Identification and Correction of Fuel Level Indication in Automotives Using HIL System and Camera-Based Measuring System

Automotives are provided with a lot of intelligence that monitors, controls, actuates, and diagnose the various aspects of vehicle functionalities. One of the critical parameters required to monitor is Vehicle fuel level. Fuel level in the vehicle is a key input for engine performance, drivability, and fuel level indication in Instrumentation cluster for customer. Most economic and reliable fuel level sensor is resistive sensor with float. The purpose of this paper is to address the wrong fuel level indication in Vehicle level. Wrong fuel level indication may be due to malfunction of Instrumentation cluster signal input or Fuel level sensor function. To verify this, Instrumentation cluster is tested with HIL system instead of real time Fuel level sensor. By configuring the HIL module to analogue resistance channel, cluster is tested for fuel level bar indication. Fuel level sensor is tested by Vehicle level fuel calibration and exact issue is simulated. The failed fuel level sensor is stripped open for analysis and found resistance track length is not adequate, and it leans on the edge of the track due to vibrations. To address this issue, length of the resistance track is increased. When length is increased, the angle of the track changes and it implicates wrong fuel indication. Using this simulation, actions are taken in such a way that length and angle of the track modified to give correct resistance and indication. To rely on this actions, Camera enabled measuring systems is used to measure the length and angle of the resistance track. Corrected samples are taken for accelerated endurance test with the help of pressure cylinders setup and examined for action effectiveness. The details on failure simulation, action taken and validation for corrective samples are discussed in this paper.