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MkIV Petrol Warning Light
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:06 pm
by merlin457
Just bought my wife a 1996 1.4CL and no owners manual!
Can anyone tell me if there is a low petrol warning light and where it is?
Many thanks,

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:35 pm
by Pedro_Hilario
I also had this doubt when i bought my Polo.
So I decided to drive around until I would either run out of petrol or the light came up. Long story short, i ended up having to walk to a gas station to get some more petrol since the car was dead in the road!!!
After that I was convinced there was no reserve light
P.S. - Welcome to the forum!
Petrol Light
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:38 pm
by merlin457
Many thanks,
I can see I'm going to be visitng this site quite a bit!
All the best.......

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:42 pm
by CraigMK4
You do have a petrol light, but you need to put a bulb in there

if you open your tacho (i seriously do not recommend this) You can see the slot for it.
Petrol Light
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:46 pm
by merlin457
Cheers,
going to risk it and have a go.
Is the dash easy enough to take out?

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:53 pm
by CraigMK4
Two screws at the top of the plastic surround, a screw either side of the tacho and then about 8 small screws holding the back of the clocks on, take that off and you can see the bulbs. And yes you will need to unplug the clocks

it will reset your clock but not your mileage. Hold the tacho up to the light (with the back off) and you should see where the petrol light is. Put a 12v bulb in the relative slot and bang - you have a petrol light. I haven't tried this yet but i imagine it would work, otherwise why would they put it there
go very careful as you can render your clocks completely useless!!!
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:59 pm
by merlin457
Many thanks,
will have a go at that l8r!
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 3:23 pm
by NOZ
I've searched for the warning illusive light in the manual when I got mine too, doesn't mention it. Anyway, let us know how you get on, might try myself then
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:43 am
by djc.
I don't think any mk4's before 1997 with the older style clocks have a warning light, i've had two and never seen any lights even when running on fumes

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:21 pm
by Pedro_Hilario
CraigMK4 wrote:You do have a petrol light, but you need to put a bulb in there

if you open your tacho (i seriously do not recommend this) You can see the slot for it.
But did you check if where the bulb fits there's a electrical connection? Because it needs a wire to tell the bulb when to light up. And if that's not pre-fitted I wouldn't know where to get it.
But I've grown accustomed of checking the dial when it's in the red zone! 70 km still to go from that point to a complete stall!
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:33 pm
by NOZ
Although I don't think polo's have them I've always wondered why when everything else of that age does. I've become customed to resetting the trip computer and waiting for 240miles from a full tank before thinking of re-fuelling!
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:10 pm
by dragon_green
No warning lamp ever came up on mine, and that had the older clocks on it.
What's wrong with just filling up when it goes into the red?