The fuel gauge lies: codes P0460, P0461, P0462, P0463
You filled the tank and the needle did not move — or it drops in jumps. Usually a stuck float in the tank, but there is an unpleasant consequence people discover at the emissions test.
The short answer: the level sender is a float on an arm with a resistive track. It lives in petrol, wears out and sticks. It is replaced together with the pump module and almost never repaired on its own.
But the consequence matters more than the fault itself — that is at the end.
What the codes mean
P0460 — circuit malfunction. There is no signal at all.
P0461 — reading out of range. The most common one: the unit sees that the level is not changing although the car has covered a hundred and fifty kilometres. That is what a stuck float looks like.
P0462 — low signal, P0463 — high. An open and a short: the value is outside the physically possible, so this is wiring or a connector, not the float.
What you can see in the app
Open fuel level — the very number, in per cent, the dashboard needle is drawn from.
The check takes one fill-up: note the value before, fill the tank and look again. Unchanged after twenty litres means the float. Jumped from 20 % straight to 90 % means the track is worn in the middle and the sender skips the bald patch.
⚠️ Worth knowing in advance: in a tank of complex shape the sender lies more at the quarters than in the middle. The needle disagreeing with your arithmetic on the last quarter is normal, not a code.
Relatives: the vapour pressure sensor, P0452 and P0453
P0452 and P0453 are the low and high signal of the fuel vapour pressure sensor. It lives nearby, also in the tank, and is responsible not for the level but for the tightness of the vapour recovery system.
Checking the vapour system always starts with the same thing — the fuel cap. And if the check light came on right after refuelling, an untightened cap is almost certainly to blame, not the sensor.
The unpleasant consequence
Here is why a sender that «merely» lies to the needle is worth fixing.
The car checks the vapour recovery system itself, but only at a certain tank level — usually between a quarter and three quarters. While the level is unknown or wrong, that self-test never starts at all.
At the emissions test it looks like this: clean exhaust, no fault codes, and the car is turned away — not ready. In detail in readiness for the emissions test and in the guide how to prepare.
The second consequence is everyday: while the sender lies, the low fuel lamp comes on whenever it feels like — either with twenty litres still in the tank, or never at all.
What to do
- Compare the app reading with the needle: if they disagree it is the sender, if they agree it is the gauge on the dashboard.
- Check over one fill-up whether the number moves.
- Inspect the pump module connector — on many cars it is reachable from under the rear seat, without dropping the tank.
- Do not put it off if an emissions test is coming: after the repair the self-tests need several more drives to complete.
