Klayfish wrote:
My cars are fairly non-linear as well. My MINI's gas gauge is electronic, it has 10 markings. I'll literally go 150+ miles before it drops the first mark. Then I'll go another 200 miles and use up 6 more.
I do my best never to let any of my cars get below 1/4 tank.
I'll go 150+ miles in my Miata and be almost through a full tank of gas.
oldsaw
PowerDork
9/18/12 3:19 p.m.
My '86 Prelude has a low-fuel warning light and it worked years ago; I don't worry about a failure now because I won't let it become an issue. Same procedure with the Civic which, IIRC, displays a dash-light if the fuel level is low. I don't trust the sensors so I make certain they aren't tested.
OTOH, my Sonoma has no such sensor/display.
Guess which one ran out of fuel (on the way to the station) with no warning? Lesson(s) learned..............
Hal
Dork
9/18/12 3:20 p.m.
The light in my Transit Connect comes on when the readout on the dash says I have 50 miles left. I usually let it go down to 30 miles left which by my mileage calculations means I have a little over one gallon left.
Going by the tank size in the owners manual and how much gas I put in at that point I would say that the light and readout are spot on. I have noticed that the actual gauge doesn't start to drop from the full mark untill I have gone ~50 miles.
I don't really pay much attention to the actual guage anymore since the light and mileage left readout are so accurate.
I didn't think the Trooper had a low fuel light, so I once ran it as low as I dared, it finally popped on. At fillup it took ~19 gallons, the tank holds 21.5 or something like that.
The move 'And Justice For All' has a scene where Al Pacino flies a helicopter with this crazy judge who goes out over the water to 1/2 tank, then goes an additional minute, adding a minute each time. He's done this so many times that with Pacino in the chopper he goes (IIRC) 15 minutes past 1/2 tank then turns around. They crash land in the water ~25 feet off the beach.
When my wife and I were dating she drive with the light on more often than not. She actually burned the LED out. Guess how she figured that one out
according to the computer.. the light on my ti comes on around 55miles till empty
Back when gas prices took the first big jump, people would come in with '15 miles to empty' on the trip computer and complain the engine was stalling.
It sucks when a a previously working fuel sender stops working and you fail to notice you've driven for three days on a quarter of a tank. Ask me how I know.
The only time I ever see the light come on in my 525i is when I start the car. I fill the tank when it gets to 1/2; occasionally I have let it drop as far as 1/4, but that's it. Too many stories of fuel pumps overheating and failing when routinely run low on fuel (which cools the pump); low lubricity in ethanol-blend fuels doesn't help either.