Hi, I have a turbo diesel 1992 surf. Recently I replaced one of the batteries. The light indicator that shows low fuel warning is lit even though I have full tank. Does this gauge show anything else, perhaps bad mixture? My Surf also smokes quite a lot recently, especially at start up. Lots and Lots of smoke and very rough idlying. This was not so when I bought my Surf in January. Help!

 

I'm not sure if anything is different with the diesel engines but on gas engines all the light does is watch your gauge and at a certain point it lights up. I don't think that the light has any direct connection to your tank. The only thing I could think of is that when you hooked up the new battery you could have sent a serge into the electronics and something touched that wasn't suppose to. Try looking at the back of your cluster and see if you can see anything out of the ordinary.
When you say that your engine idles rough does that mean that it feels like a low idle or does the engine just feel sluggish. With a turbo diesel you cut out a lot of the common problems that gas engines have. I might take a look at your turbo and see if you are getting full boost out of it. I've seen turbos go out on gas engines and they smoked like crazy when they were first started.
Good luck on your problems and post some pictures of your truck if you have any. I'm interested to see what people do with them in other countries. Thanks.

 

Incorrect, on the gas models there's a seperate sensor in the tank for the low fuel light.

 

Sorry for the first misinformation. So is the sensor in the tank completely separate or is in incorporated into the pump? Could it be an electrical sensor that didn't like the battery swap or something like a float that filled up and sank.

 

Neither, the pump is totally seperate from the sending unit. The sending unit is comprised of the level sensor and low fuel sensor together. Picture, the bullet shaped object in the top right is the low fuel sensor.
Unlikely the sender if you ask me, I'd put my money on burnt wiring or a bad connection. I'm not sure if a bad fuel sender would affect the diesel engine, it won't with the gas engines. I'm also not sure if the diesels have an in-tank pump or not.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll post some pics soon. I am sending my Surf in the garage this weekend. The mechanic thinks the head gasket is gone and water is dripping on the pistons. It did overheat twice so it may well be that. I check the wiring and see if any wires got unpluged or frayed.