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Fuel Gauge off big time on 2016 23 LSV


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So i get the "low fuel warning" at 15% on my screen.  No problem that is 15% of 68 gallons.  Get the warning several more times on way back to lift (maybe a mile) and starts to act weird at around 11% even when off plane at idle.  Pull in to lift just as boat completely runs dry yet my gauge still says I have 10% of my tank.  Big issue since I lost reverse when it died and hit my dock.  Very annoying for a new toy.  Put a few gallons in off a can and it started and ran fine.  It was out.  My dealer contacted Malibu and so far no answers.  Interestingly I put in about 4 gallons and now it says I have 25% which is obviously not correct.  Don't understand why this hard to get right.  I am guessing they can re calibrate it somehow but not sure because it digital.  Never had issue like this on amy of my vehicles.

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Fuel gauges are horrible in boats because they are never at the same angle. Have owned 5 malibus and not one has been accurate 

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Hmmm, I think the gauge only reads in 1/8 increments converted to percentages (100, 88, 75, 63, 50, 38, 25, 13, 0; numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number) because that's all the reed switches that are on the sensor unit; at least that's the way it was in the '15 when I talked to the guys in support and they showed me the actual sensor assembly that is used. Malibu also asked, or Medallion put in, a "dampening factor" to try to average out the sloshing of fuel in the tank. I recently read that a marine fuel tank needs to have ~10% "extra" capacity for air to allow for fuel expansion (I don't remember the technical term).

To me, it sounds like the bottom reed switch on your fuel tank sensor is bad, or something is keeping the donut shaped float from going all the way to the bottom of the tank. I doubt you want to do it, but is not too difficult to get to the fuel tank in a 23 LSV; you have to pull the main floor (8-10 screws) but then it's all right there in front of you. Now messing around with a gas tank is a whole different debacle... I'd ask your dealer to inspect the inside of the fuel tank and possibly swap the fuel level reed switch assembly.

I agree that marine fuel gauges aren't very accurate, but the reed switch assemblies are a lot better than the old toilet bowl float style gauges. What we really need are some anti-sloshing baffles inside the tank.

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Mine does the opposite, last weekend I was getting all the low fuel indicators and down to 15% I believe it said so went to fill up and only got 33 gallons and the 48 gallon tank. I know that's not terribly far off and its better to have more than you think but that's an extra 1-1.5 hours of play time that instead I put the boat back on the trailer early thinking I was going to run out of fuel.

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9 hours ago, surfdude said:

Fuel gauges are horrible in boats because they are never at the same angle. Have owned 5 malibus and not one has been accurate 

:thumbup:

 

Its not just Malibus. Every boat I've been on is the same.

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As a skier we like less fuel. I ran mine down to E yesterday. I have never been to E before and I still had no issues getting home 2 1/2 miles.  Some day I should put a 5 gallon can of fuel and see how much fuel I have after getting to E. 

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2 hours ago, Sixball said:

As a skier we like less fuel. I ran mine down to E yesterday. I have never been to E before and I still had no issues getting home 2 1/2 miles.  Some day I should put a 5 gallon can of fuel and see how much fuel I have after getting to E. 

Ditto, that's why we always carry a 2 gal can of gas in the boat.

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50 minutes ago, Stevo said:

I try to keep mine topped off every time, more internal ballast ?

This.

Most expensive ballast you can buy but you've gotta have it!

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13 hours ago, Chatty21VLX said:

Manufacturers should add a valve for a small amount of fuel reserve, like on dirt bikes.

There is a reserve on the boats as the sending unit does not go all the way to the bottom of the fuel tank and the fuel pump does. Depending on how the boat is loaded it may or may not be able to operate off of it.

Dump all ballast and try to keep it flat as you can.

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