BMW upgraded fuel sensor strip.

Robbi said:
Well..... Still doesn't work.!

Fuel gauge showing full with a range indicated of 222 miles, put £25 + petrol in it, fuel gauge still shows full, just done 72 miles, fuel gauge still shows full and I now have a range of 236.

On board computer shows 51.3 mpg

Getting a bit daft now.

Any thoughts.?
Click to expand...

I'd say its doing exactly what its meant to do - the last thing you should have done - as I tried to point out in my reply 2 june - is to fill it up - the bike appears to have some logic where it needs to see a couple of times - the full to empty values to fine tune the display

mines now a bit different - I have gone float-tastic with the dutch bods computer 2 thingy, which converts the signal to strip madness. But hadn't wired it to a good electrical connection and the bodge temporarily disconnected a few times and throws it in a tail spin - sorted now and as the level is dropping the display and range to empty are rapidly coming back in to sensible areas - not sure why but the kit doesn't give long enough wires or the relay he reccos linking direct to the battery switched via the accessory socket near the battery.
 
Do you think I should try running it to completely empty then.?
 
stick 2 litres in a can and take with you and just ride the bike - I suspect once it's got to empty and been refilled it will be close to normal

mine was quite full when I went floating - and read full, some miles down the road it was just starting to drop
I was then on a long ride and couldn't afford to run out so filled it up - and it still reads full - which I think I can see why - as far as it was concerned 3/4, was full (the highest reading it has seen) and then filling up became a new full
Just as it started to find its bearings and drop as I'd done say 50 miles the power dropped out over a bump - when it came back to life - it said, hey this is the new full all over... (did that a few times... great!)

sorted the wiring with a relay (rather than falling out of a fag lighter socket over bumps) - and now I'm heading towards a real empty, I have gone from displaying full and 230 miles to around half and 99 miles inside 30 miles travelled
today I was down to a quarter and and got the light on and 53 miles to go
looking in the tank there's still some sloshing about so I'm planning on being brave (with some extra in the top box :okay)
 
Many thanks for the advice, I will certainly do that and let you know how it goes.

Regards

Robbi
 
any sign that thing has started to behave Robbi ? - my one is now on 23 miles to go and still going (with the float and the signal mod box 2 from the chap in NL) -

there must be some calculation / calibration thing in the mix - it kept playing with range increasing over where I stopped each ride, sometime up to double what it had been when parking (so well outside hard riding versus and economy run mpg change you expect) then after a few miles it would start dropping rapidly back towards where it had been last ride and then stabilising to something you'd expect . But this variance is lessening each ride as the level is dropping to properly low levels - and now its not changing much at all - so I suspect it does try to look at the range of movement its had in its life and based on the upper and lower limit its aware of - tries to work out the numbers...

I had been wondering if its idling on the side stand that gives an inflated reading and the bike gets muddled - but then the strip should always do this just as badly ? On the bikes with ZFE High there is something about change value if on side stand - but this could just be built in the software of all of them and it comes in to play if the side stand switch is in use with the bike running???
 
Absolutely no change, I was out again today, fuel gauge is still showing full, displayed range has dropped from 229 to 222 after a 30 mile run, and 83 miles showing on the trip from full.
I'll put a couple of litres in a can and run her dry, see if that makes any difference.

I'm at a bit of a lose really
 
Robbi said:
Absolutely no change, I was out again today, fuel gauge is still showing full, displayed range has dropped from 229 to 222 after a 30 mile run, and 83 miles showing on the trip from full.
I'll put a couple of litres in a can and run her dry, see if that makes any difference.

I'm at a bit of a lose really
Click to expand...

My latest strip, fitted a year ago has always been a bit random, after a fill up now I even get a range of 460 mile's or so. (Yeah I know this comes from your average mpg and how you've been riding)
The other day I had covered 257 miles on a tankful and the range said I still had 280 miles to go. When the mileage was up to 340 miles covered, the fuel light came on saying I had 52 miles left. Was on my way home so decided to fill up. I could only squeeze 29.5 litres in so I knew by this time the remaining range was about correct again. 6 litres or so in the tank so 60-70 mile's left.
My near 20 year old BMW car is accurate all the way down to an empty tank. These thing are next to useless. And as I've stated before I've 11 or 12 strips fitted now.
 
my bike showing 22 miles to go and still going (with the float and the signal mod box 2 from the chap in NL) - last ride I parked up opened fuel cap and shook the tank and now I'm not getting any noise of fuel movement - but as I have a float that thinks its a strip I think I can now calibrate this to show zero - and it would be a good idea, the float isn't going to go lower than bottom, so the bike might as well know its on 0 and I should get a better set up ? especially as I was physically running out yet showing at 13miles before the strip died
 
can anyone say if the fuel strip calibration is really just setting the distance to go at zero when the strip is "dry" - can't see it can do anything else - doesn't sound promising if you get to the bottom of this bit....

sensor calibration

Calibration can be performed using the MotoScan app. When calibrating the film sensor, the following conditions must be met :

If the foil sensor already installed is to be recalibrated, the foil sensor must be absolutely dry . Foils must not be pulled out of the plastic housing!
The film sensor and pump must be connected to the bike's electrical system whilst located outside the tank .
No error codes relating to the tank level detection can be in play.
No error codes relating to the voltage supply of the ZFE can be in play.
The room temperature must be around 20 (+/- 5) °C.
Select your motorcycle model in the MotoScan app and establish the connection with the ZFE control unit.
Under "Service Functions" of the ZFE unit, select "Calibrate Foil Sensor".
Follow on-screen instructions. Calibration takes up to 4 minutes. The ignition must remain switched on and it would be advisable to connect a strong charger to the motorcycle battery to avoid discharging.


MotoScan does not calibrate, it just sends a command to the ZFE ECU to start the calibration.
The calibration itself is carried out by the software of the ZFE control unit and at the end it reports to the app whether the calibration was successful.
Only the developers of the control unit software know how the control unit works and which values ​​are stored.
 
so tried to do this calibration (without the strip) and it starts off saying needs battery support, coz its going to drain it and if voltage isn't right is going to end badly - and that it will take 4 mins (pump and strip outside the tank)

speaking to controls nerds they think it can't be doing much more than restating zero, but it seems BM stress test the strip to ensure its a healthy strip its calibrating and capable of doing what it needs. I had a power supply on and you can see a series of surges on power drain as if 20 second heating cycles on and off for too long. It then said the world's ended and threw the strip error.

So I guess in my configuration its not lying enough that it matches what BM expect in this test. Others on diagnostics forums claim the failed recalibration is an issue - but not sure how (unless BM built in dodgy going's on) I could try with my repaired strip but I expect it will stress test to failure so can't be bothered...

came to the conclusion if you just keep adding fuel in tiny amounts and ride till it says zero you'll get the same effect of saying this is really empty... one will find out - but not touched it for 2 weeks so not sure when - I was down to 9 miles to empty riding about trying to get it run out before doing the calibration at the location I wanted to do the work - so had added 200ml or I think it would have run out like it used too around the 13mile mark as BM had got it when they swapped the fuel pump on a recall 5 / 6 years back
 
oh and the dealers (buying some other stuff) didn't say they where aware of issues with the new strip - but they didn't have anything nice to say about the strips - it was almost as if they where saying they just fit them on all bikes every few weeks in an ongoing cycle of madness
 
Hi I have the fuel strip on my 2010 Adventure and have a receipt for BMW replacing it in 2016. I have been filling up when there is 1 bar left on the gauge and a range of about 50 miles left but only putting in about 24l meaning there is a good 9 left. Thats brimming the tank on the centre stand. Is that about right?
 
GrahamWebb said:
Hi I have the fuel strip on my 2010 Adventure and have a receipt for BMW replacing it in 2016. I have been filling up when there is 1 bar left on the gauge and a range of about 50 miles left but only putting in about 24l meaning there is a good 9 left. Thats brimming the tank on the centre stand. Is that about right?
Click to expand...

If it's about the same as my GSA youve got 12 litres left. I've regularly put in over 35 litres in mine. Once put in 36.7 litres in when in France struggling to find fuel.
You've still got a range of around 100+ miles. Try running it longer next time to see how much the range changes with say another 50 mile's on the trip meter.
 
GrahamWebb said:
Hi I have the fuel strip on my 2010 Adventure and have a receipt for BMW replacing it in 2016. I have been filling up when there is 1 bar left on the gauge and a range of about 50 miles left but only putting in about 24l meaning there is a good 9 left. Thats brimming the tank on the centre stand. Is that about right?
Click to expand...

I just run mine to around 250 - 300 miles on the Trip then Fill Up and Reset. I'm just happy to have the gauge working in some form or another and having no Idiot Lights flashing at me. Fuel Gauges of any kind are rarely, if ever totally accurate, including in Cars.
 
gazza12adv said:
If it's about the same as my GSA youve got 12 litres left. I've regularly put in over 35 litres in mine. Once put in 36.7 litres in when in France struggling to find fuel.
You've still got a range of around 100+ miles. Try running it longer next time to see how much the range changes with say another 50 mile's on the trip meter.
Click to expand...

Thanks I will try that, just get the fuel anxiety when I see the gauge that low! ;)
 
GrahamWebb said:
Thanks I will try that, just get the fuel anxiety when I see the gauge that low! ;)
Click to expand...




you can ride till no bars on the display - the whole point of a gauge and an accurate range to go is to max the potential range not fill it up when half full
 
We have movement.!!!

108 miles into my second tank full we have movement, shows a range of 174 ( down from 214 when I set off ) and one bar of the fuel gauge has disappeared :) no idea if this is good but something is going on :)
 
Robbi said:
We have movement.!!!

108 miles into my second tank full we have movement, shows a range of 174 ( down from 214 when I set off ) and one bar of the fuel gauge has disappeared :) no idea if this is good but something is going on :)
Click to expand...

nice - I think they set zero miles based on gibberish calibration set in cluster - so if done wrong zero can easily be + - 20 miles. And then the bike takes the lowest value it seen from the strip an its empty and max as its full - so if you put a calibrated strip (or don't bother and keep the previous calibration set) back in a 1/2 full tank and ride around, that becomes MAX full tank (till you really fill it FULL), and if you then fill up at 1/4 if a tank that's the new MIN as its the lowest reading that strip has seen....

So as you use more and fill up fully both ends of the scale morph in to more and more sensible values

I guess calibration is really needed incase the strip design changes / previous resistance values stored are gibberish
 
I decided to try and get more range out of the bike before filling up and went for a ride yesterday about 100 miles. The trip counter was showing 270 miles and about 60 miles left when I stopped at the cafe and when i set off again the range went back up to 140 miles then dropped to about 50 miles half way home at which point the yellow triangle came on and I had a fuel warning. I pushed on another 10 miles to the Esso near home and brimmed the tank, 294.9 miles on the trip counter and put in 26.91l with 40 miles range left showing. Sounds about right so had about 6l left in the tank so I guess the range has another litre or two after it shows zero. Maybe fuel delivery could get dodgy when it gets that low so they have that reserve.
 
by 2000 BMW had the fuel range level on cars nearly 100% accurate - and much the same on bikes around 2007

I remember test driving a 535 and the range said 3 miles to empty and the BMW specialist garage thought nothing of taking it out without filling it up - as though suggesting otherwise was a stupid way to see the world !!!! we actually ran out 200m from their garage - idiots

on my GS I've had for more than 10 years I would always take it to 20 miles to go - then they did a fuel pump under a recall and its run out at 13 miles twice when it used to do 9 still running - it should still run with zero bars on the display

mine literally runs 100% normal till 200metres before it cuts out with the tank almost dry - and it won't restart or even cough if you shake the dregs to the left and hope - 0.5 litres is then enough to see you ride 4 miles to a forecourt without any coughs, splutter or hesitation
 
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