Getting the low fuel light to work.

[Hedge]

I recently replaced my speed cable and I saw there was no light in the low fuel hole, so I took one off a spare dash I have and put it in the hole. The low fuel light is now on all the time. Is there a sending unit for this perhaps my car did not come with? If so can it be added so the low fuel light will work like it should?

 

[mikestertwo]

I recently replaced my speed cable and I saw there was no light in the low fuel hole, so I took one off a spare dash I have and put it in the hole. The low fuel light is now on all the time. Is there a sending unit for this perhaps my car did not come with? If so can it be added so the low fuel light will work like it should?

You need the low fuel module. A lot of Rivieras have them.

 

[49-blues]

The bulb is attached to a solid state circuit board- i have a extra if you need one.

 

[Hedge]

Is the low fuel module something that goes in the tank or under the hood etc.?

 

[49-blues]

It goes behind the dash bezel where the lights are on the dash. screws into speedo panel.

 

[toofastforyou]

Is the low fuel module something that goes in the tank or under the hood etc.?

It's a little printed circuit (approx. 1" x 1") with a socket attached to it for the light bulb, that goes in the unsused "Low fuel" hole (where you previously tried a bulb in)...

Claude.

 

[Hedge]

49-blues you say you have a spare one that works?

 

[phillyturbosix]

First off you might not want to bother. It's a waste of time and money. They are not accurate in any way and by the time that thing says low fuel your in trouble for one and you should never run your tank that low for starters! It was never an option on any GN. I used one in my GN for about a year and it wasn't worth the bother. It works off a resistor and just reads as it gets low. So they light will come on dim and then brighter as the fuel moves around in the tank. Common part you can find in old Riv's in the junk yards. It's plug and play. Nothing to wire up or change. Here is what it looks like because I pulled it out of my GN after I installed my alky.

 

[toofastforyou]

First off you might not want to bother. It's a waste of time and money. They are not accurate in any way

Jim, funny you say that... ...Mine has always worked well and it's been installed more than 18 years ago...The only difference is that I bought mine from Kirban's as I did not know at the time, that it came off a Riviera...

Claude. :redface:

 

[phillyturbosix]

I actually have a few of them I've picked up and they all read a little different. I was changing my dash over to LED's so I had the cluster out all the time so I kept changing the low fuel module while I was in there.

The worst part was I found my self running my tank low just to see if the stupid light would come on! I try to never let my fuel go below a 1/4 tank so now it's a low Alky light that is should be

Claude you should know everything in Canada works a little different then here!

 

[turbofish38]

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/general-turbo-buick-tech/208378-low-fuel-light-all-time.html

 

[Hedge]

How are you changing them to leds? That sounds interesting.

 

[phillyturbosix]

Well that dash is crap to see at night between poor lighting and glare. I was trying some different white LED's that fit in the 194 socket. Problem is the LEDS get hot and that will cause them to fail. It's hard to get any circulation in the cluster. They would last a short time and die on me. I went from single led to 6 or 7 in one socket. Here is the best it looked. Some are lasting some are dieing. I still haven't found one that threw off plenty of light and lasted. I also did all my gauges and they failed really fast as they can't breath at all in there! Here is a pic of my cluster with the super white LED's...

 

[novaderrik]

the low fuel light in my T Type tells me when i'm about a mile away from running out of fuel.
and it runs out of fuel right when the needle hits the "E" mark on the gauge- on pretty much every other GM car i've ever had (except for the 92 Caprice that ran out when the gauge read 1/4), the "E" line should have been labelled as the "1/3 tank" line.

 

[Hedge]

I agree the lighting is poor as it comes. That looks better. Wish there was a good solution for this out there.

 

[UNGN]

Well that dash is crap to see at night between poor lighting and glare. I was trying some different white LED's that fit in the 194 socket. Problem is the LEDS get hot and that will cause them to fail. It's hard to get any circulation in the cluster. They would last a short time and die on me. I went from single led to 6 or 7 in one socket. Here is the best it looked. Some are lasting some are dieing. I still haven't found one that threw off plenty of light and lasted. I also did all my gauges and they failed really fast as they can't breath at all in there! Here is a pic of my cluster with the super white LED's...

LED shouldn't get hot unless they are getting too much voltage. If you use a resistor in series to get the voltage down to 3 volts or so, they will last forever.

Putting multiple LED's in series works similarly, with each LED taking about 2 to 3 volts.

V=IR

I=.020 amps (typical for an LED)

V=input voltage - 3 volts for an LED

(Input voltage - 3 volts per LED in series)/.020 = Resistor in ohms

 

[t-typex1]

Buy an alky-control kit. It comes with a low fuel light for that location, to know when your getting low on alky:biggrin:

 

[phillyturbosix]

LED shouldn't get hot unless they are getting too much voltage. If you use a resistor in series to get the voltage down to 3 volts or so, they will last forever.

Putting multiple LED's in series works similarly, with each LED taking about 2 to 3 volts.

V=IR

I=.020 amps (typical for an LED)

V=input voltage - 3 volts for an LED

(Input voltage - 3 volts per LED in series)/.020 = Resistor in ohms

Correct and they did use a resistor in the socket. I think my problem was most of the ones out there are just cheap jap crap. Some of them I opened the socket up only to find cold solder joints and leads broken off. Basically if you don't handle them like rare china they leds break off. I also think what they were doing was using the wrong resistor in them to make them burn a little brighter for any app causing them to fail prematurely as well. You don't even want to see the e-mails I sent back and forth to the 3 suppliers I was getting them from. I could tell I was working with people that didn't have a clue!