• On the rally cars (PV, Amazon and non'74 140's) we have to remove the original fuel tank because it is so vulnerable to impact damage.
  • In its place we put our bespoke aluminium fuel tank, sited above the axle.
  • One of our pet hates is superfluous gauges in competition cars
    • Oil pressure - by the time you've spotted it's low, you've run the bearings, so what's the point? The oil pressure warning lamp is the only warning you want
    • Temperature - the original Volvo one is best: vertically up = "good", any other angle needs sorting
    • Oil temperature - even on the B20_16v with 240bhp we couldn't get the oil temperature high
  • However, with the VDO sender in our alloy fuel tank, one has always had to fit the matching VDO gauge, and it never seemed to read quite correctly at one end of the scale or the other.
  • Today we have the solution! We replaced the fuel tank in Emma's PV544 with a new unit (our old one had survived over a decade of rallying) , and fitted our usual VDO sender.
  • This is then connected to a most delightful bit of programmable electronics
    • firstly one sets up 5 sender points in this gizmo, ie Empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, Full - so now the electronics knows how to interpret the sender
    • then you set up the gauge for those five points, plus an output for a warning lamp which flashes at "Empty+5litres" and burns constant at "Empty" (we can then switch to reserve tank) - so now the electronics knows what the gauge wants to see
    • And hey presto, the original fuel gauge now works accurately with the VDO fuel sender

What a delight!

The programming takes a little thought, but is actually very simple once you sit and think about it. Their YouTube video is pretty helpful also.

Leave a comment about this article: volvo@amazoncars.co.uk

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