Gas gauge stuck?

[Luc Lafreniere]

Hi @Ron@Scarab , do you know for a fact this fixes the problem? Because my local Scarab dealer is about to look into this. One of the theories was that the float "rod" is bent at the wrong angle. But I don't know what angle it should be at so if it happens again, I'm thinking of just bending it downward a bit.

I do not have a warranty anymore.... but if we know the fuel pump is faulty... then that makes multiple of us and in that case, I might just bite the bullet and just do it regardless. I assume just the pump isn't too expensive. I can do the work myself.

 

[Ron@Scarab]

So far it's worked for us. We only have had issues with 2015 and 16 model 165's.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, mine is a 2015 model. It's an annoying problem...

 

[Ron@Scarab]

No worries!

 

[Justrite]

It’s brand new.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Well folks, my local dealer came through and managed to get a hold of some drawings from Scarab directly. It took a long time to get this but this seems to make sense for me and my situation. Please note, it was clearly stated that this specific drawing ONLY APPLIES TO THE 165. NOT OTHER MODELS!

Essentially, the fuel pump has to be rotated so that the float points at the standard battery location of the 165. Behind the fuel fill cap a few feet. This was NOT the case for me. My current float is pointing directly port side (left). Based on what I saw, this solution makes a lot of sense. But please note I have NOT TRIED IT yet. I'm hoping to try it this coming weekend and do some 180s to see if it gets stuck again.

I figured I'd post now in case somebody else wants to try this before me... and if you do, please report back. I'll definitely report back if it seems to solve it or not. Definitely optimistic!

 

[Adrian Noble]

@Adrian Noble How has it been holding? Beneteau told me to contact BRP, BRP told me to contact a local dealer. Not many of those around my city, but I just sent an email to the nearest Scarab/BRP dealer (like 3h away). I'll see what they tell me but I'm curious if changing the fuel pump assembly did the trick. And if this new fuel pump assembly is any different than the original??? Because it's the design that's the problem, not the fact that it's old of course. lol Thanks.

So it's been working OK since the repair.. or so I thought. Last weekend I filled the tank up to full (did not overfill as to avoid the last issue) and had the boat on the water with friends. After a couple hours out, the engine stalled at half a tank mark. Upon trying to start it the gas gauge dropped to 2 bars and could not start it. I had a wave runner tow me back, complete with spray in our faces.. humiliating. So I ran out of gas, and it's still showing 2 bars. Now I can NEVER trust the gauge again and will ALWAYS have to take emergency gas can with me. Sucks.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Well that's a problem. I haven't had that. My issue is only getting completely stuck on full (float fully stuck in the up position). Otherwise, it measures things pretty close to accurate from what I can tell. Although maybe yours is also the same problem just getting stuck somewhere else?

I haven't tried my solution yet. I just moved to a new home and we've been extremely busy getting the house in order. Hoping to try the boat out in the near future...

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

FYI, my float issue has not been resolved by rotating the pump to the correct position. I did a couple of 180s and it immediately got stuck again. So I guess no more 180s. lol

 

[Shanemelder1]

I’m having the same issue with my 2017 scarab 165. Tried messing with it’s it but I’ll end up breaking something. Hell I don’t even know how to get the fuel pump out ...

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Oddly enough, I just came back from an outing and it happened again to me. No 180s this time... just more agressive turning and we hit a few waves... nothing crazy and it happened again. This is very, very annoying.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

@ScarabMike Sorry to bug you, but do you have any ideas about this? I'm having a hard time believing that changing the fuel pump (which comes with the float) will solve this problem. I've contacted my local dealer to get a price for it... but I'm very reluctant to change it for this issue. It really, really looks like a flawed design. It's now happened like 6 times to me... today was very surprising since I didn't do anything that agressive. Just the perfect combo of the gas sloshing around because of turning/hitting a wave. The float gets pushed up temporarily, the float goes past the tank rim and finally gets stuck in the up position. It won't come back down without opening the tank cover and just applying a very small amount of pressure on the float directly and it suddenly pops back down.

I have to go in it again tomorrow to fix it once more.... I'm thinking of removing the pump entirely and looking at hacking it to prevent it from doing this. I'm a little frustrated that everyone seems to say they solved it by replacing the pump... then it's not solved. And nobody seems to be able to explain how a new pump will solve this problem. I've also aligned the pump with the marks on the gas tank, no go. I've tried my own orientation, no go. I've tried the orientation offered by that diagram earlier, no go.

Current possible hacks include:
- double up the float to make it bigger by buying another float from the hardware store and attaching it somehow to the current one hoping that it will be too big to pop up in the rim of the tank
- bend the float rod down and hope it prevents it from popping up
- add some sort of stopper like a rod that prevents the float from moving past the rim... this would be difficult since it has to be inserted in the tank at the right height
- ?

The fact that many of us seem to have this issue is quite frustrating.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

So experiment #1 has started. I bent the float rod downwards. This stops the float from reaching as far. I can see that visually after bending it. I only added a relatively small bend but noticeable enough. Based on what I'm seeing, I'm hoping it will be enough. I'll be boating this weekend and I'll "force" the issue by doing a 180 and see if it occurs again. If it does, I'll bend it further.

The benefit of doing the bending downward means that the gas level measurement will actually be conservative... meaning that the gas tank MAY read more empty than not which I'd rather have. I don't want to think I have more gas than I actually do. Based on the float precision, I don't think this bend will be that significant for this. I will report back with results once I have them.

I also confirmed tonight that the fuel pump on my 2015 model has a triangle/arrow that is suppose to point towards the bow. By doing this, the float is aligned correctly inside the tank as per the diagram obtained by Scarab. So I made sure of this... but I had already done this beforehand with no success.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Correction, I was wrong (just thinking about it, not by trying yet). The gas gauge will read more full when it's actually more empty by bending the rod down. I'm still suspecting that the accuracy of the float will still be well within the margin of error. But again, I'll report back once I've tested it on the water over the next few days.

 

[Shanemelder1]

This will sound stupid ... but I work in the medical field and not on engines. How hard is it to take out the fuel pump out and rotate it. The arrow on my fuel pump is pointing to the side and my toward the bow.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Not stupid, trust me. I'm in the sciences (geophysicist)... I've been trying to learn basic mechanical work over the last few years. Getting more comfortable with it. I figured if I can detect geological deposits remotely from an airplane 100s of metres underground and make 3D models of it, I should be able to *eventually* figure out how to rotate a pump! lol I won't bore everyone with the details. Watch your PM. I can describe it to you.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

So status report, I've been boating a lot this week while on vacation. I've done many 180s with the gas tank full and close to full (usually when it appears to get stuck) and it has not gotten stuck!!! These turns would usually do it... it seems like bending the rod of the float outwards a bit did the trick.

The only thing left... and it's hard to test is to run the gas tank empty and see how the gauge reads the fuel level. By bending it outward, it should read more gas in there than there actually is. But by how much? .... I'm suspecting it's pretty minimal... but to test this out I have to run it empty. I don't usually get in the habit of running the tank empty and be marooned on an island somewhere. lol

 

[doxdale]

Just joined this forum as everyone was talking about the same issue I have with my 2016 165 HO with 16 hours on it. Bought it new in Calgary March 2017. Fuel gauge reads full all the time. Spoke with my selling dealer in Calgary, advised not aware of this issue. Will have to try Lucs fix and report back. Hoping it works as I live 3 .5 hours away from the closest dealer.

 

[Luc Lafreniere]

Good luck @doxdale . Feel free to pm me if you have any questions. Pictures/diagrams help Still not super happy I had to do this since my gauge is off, but it's still working!

 

[Ron@Scarab]

Well, from my previous posts, we have had to change out the fuel pumps and it corrects the issue at hand. Secondly, by rotating the fuel pump to where the float won't hit the shorter height of the fuel tank, works too! Some of these were installed incorrectly back then. I haven't seen this issue in a while.