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bobcat



Member Since: 10 Feb 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12

United Kingdom 
Fuel guage failed
Hello. My 2008 puma fuel guage dropped to zero and the low fuel light came on whilst driving today with about half a tank of fuel in it. It;s now stuck at zero with the light permanently on. Has any experienced this and know which end to start looking or is it a case of checking the sender ,wiring and guage? Thank you
Post #449199 25th Aug 2015 8:02pm
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bobcat



Member Since: 10 Feb 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12

United Kingdom 
Obviously (no replies in a week) this was not a common fault confirmed by my supplier having not sold a sender unit (£165 ish) in 18 months.I bought a used tank complete with sender. The only things I can think of that might interest somebody else are: Removing the back left wheel makes undoing pipes etc much easier. A cheap ebay siphon pump worked well to empty the tank. Both my breather pipes and the ones on the tank I bought were very perished so if you plan to take the tank out get some new ones before you start. Both tank supports were quite rusty and lot of crap was trapped between it and the tank. I took the opportunity to clean the support, inner chassis rails and top tank strap and spray some wax on them. Finally to bleed the system after I simply pressurised the tank with an air line through the breather pipe having put a plastic bag under the filler cap to seal it a bit. This worked better than I expected. Hope this helps someone in the future.
Post #450652 30th Aug 2015 6:19pm
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GregK Myanmar



Member Since: 18 May 2016
Location: Yangon Myanmar
Posts: 22

2010 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 SW Stornoway Grey
Thanks for this info. I have something slightly different that I am investigating.

My symptoms are that the gauge will never show full when the tank is full. It shows a little under full.
Then the light comes on and I fill up and it is always 40 litres to fill it.
So with a 110 with supposedly 75 litres in it my light to fill up is coming on when I still have 35 litres left in the tank.

It was not always like this. It seems to be changing over time.

Any ideas? I am thinking it has to be the sender unit.

I have a 2010 Defender Puma 110 body.
Post #553354 3rd Aug 2016 10:08am
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landylash



Member Since: 14 Jul 2011
Location: pakistan
Posts: 10

Pakistan 2009 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 SW Tonga Green
Mine having same problem. Light is on and guage completely dead. But drive is fine no problem. Any luck?
Post #952617 15th May 2022 4:50pm
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blackwolf



Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 17372

United Kingdom 2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey
bobcat wrote:
... to bleed the system after I simply pressurised the tank with an air line through the breather pipe having put a plastic bag under the filler cap to seal it a bit. ...


Essentially this is the same technique I have always used and it works really well, however I don't recommend putting anything under the cap. The cap has a pressure relief valve built into it which should limit the maximum pressure that you can put into the tank (this is intended to prevent damage in the event that the breather - which you are temporarily using to pressurise the tank - becomes blocked). If you inhibit the operation of the PRV there is a danger of damaging or rupturing the tank or, more likely, some other part of the LP fuel system.

You should hear the cap start to vent after you have some pressure in the tank. If it vents immediately it may indicate that you need a new cap.

Your original symptoms are unusual, generally the sender unit is quite reliable, at least as far as level is concerned (leakage/corrosion being a different matter). Did your replacement solve the problem?

More interestingly, did the fact that the sender unit was telling the ECM that the tank was empty put your ECM into its low fuel strategy mode? If so you would have experienced a misfire (initially resettable my restarting the engine) and ultimately the engine will refuse to start. Since the sender is the only method of measuring fuel level on the vehicle, it is likely that this would happen.

It is something I have for years been meaning to test by experiment but haven't yet got around to doing.
Post #952619 15th May 2022 5:03pm
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blackwolf



Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 17372

United Kingdom 2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey
GregK Myanmar wrote:
Thanks for this info. I have something slightly different that I am investigating.

My symptoms are that the gauge will never show full when the tank is full. It shows a little under full.
Then the light comes on and I fill up and it is always 40 litres to fill it.
So with a 110 with supposedly 75 litres in it my light to fill up is coming on when I still have 35 litres left in the tank.

It was not always like this. It seems to be changing over time.

Any ideas? I am thinking it has to be the sender unit.

I have a 2010 Defender Puma 110 body.


Some senders do seem to be wonky. The original sender on my 110 would align with the full mark when filled, not move at all for about 100 miles, and then drop progressively to the 1/4 mark over the next 250 or so miles, after which it would drop like a stone and the light would come on. Eventually I had to replace it due a leak caused by the spigots corroding.

The new sender is way off the top of the scale when the tank is full but is perfectly linear throughout its full travel. Both senders are genuine parts.
Post #952620 15th May 2022 5:07pm
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The Anti Christ



Member Since: 24 Feb 2022
Location: Kingston
Posts: 26

Jamaica 2009 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 SW Santorini Black
Had the misfortune of my guage getting stuck at 3/4 full until I eventually ran out of diesel.

Turns out one of the hoses had broken off from the sender unit and, I suspect, found its way under the float arm to prop it up even after the fuel level had dropped way beneath.

Plastic epoxy seems to be holding in place quite well. Idea Just fix it before your friends find out it broke again - Landy Life Forever!
Post #958569 17th Jul 2022 5:44am
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