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Adjusting Fuel Gauge via VCDS to be more accurate

Sportwagen SEL

Ready to race!
Location
Burlingame, CA
I've always wished that I could recalibrate my gas gauge since there seems to be a least a couple gallons left in our tanks when our gauge reads "0", and was super excited to finally try making this adjustment once I found out you can do it with VAGCOM, however the person helping me with the VCDS coding warned me not to mess with these settings since he says "turbo cars use a high pressure fuel pump and it's set like this for a reason".

Is this true? Would it really be dangerous to adjust my gauge such that when it reads "0" I'm actually empty? Would really like to be able to get another 50mi or so out of each fill up.
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Adjust Fuel Gauge (EXP)

Code: try 20103.

(1) Offset for tank calibration values - Offset sensor 1: from -12.8l to +2l
Range is -12.8 to +8.
-12.8l is the factory default.
<0 moves the needle down.
=0 no change/movement
>0 move needle up.
+1 = needle moves up by ~1/16 up
+2 = needle moves up by ~1/8 up
 

mk72017

New member
Location
SO CAL
They set it that way for a reason, cause they know people are stupid and like to run their vehicles bone dry before filling up, and yes with high pressure fuel systems it's a very bad idea to risk running it dry.

IMO leave that extra 50 miles there, you will wish you did when you run out and destroy your fuel system

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 

mondo

Ready to race!
Location
Germany & France
What I was wondering about this is the following:

When flipping though the car's centre display, you get an option to see what range you have left on your tank..
This is done in increments of 10KM, so range: 560KM, 540KM etc..

Can this be adjusted in the VCDS to give a slightly more accurate [SIC] reading, i.e. 523KM range, 497KM range etc?

Just wondering
 

Mk7user

Ready to race!
Location
Midlo
Car(s)
MK7 GTI 2015
I've always wished that I could recalibrate my gas gauge since there seems to be a least a couple gallons left in our tanks when our gauge reads "0", and was super excited to finally try making this adjustment once I found out you can do it with VAGCOM, however the person helping me with the VCDS coding warned me not to mess with these settings since he says "turbo cars use a high pressure fuel pump and it's set like this for a reason".

Is this true? Would it really be dangerous to adjust my gauge such that when it reads "0" I'm actually empty? Would really like to be able to get another 50mi or so out of each fill up.
————————————————————————————————————————
Adjust Fuel Gauge (EXP)

Code: try 20103.

(1) Offset for tank calibration values - Offset sensor 1: from -12.8l to +2l
Range is -12.8 to +8.
-12.8l is the factory default.
<0 moves the needle down.
=0 no change/movement
>0 move needle up.
+1 = needle moves up by ~1/16 up
+2 = needle moves up by ~1/8 up


This is new info for me & may explain why now 0 does mean 0!
No one has been able to explain this on all the various fuel gauge is wrong threads out there.

From experience - I did adjust mine & bumped it +3 to get the needled exactly on "F" after fill-up.

But the opposite effect takes place at the lower end - you don't get that 50+ miles past 0 when you anymore like that one fellow did on his run it till its dry test on vortex.

So - about a year ago, I ran out of fuel ~11 miles past 0.
Ever since then I have religiously fill her up every time the low fuel light comes on with about 35 miles remaining.

I may have to reconsider putting it back to 0 stock.
 

Sportwagen SEL

Ready to race!
Location
Burlingame, CA
This is new info for me & may explain why now 0 does mean 0!
No one has been able to explain this on all the various fuel gauge is wrong threads out there.

From experience - I did adjust mine & bumped it +3 to get the needled exactly on "F" after fill-up.

But the opposite effect takes place at the lower end - you don't get that 50+ miles past 0 when you anymore like that one fellow did on his run it till its dry test on vortex.

So - about a year ago, I ran out of fuel ~11 miles past 0.
Ever since then I have religiously fill her up every time the low fuel light comes on with about 35 miles remaining.

I may have to reconsider putting it back to 0 stock.

I'm still not clear on which value effects the upper and lower range of the needle. Is the -12.8 value affect the lower limit and +2 the upper or is it vice versa?
 

Mk7user

Ready to race!
Location
Midlo
Car(s)
MK7 GTI 2015
I'm still not clear on which value effects the upper and lower range of the needle. Is the -12.8 value affect the lower limit and +2 the upper or is it vice versa?

Positive number will move them incrementally up towards the F.
Negative number will move them incrementally down towards the E.

the -12.8 value has nothing to do with the conversation really LOL!
 

Mk7user

Ready to race!
Location
Midlo
Car(s)
MK7 GTI 2015
I finally got in and none of the codes:

19249
20103
25327
31347

I found so far seem to work. Everyone that was able to made this adjustment — what code did you use?


I used 20103 back in March 2016 on a 2015 GTI.

Ask DV52 (the VCDS guru) in this thread if he has a solution.

Not sure if there was some changes to the platform for 2016+ Golf MK7's that necessitate different codes.
 
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