My failed DIY attempt to activate low fuel indicator on my 2006 Swift

With the help of my friend who is into electronics, we soldered the led onto the motherboard. Powered up the speedometer but to our dismay, it did not light up.

BHPian Ashtoncastelino recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

One day I paid close attention to all the warning light symbols printed on my speedometer. I noticed near the fuel gauge there was a low fuel light symbol present but never saw it glow since I always keep my tank above the 25% mark.

Searched on the internet and saw few international Swifts with low fuel light glowing and thought why isn't it present in the Indian variant?

International Swift Speedometer featuring the Low Fuel Light.

I checked for the low fuel light to pop up when the gauge was at E but still never lit up. Checked on the forum and asked few BHPians if this was a feature available only in the ZXi/ZDi variants or not. No one had seen this light glow even when fuel gauge was at the E mark. Ran across few threads in the forum as well.

To begin my experiment I managed to get a ZXi Swift speedometer with its connector from the scrapyard:

I removed the glass and the needles to see the circuit board. I also compared the International Swift speedometer diagram and Indian Swift speedometer diagram and it was the same. I noticed on the motherboard there was no led light to illuminate the low fuel light symbol:

All the warning light symbols available on the speedometer.

Thought why not take an LED and solder it to that point and see if the low fuel light comes on if fuel gauge is at E?

With the help of my friend who is into electronics, we soldered the led onto the motherboard. Powered up the speedometer but to our dismay, it did not light up. So my friend told me to try it on the car with the tank at E. Tested it on my car with tank at almost E but still no light. After asking few other friends who are into electronics, they mentioned the micro-controller and LED output driver might not have this feature even though the circuit is present. Sadly due to this the experiment had hit the wall.

How cheap of Maruti to even think about cost cutting with the micro-controller and LED output driver when the circuit board has it supported? Though this is albeit a small requirement, it could have been integrated beautifully as this is the only small difference between the international Swift speedometer and Indian Swift speedometers. In the future if I come across an international Swift speedometer, I might swap the circuit board.

Regards,

Ashton Castelino.

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