Originally Posted By: drums5757
how boring can you get.
How useless can you make a post?
how boring can you get.
How useless can you make a post?
Distance some vehicles can go on 'empty'(light on)
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Originally Posted By: MotoTribologist
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Originally Posted By: CT8
The idiot light?
If you think the one on a car is dumb then you should see the one on a motorcycle. The one on mine can be intermittent depending on the angle I'm riding at or if I accelerate or brake too hard.
I believe the "idiot light" was in reference to the pilot and their inability to notice anything other than bright flashy lights when a fuel gauge should be enough and not the functionality of the light itself. I personally like the motorcycle one and how it works since there is rarely a fuel gauge. When it stops being intermittent, that's when I know I am actually getting low.
My lawn mower gas level light will start to blink, then come on steady, then start to blink again and when it goes out the tank will then take the full 2.5 gallons it's rated at and the size of my gas jugs.
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Originally Posted By: CT8
The idiot light?
If you think the one on a car is dumb then you should see the one on a motorcycle. The one on mine can be intermittent depending on the angle I'm riding at or if I accelerate or brake too hard.
I believe the "idiot light" was in reference to the pilot and their inability to notice anything other than bright flashy lights when a fuel gauge should be enough and not the functionality of the light itself. I personally like the motorcycle one and how it works since there is rarely a fuel gauge. When it stops being intermittent, that's when I know I am actually getting low.
My lawn mower gas level light will start to blink, then come on steady, then start to blink again and when it goes out the tank will then take the full 2.5 gallons it's rated at and the size of my gas jugs.
I found it interesting they listed Chrysler near or at the top of the long range. I can confirm that our Sebring has probably close to 4 gallons in a 17 gallon tank when the light comes on. I believe it's just an arbitrary thing possibly inadvertently designed in when they choose where and how to mount the sender in the tank.
On another note, I've always been curious how these things can be expected to do in real life and would carry a can of fuel in the back for a low fuel "test" on any new vehicles in our fleet. Most recently, the 2011 BMW, which is of course mostly electronic in this respect, displays a dash warning at 2 intervals. Initial warning comes with approx 50 miles left on the dash readout. That goes away after the next re-start, leaving just a small icon after a startup warning mesage. At approximately 30 miles the verbal warning reappears with a miles left to empty display that stays on and counts down. When it gets to the single digits, the readout number continuously goes up and down by a few miles at a time as the car turns right or left, going up or downhill, obviously sensing a level change as the remaining fuel sloshes back and forth in the tank. When it hits zero the display goes blank and the car is still running! At fill-up, after previously pulling over to add 1 gallon for safety's sake, the total difference is about 2 gallons, so there's still a gallon in there when the car says it's empty.
On another note, I've always been curious how these things can be expected to do in real life and would carry a can of fuel in the back for a low fuel "test" on any new vehicles in our fleet. Most recently, the 2011 BMW, which is of course mostly electronic in this respect, displays a dash warning at 2 intervals. Initial warning comes with approx 50 miles left on the dash readout. That goes away after the next re-start, leaving just a small icon after a startup warning mesage. At approximately 30 miles the verbal warning reappears with a miles left to empty display that stays on and counts down. When it gets to the single digits, the readout number continuously goes up and down by a few miles at a time as the car turns right or left, going up or downhill, obviously sensing a level change as the remaining fuel sloshes back and forth in the tank. When it hits zero the display goes blank and the car is still running! At fill-up, after previously pulling over to add 1 gallon for safety's sake, the total difference is about 2 gallons, so there's still a gallon in there when the car says it's empty.
Dunno about everyone else here, but when my fuel light comes on, I fill up. No way I'm going to risk my fuel pump ingesting sediment or overheating.
15 liters reserve in mine, so provided I don't get a dpf regen happening and I'm driving continuously and with mileage in mind, I got 200+ miles more to go
8L remaining is where the low-fuel light comes on, according to BMW.
Each 1/4 of the gauge is marked out in litres and surprisingly, is very accurate. If the gauge points to 15L, adding 45-50L should max out the gauge at 65L.
Assuming all 8 of those reserve litres are usable, at 10L/100km (1-2L/100km more than average lead-foot, city with A/C), that should work out to about 80km. Most I've filled, by the pump was 62.48L, where the economy was about 10.46L/100km from 586.9km, so I suspect I hadn't brimmed the tank the previous fill-up.
Believe me when I say I was rather concerned about coasting in on fumes!
Longest run on the tank has been 662km from about 55.93L, 8.44L/100km. My lowest ever figure has been 7.26L/100km (A/C on, highway), so based on that, mileage from 65L *should* work out to a whopping 895km!
All this from a 23 year-old, 2.0L inline six. I'd say that's pretty darned impressive
Each 1/4 of the gauge is marked out in litres and surprisingly, is very accurate. If the gauge points to 15L, adding 45-50L should max out the gauge at 65L.
Assuming all 8 of those reserve litres are usable, at 10L/100km (1-2L/100km more than average lead-foot, city with A/C), that should work out to about 80km. Most I've filled, by the pump was 62.48L, where the economy was about 10.46L/100km from 586.9km, so I suspect I hadn't brimmed the tank the previous fill-up.
Believe me when I say I was rather concerned about coasting in on fumes!
Longest run on the tank has been 662km from about 55.93L, 8.44L/100km. My lowest ever figure has been 7.26L/100km (A/C on, highway), so based on that, mileage from 65L *should* work out to a whopping 895km!
All this from a 23 year-old, 2.0L inline six. I'd say that's pretty darned impressive
I've never run my Lincoln down to empty, but I know that the "low fuel" alarm comes on exactly when the "Distance to empty" calculator shows 50 miles. The alarm can be reset(cleared) and it will come back in 10 minutes or whenever the car is turned off and restarted.
From 8 years driving the car, I think that the distance to empty is based on the average fuel economy for the past 500 or 1000 miles-something in that ballpark and the actual amount of gas in the tank. It is reset when you add gasoline, then dynamically adjusted in the sense that if you are getting better instantaneous gas mileage than the average indicates the distance to empty will drop at a lower rate than the number of miles traveled. The opposite is true in situations of very low fuel economy. 50 miles to empty is usually on the VERY conservative side as I think it would likely go a little more than that. The lowest I've ever seen it was 8, which is what it was showing when I drove it off the lot.
I don't have a huge amount of faith in the gas gauge in my MG. It does at least register full and empty correctly, but I've seen the gauge change by 1/8 of a tank or so with the car sitting on uneven ground, going around a hard corner, or even when turning the headlights on
(increased load on the ground wire when the gauge lights come on).
I rarely let either get below half, but when the MG hits about 3/8s I get into "must get gas now" mode. Granted running out probably wouldn't hurt anything(other than my pride) since the pump is external to the tank and is just as happy pumping air as liquid. It just makes one heck of a racket when it is pumping air(I found that out when I mixed up the in and out lines). My other concern would be all the [censored] that's probably in the bottom dregs of the tank.
From 8 years driving the car, I think that the distance to empty is based on the average fuel economy for the past 500 or 1000 miles-something in that ballpark and the actual amount of gas in the tank. It is reset when you add gasoline, then dynamically adjusted in the sense that if you are getting better instantaneous gas mileage than the average indicates the distance to empty will drop at a lower rate than the number of miles traveled. The opposite is true in situations of very low fuel economy. 50 miles to empty is usually on the VERY conservative side as I think it would likely go a little more than that. The lowest I've ever seen it was 8, which is what it was showing when I drove it off the lot.
I don't have a huge amount of faith in the gas gauge in my MG. It does at least register full and empty correctly, but I've seen the gauge change by 1/8 of a tank or so with the car sitting on uneven ground, going around a hard corner, or even when turning the headlights on
(increased load on the ground wire when the gauge lights come on). I rarely let either get below half, but when the MG hits about 3/8s I get into "must get gas now" mode. Granted running out probably wouldn't hurt anything(other than my pride) since the pump is external to the tank and is just as happy pumping air as liquid. It just makes one heck of a racket when it is pumping air(I found that out when I mixed up the in and out lines). My other concern would be all the [censored] that's probably in the bottom dregs of the tank.
Originally Posted By: SirTanon
Dunno about everyone else here, but when my fuel light comes on, I fill up. No way I'm going to risk my fuel pump ingesting sediment or overheating.
I usually run until the needle doesn't move off it's stop anymore, but not if I'm in an unknown (to me) area...
Dunno about everyone else here, but when my fuel light comes on, I fill up. No way I'm going to risk my fuel pump ingesting sediment or overheating.
I usually run until the needle doesn't move off it's stop anymore, but not if I'm in an unknown (to me) area...
When my distance to empty on my Gen Coupe hits 50 miles it then blanks out. How useless is that? It also limits the turbo to 5lbs boost.
All in tank fuel pumps draw off the bottom. All use the fuel flowing through them to cool the pump. What I have seen is when the tank is really low a lot of air also gets pumped.
All in tank fuel pumps draw off the bottom. All use the fuel flowing through them to cool the pump. What I have seen is when the tank is really low a lot of air also gets pumped.
Originally Posted By: Kira
Playing with low to empty fuel levels can damage your pump.
If I'm wrong someone can straighten me out. Kira
Most owner manuals warn about catalytic converter damage, not fuel pump damage, but only when you actually run out of fuel, not when just running low.
Playing with low to empty fuel levels can damage your pump.
If I'm wrong someone can straighten me out. Kira
Most owner manuals warn about catalytic converter damage, not fuel pump damage, but only when you actually run out of fuel, not when just running low.
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
When my distance to empty on my Gen Coupe hits 50 miles it then blanks out. How useless is that? It also limits the turbo to 5lbs boost.
All in tank fuel pumps draw off the bottom. All use the fuel flowing through them to cool the pump. What I have seen is when the tank is really low a lot of air also gets pumped.
Mine does the bold bit too (50km in my case). It's perfect, as it doesn't encourage driving further. Afterall, going up a steep grade could easily starve the engine from fuel when you get that low.. 40 miles to 0 miles range in a few seconds...
When my distance to empty on my Gen Coupe hits 50 miles it then blanks out. How useless is that? It also limits the turbo to 5lbs boost.
All in tank fuel pumps draw off the bottom. All use the fuel flowing through them to cool the pump. What I have seen is when the tank is really low a lot of air also gets pumped.
Mine does the bold bit too (50km in my case). It's perfect, as it doesn't encourage driving further. Afterall, going up a steep grade could easily starve the engine from fuel when you get that low.. 40 miles to 0 miles range in a few seconds...
In our midsize cars, it seems the light comes on around 3 gallons left and the small cars at around 2-2.5 gallons left. I usually run my cars until the light comes on or just right before when the needle stops on the gauge. Never ran out of gas in the 13.5 years I've been driving. I try to be more careful though if I'm driving through the middle of nowhere or through unfamiliar areas.
on my work Transit, the gauge emits a beep and a caution amber is lit. at 50 miles left. I ran out somewhere around 60 miles. So, I pay more attention and fill up about 4 times a week. Electric fuel pumps don't flourish when they are run out gas The Borman 6 retired at 20 yrs and 350k. In that time. I only ran out of gas 3 times and the pump still worked great.
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