Stranger fuel indicator issue

EdFred

EdFred

Taxi to Parking
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
30,476
Location
Michigan
Display Name
Display name:
White Chocolate
Last flight before topping off, and this flight this happened.
Equipment:
Original Piper fuel sender
EI MVP 50 engine monitor

Top it (left main) off, and it reads as full. Burn it down to 10 gallons or so and switch to another tank. Keep flying along and the fuel level keeps rising in the left tank. Give it a "shake" with the rudder or ailerons and it comes down to what I calculate it to be. But starts to climb back up to 17 to 24 gallons. Shake the plane again and it drops, but then starts climbing again.

On descent it stays down but on landing it goes to indicating what it should and stays that way until airborne.

It's only the left tank.

Thoughts?
 
Does the airplane have rubber fuel bladders? Venting problems can do it. Like a leaky fuel cap letting the low pressure atop the wing reduce the tank pressure so that the bladder gets sucked up, making the gauge float rise. Known to be a problem with Cessna 180/182/185 with the bladders. It can get so bad that the fuel is pushed out of that leaky cap, losing all the fuel while the gauge says the tank is getting fuller. It was the original flush caps that were bad for that. An AD was issued.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Does the airplane have rubber fuel bladders? Venting problems can do it. Like a leaky fuel cap letting the low pressure atop the wing reduce the tank pressure so that the bladder gets sucked up, making the gauge float rise. Known to be a problem with Cessna 180/182/185 with the bladders. It can get so bad that the fuel is pushed out of that leaky cap, losing all the fuel while the gauge says the tank is getting fuller. It was the original flush caps that were bad for that. An AD was issued.
Click to expand...
Comanche, so yes on the bladder. I will double check the cap, although it seals up good, so maybe a crack/ho,e in the top of the bladder causing it.
 
Back in the day I had a Cherokee 140 with an inop fuel gauge on one side. I hardly missed a beat with the discrepancy. I got by with knowing a known fuel quantity before departure, then managing tank selection. I would land selected to the side with the working fuel gauge.
That process may not work for the next, ok for me.


Of course, get things fixed at some point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top