2009 SX210 Fuel Gage Issue

[ZippyBoater]

I had a great weekend on the lake and put a few more hours on the engines. My fuel gage read 3/4 full, but when I put gas in the boat at the end of the day, I put nearly 26 gallons in. Has anyone else had issues like this with their Yamaha fuel gage? What could be the cause and what should I do to fix this?

 

[Scottintexas]

check out the faq, your fuel sender has adjustment screws on it although many of us have replaced them with the aftermarket with better results,

and not sure but if your entire floor pulls up, it's #4 Roberson bit, it's in the faq also,

 

[ZippyBoater]

check out the faq, your fuel sender has adjustment screws on it although many of us have replaced them with the aftermarket with better results,

and not sure but if your entire floor pulls up, it's #4 Roberson bit, it's in the faq also,

Thanks. Hopefully the nice lady at Centroid is still there to help me out with ordering the right part.

 

[Gym]

Thanks. Hopefully the nice lady at Centroid is still there to help me out with ordering the right part.

I was able to make a simple adjustment on my own sending unit 5 years ago. Still works great today. It's just a screwdriver adjustment on a potentiometer on the top of the sending unit. Whereas you have to pull the floor to adjust or replace anyway you may as well take the easier/less expensive route.

 

[ZippyBoater]

I was able to make a simple adjustment on my own sending unit 5 years ago. Still works great today. It's just a screwdriver adjustment on a potentiometer on the top of the sending unit. Whereas you have to pull the floor to adjust or replace anyway you may as well take the easier/less expensive route.

So you are saying that I should try adjusting the sending unit before replacing it? Is that process in the FAQ? Is the Fuel tank opaque enough to see how much fuel is in it to make the proper adjustment?

 

[mrmeaniemeateaterman]

What fuel are you using? It will act differently with non-ethanol fuel vs regular (10% ethanol). I have been using non-ethanol fuel for last few years and my fuel gauge was always way off. I have switched back to regular and now gauge seems to be working somewhat more accurately which makes sense as I believe the gauges were calibrated for 10% Ethanol regular fuel.

 

[Gym]

So you are saying that I should try adjusting the sending unit before replacing it? Is that process in the FAQ? Is the Fuel tank opaque enough to see how much fuel is in it to make the proper adjustment?

What I did was fill the fuel tank first. Make sure your boat is level on the trailer or sitting in calm water. expose the fuel tank. you'll see a dab of red waxy material over the pot to keep it from being disturbed. Remove the waxy material with a small screwdriver or knife. Turn on your ignition switch (engine off). gently adjust the pot while watching the fuel guage. I adjusted mine just to the F mark. The tank filler line will hold a gallon or slightly more so I was tempted to adjust the guage ro reflect a true amount but then decided the extra amount in the filler would act as a reserve so if the guage ever read E I would, theoretically still have a gallon or more remaining. Actually I tend to refill at just under 1/2 and never let it get to 1/4 as I boat in the ocean.

 

[ZippyBoater]

What fuel are you using? It will act differently with non-ethanol fuel vs regular (10% ethanol). I have been using non-ethanol fuel for last few years and my fuel gauge was always way off. I have switched back to regular and now gauge seems to be working somewhat more accurately which makes sense as I believe the gauges were calibrated for 10% Ethanol regular fuel.

I am using fuel with up to 10% ethanol. I thought the sending units had problems with ethanol and worked perfectly with straight unleaded gas?

 

[ZippyBoater]

What I did was fill the fuel tank first. Make sure your boat is level on the trailer or sitting in calm water. expose the fuel tank. you'll see a dab of red waxy material over the pot to keep it from being disturbed. Remove the waxy material with a small screwdriver or knife. Turn on your ignition switch (engine off). gently adjust the pot while watching the fuel guage. I adjusted mine just to the F mark. The tank filler line will hold a gallon or slightly more so I was tempted to adjust the guage ro reflect a true amount but then decided the extra amount in the filler would act as a reserve so if the guage ever read E I would, theoretically still have a gallon or more remaining. Actually I tend to refill at just under 1/2 and never let it get to 1/4 as I boat in the ocean.

I don't have a problem with the sending unit or gage when it is full. When I fill the tank it reads full. My problem is that my gage reads 3/4 when it is just below 1/2 a tank.

 

[rrmidden]

I don't have a problem with the sending unit or gage when it is full. When I fill the tank it reads full. My problem is that my gage reads 3/4 when it is just below 1/2 a tank.

How/when are you reading the gauge? Out on the water, the gauge can easily read 1/4 tank off, depending on conditions. Stopped on calm water, my gauge can read 1/2 full, but going 25 mph, it could read closer to 3/4 of a tank.

 

[ZippyBoater]

How/when are you reading the gauge? Out on the water, the gauge can easily read 1/4 tank off, depending on conditions. Stopped on calm water, my gauge can read 1/2 full, but going 25 mph, it could read closer to 3/4 of a tank.

I am reading the gage on the water sitting still with glass-like surface. It is not bouncing around when I running WOT. I put 3+ hours on a full tank and had a 3/4 gage reading and then proceeded to put almost 26 gallons in the tank before putting it away for the night.

 

[Seadeals]

A data point for you on the same boat: my gauge reads full when full just like yours. When it reads half it is about a third and when reading a quarter when still on the water, I can have around 8-10 gallons. When planing (any positive deck angle) it will falsely read higher as the probes are at the back of the tank.

You can see the fuel level in the tank when you pull the floor. When I top off for winter, I pull the floor first and fill until I see the fuel hit the top of the tank as I don’t want fuel sitting in the filler neck. I may also try to adjust mine to read a bit lower. Long cruises on plane give you a slight false sense of security reading more than you really have. On the Hilton Head-Charleston run (at WOT where you can), I burned 38.1 gallons and showed a quarter tank at the end.

 

[ZippyBoater]

A data point for you on the same boat: my gauge reads full when full just like yours. When it reads half it is about a third and when reading a quarter when still on the water, I can have around 8-10 gallons. When planing (any positive deck angle) it will falsely read higher as the probes are at the back of the tank.

You can see the fuel level in the tank when you pull the floor. When I top off for winter, I pull the floor first and fill until I see the fuel hit the top of the tank as I don’t want fuel sitting in the filler neck. I may also try to adjust mine to read a bit lower. Long cruises on plane give you a slight false sense of security reading more than you really have. On the Hilton Head-Charleston run (at WOT where you can), I burned 38.1 gallons and showed a quarter tank at the end.

I want to get this fixed so I can really explore our lake in confidence. There are not a whole lot of places to buy gas on Lake Gaston and what is there is concentrated on the other end of the lake.

Right now, I am afraid that when I adjust the sending unit to show the actual amount at 3/4 or half a tank, I won't get true readings at full or 1/4 tank.

 

[Gym]

I don't have a problem with the sending unit or gage when it is full. When I fill the tank it reads full. My problem is that my gage reads 3/4 when it is just below 1/2 a tank.

Mine was also fine when full but inaccurate below full until I adjusted it. Once again whether you replace the sender or not you still have to remove the floor panel. If the adjustment doesn't work you've lost nothing. If it does work you've saved the cost of a new sender and the labor of installing it. Your choice.

 

[ZippyBoater]

Mine was also fine when full but inaccurate below full until I adjusted it. Once again whether you replace the sender or not you still have to remove the floor panel. If the adjustment doesn't work you've lost nothing. If it does work you've saved the cost of a new sender and the labor of installing it. Your choice.

Thanks.

 

[TOGA]

I had issues with mine and adjusted it several times. Made sure I was using trusted fuel, but it still fluctuated a lot.

I ordered the new sender from the nice lady at Centroid. Works perfect now and I have confidence in what the gauge says.

Easy swap out. Think mine was about $75.

 

[gogreen269]

I am new to this site and have been trying to access the known issues for boat years 2003-2009 with MR1 engine links. Every link is giving me:
Oops! We ran into some problems.
The requested page could not be found.

Any suggestions?

 

[Scottintexas]

I am new to this site and have been trying to access the known issues for boat years 2003-2009 with MR1 engine links. Every link is giving me:
Oops! We ran into some problems.
The requested page could not be found.

Any suggestions?

Glad to have you on board, we upgraded the software and one of the casualties has been the FAQ section, if you use the search function at the top right of this page with the key words from the FAQ it should get you there,

 

[gogreen269]

Perfect, thanks!

 

[Seadeals]

I made the minor adjustment to fuel probe pots. The needle no longer goes past full when the tank is topped and after running it down to 1/8th and it took a little over 44 gallons to fill back up. I am much happier now.