERAL CARS, this is decided by an electronic "comparator" circuit within the instrument panel assembly and it fails sometimes because of faulty component or broken soldering connection due to vibration or poor assembly BUT ON SPORTAGE IT IS A MECHANICAL SWITCH..SEE MY NEXT POST.
So...this is annoying..personnally,. I'd forget about it or/and remove the light.....

[Sea Cliff Wizard]

Originally Posted by LMP

As described in the KIA service manual,
" FUEL SENDER ASSEMBLY
The fuel sending system consists of a float, float arm, and a variable resistor. Fuel level is measured by the position of the float in the fuel tank, and is indicated by a gauge in the instrument panel cluster assembly.

Then the fuel level changes, the float position changes. The change in float position increases or decreases the resistance of the variable resistor. The change in resistance causes the position of the fuel gauge readout to change."

ALl of this seems to work normally since the fuel level indicator moves up and down correctly but the alarm light goes on erratically. This is decided by an electronic circuit within the instrument panel assembly and in this car as in others, it fails sometimes because of faulty component or broken soldering connection due to vibration or poor assembly. So...this is annoying..personnally,. I'd forget about it or/and remove the light.....but with patience, one can remove instrument anel and redo the soldering on printed circuits and clean up all connections and have some luck too....

The only electronic circuit in the instrument cluster for this lite is the lite bulb, the low level switch is in the fuel tank unit. If there was anything wrong with the soldering, the lite would not come on.

[LMP]

Oups...my goof. Indeed on this one it is a mechanical switch in the tank, fed by the green wire in diagram below.

Before trying to remove the fuel tank unit (behind folded rear passenger seat, under the carpet), investigate for possible chaffing of the wire and contact to ground somewhere.

[Glasact]

Originally Posted by LMP

Oups...my goof. Indeed on this one it is a mechanical switch in the tank, fed by the green wire in diagram below.

Before trying to remove the fuel tank unit (behind folded rear passenger seat, under the carpet), investigate for possible chaffing of the wire and contact to ground somewhere.

Thanks, I'll look for an intermitenly shorted wire and also check the ground connections this weekend. If that doesn't work, I'll remove the bulb in the dash. That will fix the problem for sure!