Re: 405 dies at 1/4 tank- A wild, but plausible theory

Jay Kenty (FREEDOMNH@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 2 May 1998 10:02:24 -0400

Here's what happened to my late 504 wagon (diesel). The air vent in the
filler cap plugged up and the tank imploded from the bottom due to the
vacuum. The imploded bottom contacted the fuel level float, causing a
false indication of 1/4 full, when the tank, in fact, was empty! So the car
ran out of fuel at a 1/4 indication. Solution- pressurizing the tank popped
the bottom back out.

Jay Kenty
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Lill <jpl@vectorbd.com>
To: 'Peugeot Mailing list' <peugeot@padui.org>
Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 7:38 PM
Subject: RE: 405 dies at 1/4 tank

>
>Have you looked at the vent "chambers" . They're in the RRH wheel well
>behind the plastic inner fender.
>
>Wonder what the filter that is part of the sender looks like?
>You can remove sender from trunk/rear seat area.
>
>On Fri, 1 May 1998, Clifford M Poulin wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm responding to my own mail with more info because now I'm more
confused
>> about my '89 Mi16. Some of you suggested that the internal tank pump
must
>> have failed, so I just took the back seat out and ran some tests. Both
>> pumps (internal and external) are fine. They have the correct 12V to
them
>> and both run smoothly and constantly.
>>
>> Could the tank itself (venting, breathing) have problems that would cause
>> the symptoms listed below? I had a friend with a 1990 VW Passat that had
>> the same problem of bad fuel pressure with less than 1/2 a tank of gas.
>> She found that if she drove with the gas cap off, the car was okay.
>> Eventually, she had the whole tank replaced (seems unnecessary) and the
>> problem went away.
>>
>> Anyway, I can always fill up at 1/2 tank, but it would be nice to have a
>> cruising range of 17 gallons rather than 8. Any ideas of what I should
>> look at next to solve this?
>>
>> Thanks, Cliff
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Clifford M Poulin <cmpoulin@alberti.unh.edu>
>>
>> Help! I don't understand what could be happening with what I thought was

>> my completely reliable '89 Mi16. It runs perfectly from a full tank to
>> 1/2 tank of gas. Then at 1/2 a tank it starts to have very very slight
>> hesitation on acceleration. This morning, at 1/4 tank, it could not even
>> go 45 mph and was missing badly. I stumbled into a gas station, filled
it
>> up, and it's been perfect ever since. It took 15 gallons to fill it, so
>> it had over 2 gallons still in it.
>>
>> What could be causing this? The fuel filter was new 20K miles ago. Has
>> anyone else with a 405 had this happen?
>>
>> Cliff
>>
>>
>>
>>
>