On day when my car was running low on fuel when the low fuel chime dinged, the low fuel light did not come on. When I filled it up the light came on. Ever since (a couple of years, and lots of fill ups), it has stayed this way. When the fuel is low the light is off and when the fuel is full or above the "E" it is on.
Has the battery ever been disconnected for at least 10 minutes since the problem started?
The reason I ask is I have seen this “mistake” done before in coding where a novice uses a data store and toggle mechanism to store a state;
Event trigger:
State = 1 - State
If it gets out of sync, it stays out of sync as long as power is applied to the volatile memory (e.g. RAM).
Sounds reasonable to me. I do this everyday with computers. A good reboot will work wonders for most electronic devices including the ones in vehicles.
And to think, the VWs for years had no fuel gauge. There was a lever next to the seat that opened the fuel reserve when the engine died from low fuel. Those were the good ole days.
Yes…the good old days. My grandfather used to tap on the fuel tank (located behind the seat) on his old Chevy pickup. He knew the fuel level from the sound of the tank. The fuel gauge was broken for years and he never fixed it.
A reboot of a VW will disable the radio, which can be costly if you have to take it to a dealership to get the radio reactivated.