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What causes false fuel drains in light vehicles, vans or one-tank trucks?
What causes false fuel drains in light vehicles, vans or one-tank trucks?
Updated this week

Here you can learn some of the main factors for fuel drain to appear on light vehicles, vans or one tank trucks.
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๐Ÿ”” If the level changes detect drainages, you should review them.


Device power supply failure

The first factor that can affect the accuracy of fuel level data in a properly functioning fuel control system, as well as cause incorrect refueling and/or draining, is the fact that the device constantly sends data to the Mapon server.

If you see a drain on the graph, you should definitely check the following first:

  • if the vehicle's main power switch was turned off before the drain occurred;

  • the vehicle's tracking device did not lose power for other reasons before the drain occurred.

๐Ÿ“˜ If the fuel data is being received from the on-board computer via CAN bus, it is important to understand if there are any problems with ignition state detection.


Location factor where the vehicle is working

For example, if the drainage has started at 12:45:36 and ended at 12:45:46 or 12:45:56 (10 or 20 seconds), most likely, it was the drop in the fuel level caused by working in a quarry, specifically, driving up and down the slopes, uneven surfaces, etc., thus should be considered false.

๐Ÿ“˜ The monitoring system filters out such events as much as possible, but they can sometimes occur if the vehicle operates in intensive work conditions.

Fuel level sensor measurement changes upon riding on an uneven surface.

Fuel sloshing in the tank

You should first look at the mileage graph and then at the time graph. They will show whether during the trip, the fuel level, after the drainage returned to approximately the same level as before drainage.

For example, if there were 67 liters in the tank before the 7 liter drainage was registered, but afterwards, the graph showed that the fuel level has returned to 65-67 liters during the further trip, the particular drainage should be considered false. If the fuel volume didnโ€™t return to the same position, you should count this as a possible drainage.


Sudden drop of fuel in the tank

When power is back on or the ignition is on (CAN), if you notice a sharp decrease in the graph and there havenโ€™t been any trips currently, then you can consider this event as possible drainage.

๐Ÿ”” Take into account other factors that may impact the measurements, such as CAN or in some cases fuel sensor data delivery frequency (points), power off of the device, vehicle transportation without ignition, etc.

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