fuel gauge intermitantly works

hammy44

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mini vw camper merc 220
hi the fuel gauge works intermitently on my c220 one minute its ok next it drops to zero then it reverts back again any explanations welcome
 

bigasotonuk

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Your Mercedes
C43/55 AMG 1999 / C230K 1997
Hi,
What I have written below, is the assumption that your vechicle is petrol, though I believe the lack of detergent/additives issues equally apply to diesel fuel.
I have had similar experiences on my C230K, it was down to using cheap supermarket Unleaded fuel, as they have a lack of detergents/additives in them, also depending on age of the vehicle you may find the extended use of unleaded fuel may be causing it as well.
My 97 C230K quite clearly shows on the inside of the fuel filler cap that I should use Super Plus Unleaded, and as that is a premium fuel it has the detergents/additives nessacary to keep the fuel sender unit clean and enable it give the gauge the correct inputs.
The reason why I specifically blame supermarket fuels and not just me using plain Unleaded fuel is the fact that other people have suffered similar complaints and their vechicles were supposed to be run on Unleaded, and they changed to a branded Unleaded and after a tank or two of fuel and the erractic fuel gauge problem dissappeared.
You can solve the issue by running a good system fuel cleaner as well, but please bear in mind if you are running it on Unleaded and it should be running on Super Plus Unleaded you could be running the risk of burning out valve seats etc, through long term use, I put a tank of Super Plus in mind every 3-4 tanks, and to be honest the car is more economical, better performance, and smoother when running purely running on Super Plus Unleaded.
 

television

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Your Mercedes
2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
A standard 220 runs perfectly on 95 ron fuel and you would be wasting money to use better.

A few shots of injector cleaner often will clean up the float contacts,,and many have done this with good results
 
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hammy44

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mini vw camper merc 220
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thanks malcom i am a great believer in redex as it cured my vw camper of eratic running will try this even it does not cure the gauge problem it wount do any harm to use it to clean the injectors
 
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hammy44

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mini vw camper merc 220
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this remedyhas worked well not 100% yet but a lot better maybe another tank through it and it will be fine. thanks for the advise a cheep fix
 
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