AU III Wagon - Easiest way to replace fuel sender

XESP351 · 22-07-2011, 02:21 PM

Hey all, new in here, will do a proper intro once i take some decent photos of the wagon.

In the meantime i need a hand with the dreaded fuel gauge/sender problem that seem to be very common on AU wagons and utes. The fuel gauge is doing some weird things and after a lot of reading onhere, seems that the fuel sender needs to be replaced.

The fuel sender is obsolete from Ford (you can buy the pump and sender assembly for $370, though). So I have two questions:

- Can I buy a brand new sender from anywhere else that have reproduced it Repco etc? Or do I have to now resort to either ebay or second hand?

- Once I do get my hands on a sender unit, how do i change it? Do I have to drop the tank to access it or is there an easier way on a wagon. There is lots of info on here about replacing the sedan one but not the wagon, any ideas?

XESP351 · 23-07-2011, 11:05 AM

Geez....Nothing???

Mr Hardware · 23-07-2011, 01:59 PM

A quick look under the rear carpet will tell you whether you need to drop the tank.

foxtrot3 · 23-07-2011, 02:14 PM

Hi. A walk round the local "pick-a-part" suggests that you will need to drop the tank. One car had a crudely cut hole in the floor with a bit of scrap just sitting over it. Cheers MD

bartsau · 23-07-2011, 04:52 PM

You definitely have to drop the tank 100%. I think but am unsure that you may also need to drop the left rear spring.

XESP351 · 04-08-2011, 11:10 PM

For the benefit of anyone else who has the fuel reading issue in an AU wagon, here is an update:

As the car needed a few things done (hubs, rotors pads, tensioner bolt seal, tranny service etc), I decided to get my mechanic to do the whole lot including dropping the tank and installing a new sender.

Now Ford no longer sell the fuel sender by itself (but do sell the pump and sender assembly for the sum of $370

). But you can buy the assembly aftermarket for around $170, it is made by Delphi or VDO who made those things for Ford anyway so as far as I'm concerned they are as good as genuine.

But I didn't have to buy the whole assembly, on ebay I found a NOS genuine fuel sender which suits an AU UTE and got it for $40, my mechanic then swapped the float arm (the only difference between a wagon sender and a Ute one as the module is the same) from the wagon and put it on the new sender (have to be very careful when removing the arm not to break the plastic clips), and installed the lot in the car. Happy to say it now reads correctly and works a treat.

Also worth knowing that the Commodore fuel senders of the same era are identical to the Ford ones and are made by the same mob (again Delphi or VDO) with the only difference being the float arm again. This is handy as Commodore senders are apparently widely available on their own and also cheapish.

Hope all this helps someone.

NEZ · 25-08-2013, 06:30 PM

Just some extra info for future readers.
GOSS (Aust) FUEL PUMP MODULE GE174 about $173 in 2013
http://www.eziautoparts.com.au/