dmorales-bello

Beautiful depth in that paint. Great job! Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I wrote ZCD a couple of weeks ago and described the issue along with our conclusions (after so much friggin work!), and the "easy fix" of using a different resistance bulb. They thanked me for being so thorough, that my email would be forwarded to the "boss", but they had sold many sending units without any issues. They left it at that, regrettably. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

So sorry to see those pics! Hope everyone is OK. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Oh, yeah. It's still completely closed. I've used "Gorilla" tape to hold cables to an outside wall exposed to sun and rain. That 3 foot long strip is still holding after 12 years or so. Once the glue on this tape cures, it's a very strong bond although I'm sure it'll depend on the type of material it's bonding to. I'm quite sure it's strong enough to hold the visor material closed for a very long time. BTW, "Gorilla" is a specific brand of tape (looks like duct tape). Here in America that company also manufactures several different types of glue and other tapes as well. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I did not remove the mirror in my passenger side visor and simply worked around it. I'm pretty sure it's attached with some sort of rivets. It would have been cumbersome to take out and that's why I decided to work with it in place. Not a hard thing to do. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

It's nice to have softer closing doors but now you need to check how weathertight those Kia seals really are. When I changed my worn out original door seals for the Precision set I immediately noticed three things : 1- I now had to close the door much harder; 2- the smell of partially burnt fuel in the cabin virtually disappeared, and 3- wind noise at highway speeds decreased greatly. I would love to be able to close my doors softly but I'm quite content with less wind noise and virtually no fumes in the cabin. Please let us know how your Kia weatherstripping fares in those two regards. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Antifreeze (ethylene glycol solution) with droplets of transmission fluid. The hydrophobic nature of the transmission fluid accounts for the "boob" formation. Capillarity accounts for the ring formation along the edges of the container. The lower density of the tranny fluid allows it to float on top of the ethylene glycol. How did they get to the container? I'm guessing you put them there? LOL!

Update on my "bulb" trials. Bulbs 2, 3 and 4 are acceptable as workarounds for the disfunctional thermistor in the 2 ZCD fuel senders that I received. Those bulbs have such a faint glow when the malfunction happens (after about 25 minutes of running the engine) that they are pretty much invisible in daylight conditions and very hard to detect in a darkened cabin BUT they glow brightly once the fuel level drops below the thermistor, maintaining their functionality as a "low fuel warning" light. Interestingly they have cold resistance values that are very similar (12.7, 11.5, and 11.4 ohms respectively). BTW, bulbs 5 and 6 were very bright at the moment of malfunction. Bulb 1 was too faint when the tank was empty. Therefore those are not acceptable. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

When my original unit was working, the light would go on once the needle was past the E by maybe 1/8", supposedly with about 2 gallons of fuel left in the tank. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Because the wiring harness isn't long enough you'll have to disconnect the sender in order to pull it out far enough for the thermistor to be above the surface of the fuel. Reconnect to the harness once the sender is out of the tank (tap out any fuel left inside the can) and turn the key to "on" and the "fuel" light should come on very soon. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Huh, huh! We have an apparent trend... Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Haven't asked but we can assume that the ZCD sender was designed to work with the original bulb since it's intended to replace the original sending unit. Remember, according to ZCD their unit has worked well (to their knowledge) and nobody else on this forum has joined this discussion asserting they've had the same issue. Maybe it's a small batch of senders with an incorrect thermistor, or maybe it's my bad luck that I received 2 units with the same malfunction. I will contact them once again when we reach our conclusions with information that should be beneficial for their product development. After all, the intention is to help companies like ZCD in their mission to provide Z owners with high quality spare parts when needed. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I tried pulling the cap off and applied quite a bit of force to it but it didn't budge. It's wedged into the can very solidly, much more than the stock Datsun piece. That's when I decided to enlarge the hole and leave it at that. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

"Witch! Witch! Witch!" Sure, Dave. I'll stick it in my tank. . Seriously now, of course I'll try it. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Yes, I did. I carefully enlarged the hole in the middle of the white plastic cap at the top with a fine Dremel burr, and enlarged the three holes in the bottom of the can with a 1/16 drill bit on the Dremel. I performed the "dunk" test in water before and after the mods and flow into and out of the can definitely improved. That modded unit is in my gas tank now and unfortunately produced the same malfunction as before enlarging the holes. I'm testing the different bulbs on it as reported in my previous post. I think the "trapped air bubble" theory for the malfunction can be discarded. At this point, with all the tests@Dave WM and I have run, the most probable cause is that the ZCD thermistors in both units I received are not adequate for this application. Attached are pics of the enlarged holes. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

That's an excellent question. It seems from all our musings and experiments that the thermistor has to be appropriately matched to a specific enough bulb for the system to work properly.

I checked all the available information on each one of the 5 bulbs I'm running the tests on. The number imprinted on the base of the bulbs does not coincide (with two exceptions) with the number assigned to it on the company's web site or on their sales receipt. However I think I was able to match them by cross referencing information and images. Remember that I assigned numbers 1 through 6 to the bulbs related to their measured cold resistance in descending order. "Glow" is subjective and refers to the perceived intensity of illumination when the erroneous signal is triggered by the Zcar Depot thermistor. Here's the full info on each bulb: Bulb #______Volts______Watts_____Amps_____Resistance_____Glow_____#on base______#online___ 1 14 1.12 0.08 19.8 + 756 9428049 2 14.4 1.44 0.1 12.7 ++ 813 813 3 14.4 1.728 0.12 11.5 ++ 1445 274020 4 14.4 1.872 0.35 11.4 +++ 1892 274004 5 14 2.8 0.2 6.3 ++++ 363 363 6 (OEM) 12 3.4 ? 3.8 +++++ NA NA Bulb 6 has been ruled out since it illuminates very brightly when triggered. Bulb 5 Illuminates more softly but is still barely visible in a dark cabin. Could work as a "monitor" of the system in working order (see previous posts). Bulb 4 illuminates softly enough when triggered that it is not visible during daylight and very hard to see in the darkened cabin. If it brightens enough once the fuel level falls beneath the thermistor, then this bulb would be a reasonable and simple solution to the problem. I'll report on that once my tank is empty. Bulbs 3, 2 and 1 have yet to be tested but they might illuminate too dimly to be effective as a low fuel warning once triggered by the thermistor even when the tank is empty.

Amazing job on the exterior and the engine bay! I'm sure your interior will be just as impeccably finished.

Amazing, delicate work, Dave! So... does it work? Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Good idea. I'll check and post. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

These bulbs don't have the wattage in their specs. As a matter of fact they have nothing more than a serial number and the "made in China" stamp. I'll be happy to test them with my dvm of you can explain how it's done. Additionally, I plan to contact Zcar Depot to explain the problem and give them the solution. They should simply include the "correct" bulb along with their sending unit. I want to finish testing the bulbs with an empty tank before drawing the final conclusions. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

So here's a preliminary report. I tried out the stock bulb (#6 on my list) once again just to have a baseline value. It has a resistance of 3.8 ohms. As had happened before, the light went brightly on after running the car for 25 minutes. Easily seen with the bulb inside the housing even under bright sunlight. Next I tried bulb # 5 which has a resistance of 6.3 ohms. After 25 minutes of running the engine that bulb illuminated very faintly, very hard to detect in daylight and subtly seen in the dark car. This one could work the way @Dave WM suggested which is as a monitor that the system is operational when lit dimly and as a low fuel warning when lit brightly. However, I've yet to run the tank down to empty. Next was bulb # 4 with a resistance of 11.4 ohms. It also illuminated after 25 minutes or so but the glow of the filament is so faint that it can only be seen directly when the bulb is out of the housing. Once inside the housing it's invisible in daylight and almost undetectable inside a dark cabin. If this bulb (as predicted) will glow brighter once the fuel level falls below the thermistor, this would would work well as intended. With this trend, one could extrapolate that the remaining bulbs could illuminate even more dimly (directly proportional to the increasing resistance values) at the 25 minute mark as well but might be a bit dim even when the fuel level drops below the thermistor, rendering the low fuel warning function ineffective. Again, I will finish reporting once I run my tank empty but seemingly there are 2 alternatives so far I could live with ?.

I measured mine on the workbench at a temperature of 74° F.

That's quite different to my ZCD thermistor which had a cold (room temp) resistance reading of 2.9K Ohms.

I'm sure it does but if I take it apart I'm not going to be able to return it. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk