Fuel Gauge Freaking Out

[Eman]

Over the past couple of weeks I have been cruising along in my RV with a near full gas tank when suddenly the fuel gauge drops from full to empty, beeps a few times and then goes back up to full.

Any idea what can be causing this bizarre behavior?

2003 Winnebago Adventurer 35U
20,000 miles

-Eric

 

[gwcowgill]

Sounds like you have a bad connection somewhere.

 

[John Canfield]

That's going to be difficult to track down.  You really need a copy of your chassis wiring diagram and start at the fuel tank and work your way to the dash.

 

[Clay L]

If you have a Workhorse chassis and a Actia instrument panel it may be due to a known issue.
It has happened to mine four or five times in the last ten years. It is caused by a bug in the firmware and can be fixed by a re-flash of the firmware.
About three maybe four years ago at the Winnebago Grand National rally the Workhorse rep offered to re-flash mine for free but we couldn't get together on a time. Since I knew it wasn't a sign of impending failure I wasn't concerned about it anyway.

I don't know what Workhorse's stance on the problem is nowadays.

 

[Eman]

Thanks for the firmware info.  Just knowing that someone else had the same issue and that was the fix makes me feels so much better.  I hope to get the RV to a Workhorse dealer over the winter (I'm snowbirding in Lake Havasu City) to possibly replace the instrument panel LCD which has degraded terribly. Kill two birds at once.

-Eric

 

[Clay L]

There was a recall on the IP because of an ABS warning communications issue. You might want to see if it has been done yet. If not when you return it to Actia you will probably get a new (or re-flashed IP from a previous submission) which will give you a good display.

This is the recall number ind info on it.
50402-C

Defect Summary: CERTAIN CLASS A MOTOR HOMES BUILT ON WORKHORSE CHASSIS FAIL TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARD (FMVSS) NO. 101, "CONTROLS AND DISPLAY" AND STANDARD NO. 105 "HYDRAULIC AND ELECTRIC BRAKE SYSTEMS." MODELS WITH ACTIA INSTRUMENT CLUSTER, THE INCORRECT SOFTWARE PROGRAMMED INTO THE CLUSTER SUCH THAT CERTAIN WARNINGS ARE NOT DISPLAYED.
Consequence Summary: INCORRECT SOFTWARE MAY NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO ILLUMINATE WARNING LAMPS INDICATING BRAKE SYSTEM FAILURES. THE STANDARDS REQUIRE DRIVER WARNING WHEN BRAKE FAILURE CODES ARE SET.
Corrective Summary: WORKHORSE IS CONDUCTING THE OWNER NOTIFICATION AND REMEDY FOR THIS CAMPAIGN. OWNERS MAY CONTACT WORKHORSE AT 1-877-294-6773 .

Here is info on exchanging the IP if you remove it yourself HERE

You can download a manual for the IP HERE

There are a couple of other things you may see with your IP.
1) Oil pressure can indicate zero and warning buzzer sounds when eng rpm exceeds 4550/4600 rpm. (50 rpm buffer problem)

2) Gas gauge can indicate zero and warning buzzer can indicate zero when gas sloshes because of lack of buffering of data.

3) Ave mpg can go to 100 mpg when ave mpg drops below about 4mpg. Data table not large enough.