Help! I think Holden might be telling me fibs....

[Lyoness]

HI all,

I have a vx ss which I already know about their fuel gauge problem (stating the 75 litre tank is empty yet can only put 50 - 55 litres in it) to which I have rung Holden and was told the recall hadn't been done on my car, Great I thought!

I booked it in to my local holden dealer (to which was sent home 30 mins later as they needed to order the parts even though I told them what was to be done mutiple times).

Anyway it got done a week later, now here is my issue...

Nothing is different (except the fact my rear seat now wont snap back in on the drivers side)!

I have called holden back and asked about this & they said it was fixed according to the computer etc etc and they don't believe that the reserve in my tank will be 25 litres but they have no answer for me.

I just wanted a little more advice on this to whether or not I call them again & push the point. The service gent I was talking to tried talking around the issue till I started letting him know that I wasn't completely clueless on cars even though I am female.

So any advice is welcomed.

Thank you.

[Azimuth]

Did they drain the tank and confirm the gauge read correctly as the volume went down? If not they can't confirm it's the sender unit to blame an not something else. They should test it properly. Ask them how they tested it.
Then should fill it from empty and check the reading as they put more in it.

It's not easy finding a holden dealer thats not over booked and rushes everything.

[mitchtj]

Is this common in the VT's aswell? Mine often reads empty yet has 10L+ left in the tank

[Dopey]

There should be ~10L in the tank when empty. This is what cools the in tank fuel pump, if it was much less then when you went around constant corners or idled on an incline/decline then you would burn your pump out.

[Quinny5.7L]

My VX SS is the same - when the fuel gauge reads empty, you only get like 55L in the tank... my VT Calais was the same, my mates VX SS is the same - it is very common, I wouldn't worry about it. It is just calibrated that way so that you don't run out of fuel.

[Azimuth]

I put 65 litres in my VX SS when it flashes nearing empty. With 50k's to go.
The actual guage does show i'm nearly running on fumes at this point.

[LS1Grange]

with my WH I dont have any filling problems. if its empty empty it will take close to 70 litres easy.

My VY work ute however is a different story. I can run it bone dry and it will never fill over 50 litres. That's when the pump first clicks and will click and click if you try to put more fuel in at a normal rate. I used to be nice and patient and trickle fill. When I did that I'd get to 50L in a hurry and then got to 65L(6 or so minutes later) before I could see fuel coming up the pipe. SO I know it can take more that 50L it just decides it's had enough at 50. I've read up and there seems to be a fault with the breather valve or something. When I spoke to the service guy saying that it shits me that I stand there for 10 minutes to fill my car up he said yeah that's normal!!! Anyway now I jsut fill to 50L and off I go, cant be bothered anymore. Sux how the fuel guage goes from full to 3/4 in the space of 5 minutes of driving.

[KCB50L]

with my WH I dont have any filling problems. if its empty empty it will take close to 70 litres easy.

My VY work ute however is a different story. I can run it bone dry and it will never fill over 50 litres. That's when the pump first clicks and will click and click if you try to put more fuel in at a normal rate. I used to be nice and patient and trickle fill. When I did that I'd get to 50L in a hurry and then got to 65L(6 or so minutes later) before I could see fuel coming up the pipe. SO I know it can take more that 50L it just decides it's had enough at 50. I've read up and there seems to be a fault with the breather valve or something. When I spoke to the service guy saying that it shits me that I stand there for 10 minutes to fill my car up he said yeah that's normal!!! Anyway now I jsut fill to 50L and off I go, cant be bothered anymore. Sux how the fuel guage goes from full to 3/4 in the space of 5 minutes of driving.

I have that with my VZ, you can only fit 50 in it, I just sit there till O think it's had enough and then go for it, bit like force feeding your kids (or in my case young cousins) vegies.

[OPTIMUS]

I have that with my VZ, you can only fit 50 in it, I just sit there till O think it's had enough and then go for it, bit like force feeding your kids (or in my case young cousins) vegies.


But when you just fill it with 50 or 55L the gauge says full right? even the digital fuel readout in trip says full.

[mitchtj]

While were on this matter does anyone else find the digital trip computer with the "KM's left" completely inaccurate?

Mine will sit on roughly 900km left, for 200-300km, than when the tank gets below half it will drop alot quicker.

[LS1Grange]

But when you just fill it with 50 or 55L the gauge says full right? even the digital fuel readout in trip says full.

yeah mine goes to full after I have started it up putting in 50-55L. But comes off it very quickly. If I put in 65L it will stay on full until I've done around 100k's. So basically gotta fill up 100k's earlier than if I stood trickle filling until 60-65L.

[Big_Valven]

On long highway trips, mine used to show 3/4 tank for 3 hours straight, then drop to none with 0km to empty within 10 mins. Tank was indeed pretty much empty.

I had a software update along with some "fix" for the cam angle sensor(?) which gave me spurious engine light instances, fixed both.

[mitchtj]

On long highway trips, mine used to show 3/4 tank for 3 hours straight, then drop to none with 0km to empty within 10 mins. Tank was indeed pretty much empty.

I had a software update along with some "fix" for the cam angle sensor(?) which gave me spurious engine light instances, fixed both.
you had a 6 cylinder commodore didn't you? On longer trips what kind of consumption was it getting?