Your description of the fuel gauge's behavior is typical of a bad fuel gauge
sender - in fact I'd bet my lunch on it. The temp gauge reading too low is
likely to be corroded or poorly connecting terminals. Check 'em back to
front, especially those on the printed circuit where it connects to the big
multi-prong connector under the instrument cluster. Clean and tighten both
male and female connections at every point along the way, and I think your
problem will go away.

Coby Smolens
Valley Wagonworks
VW Bus and Vanagon Specialists
"Intimately acquainted with VW Vans since 1959"
1535 SF Drake Blvd, San Anselmo, CA 94960
415-457-5628

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Hans Roos
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 2:58 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Temp & Fuel gauges not accurate

I've got an 89 Syncro and the fuel and temp gauges both work but they do
not give accurate readings.  I have already checked & replaced the voltage
regulator for the gauges but that made no difference.  Here is what is
occurring:

Fuel Gauge - Fill the tank and it reads full, as I drive it falls very
quickly, after about 100 miles (which takes about 1/2 a tank) it reads dead
empty, filling it up starts the process all over again.  When the problem
first started it was only intermittent - now it happens all of the time.

Temp Gauge - It simply reads to low.  It used to read just fine but now it
barely gets off of the bottom white square.  I know the temps are higher
than this as the cooling fan kicks in.  I have replaced the sender - no
change :-(

I do not think the inaccuracy of the gauges is caused by the same problem
as the problems started happening many months apart but I've been wrong
before!  Any suggestions or ideas?

-Hans