Fuel sensor Passat 3B Syncro/4Motion

Hello everyone,

I've been having a problem for a while now with a friend's 1997 30V Passat Variant, where the fuel gauge is malfunctioning (it shows 0 liters).

Since he's unable (despite usually being quite capable) to either refuel in kilometers or carry a jerrycan, I had to tow him yesterday three times...

Now I've had the car for 3 days, and it's incredibly frustrating. When I use a 330 Ohm resistor instead of the sensor, everything works fine, and it consistently displays "full" for extended periods. I'm therefore running out of fuel due to a fault in the tank.

Okay, so I removed the cap from the sensor, and lo and behold, there were two sensors connected in series.

After that, I removed the 330 Ohm resistor and installed a 220 Ohm resistor in place of one of the sensors (the display showed approximately 3/4 after startup). Test drive completed, and the "beep 0 liters" indicator suddenly went back to zero.

Then, the other donor was connected. Same story...

Then I lifted the seat on the driver's side, expecting to find a "blind plug," but instead, there was an open connection. After accounting for that, the sender unit connection at the tank (passenger side) is also showing high resistance, so it's likely related to the tank itself.


Now, to my question: It's not possible to find this information in the Erwin (siehe Fehlerdatenbank) documentation, but does this tank have approximately 3 tank sensors?

And the next question is, how exactly are we supposed to get it out of the tank without completely destroying it? It physically doesn't fit through the hole.

The vehicle has two fuel pumps, but the relevant sensor that tends to fail because the contact surface is worn is located on the passenger side.

Upgrade? No idea. My Passat TDI 4-Motion has the same thing installed, but everything is still working fine here.