2003 Citroen Xsara Picasso petrol gauge faulty

Access panel under the rear seat base,
big plastic circle that pops up/out,
sender unit is there,
but a special tool needed to get the securing ring of,
and even then it's a pig to use it.
And you'd have to buy the tool.
Which you'll probably never ever use again.
Get a garage to do it.
I'd remove the sender unit,
clean it and test it and refit if okay.
It'd be an hours labour.

Usually caused by faulty fuel tank sender unit . Almost sure it means dropping the fuel tank .

Posted before I seen the other reply , glad to see you DONT have to drop tank .

Just seen this , don't know if it changed in different years .

02 citroen picasso petrol?


where is the fuel pump located at and how do i remove it as fuel guage dosent work properly.thanks

Best Answer: The fuel pump is located in the tank. The sender unit in the tank is a combination pump and gauge sender.

Unfortunately there is no access hatch in the rear floor to get to the sender unit so i'm afraid its a case of dropping the fuel tank out of the car to remove the sender unit.
You will need to detach the exhaust at the rear silencer and unclip the handbrake cables from their retaining clips under the car. Then you can remove the support bar that bolts in front of and behind the tank. This will leave only the fuel filler neck, breather pipe and a mounting bolt on either side of the tank. If you are careful you can remove the bolts either side of the tank and lower it to rest on something without uncoupling the fuel filler pipe. This will give you enough room to reach in over the top of the tank and remove the sender unit.
It lies in a reccess in the top of the tank.

The sender unit will have 1 electrical connector and 2 fuel lines. Unclip these and then unscrew the large plastic retaining ring that holds the sender in place.

It is not uncommon for these units to develop a fault, although it is more common for the pump to fail causing the car to not start. Gunk on the float slider for the fuel gauge would cause a faulty gauge though.

If cleaning the gauge slider doesn't cure your fault and your fuel gauge is working (as in not just reading full or empty all the time) but just isn't working accurately then its more likely to be a BSI configuration issue.
In the config menu for your car's BSI are values for each segment of the digital fuel gauge. Each value corresponds to a level in litres. There was a recall a number of years back that involved altering those values as people were experiencing problems with gauge accuracy. Maybe your car missed the recall, or maybe your car wasn't among the ones recalled but it was still amongst those affected. (not unheard of)




Source(s):
Citroen Consultant Technician

Whoops!
my bad.
Still,
it's a plastic tank.
But it's still a pig to get the big plastic retaining ring off.
So given all that I'm still saying garage time.