Fuel Gauge

G

Gufinof

New Member
Jun 10, 2012
57
South Coast, MA
Boat Info
180 Sea Ray 2000
"Family Ties"
Toyota Highlander
Engines
135 Mercruiser w/Alpha1
2000, 180BW. This is a new boat for me. Purchased with a full tank of gas....so I thought! Ran it for around 3 hrs. with the needle pegged on FULL then had trouble starting. Turns out I was out of gas. Threw in 10 gallons (portable cans... did not want to put back on trailer to go gas up) Gauge still read full. This went on for a couple of days putting in 5 gals. at a time. Then I decided to clean contacts on on top of the tank and gauge started to register but was all over the place. All this to ask should I replace the sending unit first or the gauge. Thanks.
 
My dad always taught me to NEVER trust a fuel gauge on a boat. Launch the boat with a full tank, every time.
 
One of the first things I did after purchasing my 1990 180BR, was to get the fuel gauge replaced. I am new to boating and wanted to be able to tell when I was getting low. After it was replaced, it still did not work accurately, with a full tank it was reading just over half a tank. So my repair guy ordered a sender for me and installed it, now it is working properly, or as close to properly as I can get.

Initally my repair guy had tested it, and thought it was just the guage - turned out in my case, it apparently was both the guage and the sender.

But I do always, always go to the lake with a full tank, no matter if we are planning half a day, full day, or just couple of hours. Based on how much gas I put in before going back to the lake, and knowing what the guage was reading at the end of the last boating outing, my guage and sender appear to be working fairly well.

Finding out which it is, might not be the easiest thing. At least it was not in my case. Luckily at least for me, it was not too bad to get them both replaced.
 
LawyerMan said:
My dad always taught me to NEVER trust a fuel gauge on a boat. Launch the boat with a full tank, every time.
Click to expand...
Have to agreed with that. Always had two full tanks on board my old boat with OB. Trusted owner's belief that tank was full based on gauge reading. Should have topped it off anyway before going on vaca.
 
dburne said:
One of the first things I did after purchasing my 1990 180BR, was to get the fuel gauge replaced. I am new to boating and wanted to be able to tell when I was getting low. After it was replaced, it still did not work accurately, with a full tank it was reading just over half a tank. So my repair guy ordered a sender for me and installed it, now it is working properly, or as close to properly as I can get.

Initally my repair guy had tested it, and thought it was just the guage - turned out in my case, it apparently was both the guage and the sender.

But I do always, always go to the lake with a full tank, no matter if we are planning half a day, full day, or just couple of hours. Based on how much gas I put in before going back to the lake, and knowing what the guage was reading at the end of the last boating outing, my guage and sender appear to be working fairly well.

Finding out which it is, might not be the easiest thing. At least it was not in my case. Luckily at least for me, it was not too bad to get them both replaced.
Click to expand...
It doesn't look like it would be too difficult to switch out both. Will look into it when I get back from vacation. In the meantime I am putting 5 gallons in everyday just to be safe. Thanks.
 
Yep - our 185 holds 24 gallons or somewhere in that range; the manual explicitly states that some number of gallons is "unreachable" or some such language....
 
quailrunner said:
Yep - our 185 holds 24 gallons or somewhere in that range; the manual explicitly states that some number of gallons is "unreachable" or some such language....
Click to expand...

Tank is L shaped, I know,and can't see all of it. Thanks.
 
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