Phony fuel capacity numbers

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Originally Posted By: RichardS
As it's already established, it's a reserve.

Mine, however, is only 1.5 gallons once I hit E. Light on at 3, and an urgent 3 ping alarm when I hit 2. Driving on the interstate, at an even speed, it hits E, and will take 15.5 gallons roughly before the pump clicks off. It's probably smart that they have gas available once it's showing empty, though I wonder if people who regularly run it low don't use that as an excuse to just drive longer anyway.


Our Forester has a similarly small reserve, especially compared to my old 97 legacy, and even previous Subies. It's my wife's DD; however, I drive on weekend trips. I start looking for gas when we get down to 1/4 tank (3 bars left) and really pursue a station when only 2 bars remain. If we haven't found anything directly off the highway when there's only 1 bar left, we start actively pursuing out-of-the-way stations (hopefully within a couple of miles off the path)
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Even if it is, they should either call the tank on my Sonata a 16.5 gallon tank or re-calibrate the computer and sender to display when it is actually out of fuel.



No, they should NOT....... you really don't have a lot of women in your life, do you?
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nick doesn't need a woman.
he already makes his own instrument panel cookies.nick -- how did your recent batch turn out?

blupupher -- nick's seems like an o.k. guy -- with this thread, he just wants someone to talk to. a lot of guys here are like that.
 
On my Hyundai Accent when the low fuel light comes on I reset the trip odo and then I can go another 75 miles before empty. On my Gen coupe it is 45 miles. Both are about a gallon and a half left when the light comes on. If I run them both down to those miles then it does take near the rated capacity.

My Gen Coupe with turbo will limit boost to 5 lbs if it gets down to where the miles left blanks out or if you start the engine when the low fuel light is on.

How accurate is the odometer on the car? On the Gen Coupe after going to 1" taller tires all around the speedometer is on the money and the mpg average is very close to real world but he odo was off by one mile per ten miles slow or 1.11%. Before the speedo was 2 mph fast and mpg was always overly estimated. Now the odo is off by 1.05% slow so that needs to be added to the odo reading hand calculations for mpg. But when doing so the estimated mileage is within 1/2 mpg.
 
To me it doesn't matter what the fuel tank capacity is advertised at. I fill it when it reaches approximately 1/4 tank on the working fuel gauge. I had a high school buddy who would run his vehicle till it ran out of gas and we'd have to walk to get fuel, it wasn't fun. This was back in the very early 70's. On my vehicles I've never seen the fuel light come on, for the ones that have one, nor do I want to.

Whimsey
 
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Anyone figure in the possibility of space for expansion when putting in cool fuel on a warm day much like the safety factor now on portable propane tanks? Don't want to needlessly drive fuel into the carbon catch.


That's accounted for in tank design. the filler doesn't go all the way up to the top edge of thetank, so there's an air pocket there.
 
Originally Posted By: yeti
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nick doesn't need a woman.
he already makes his own instrument panel cookies.nick -- how did your recent batch turn out?

blupupher -- nick's seems like an o.k. guy -- with this thread, he just wants someone to talk to. a lot of guys here are like that.

Lol I'm not a lonely person, I was just wondering if this is something they're doing on modern cars for some reason?

I've never had this issue on all the older cars I've driven, my Camrys, my Silverado, my Jeep, the grandparents Trailblazer, my VW, family member's Tahoe, etc.
 
Did you ever tell us what you're majoring in?

Digital gauges imply an accuracy much greater than the overall system is capable of. Predicting within a mile of empty means the system would have to know how much fuel is in the tank within a few ounces.

In my industry we have a lot of problems with numbskulls reporting amps on transmission lines that are out of service because they're reading the noise showing up on the digital meter.
 
The family's Toyota Sequoia is the worst. Light comes on but you have nearly 7 gallons left meanwhile the distance indicator says 0 miles. My VW Golf TDI is very precise and accurate. The light always comes on at 1.9 gallons. I'm always able to calculate my rough mpg to within 0.3mpg when the light comes on; then I can use that number to see how many more miles I can go. My mom's Audi is the same way. Must be a German thing.
 
Exactly as the others have said. If it was the way you appear to want it, if it was actually out of gas at a few miles left you'd be mad too... Mopre or less a reserve to protect yourself from yourself.

Guaranteed you could drive it for a while after the DTE reads zero. Fill it up when it actually runs out and see where you are at...

In the case of my F150, with a 36 gallon tank, the reserve offers some protection against parking on a big hill and having all the fuel slosh to one end of the tank and not where the pump is...
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994

"but when the gas gauge is completely on empty and the range is at 0 miles, I fill it up"

"gas gauge all the way down and the range went down to 0 and I just filled it up"

"Any reason why car manufacturers are doing this? They should lower the numbers to usable amounts or recalibrate the computers and senders"




I think you answered your own question. Calibrate a sender to be right on the money and we'd have cars "dead in the water" all over our roads creating even more hazards.
 
Quote:
you really don't have a lot of women in your life, do you?

Why does Nick need lot of women? One good enough should do.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Even if it is, they should either call the tank on my Sonata a 16.5 gallon tank or re-calibrate the computer and sender to display when it is actually out of fuel.



No, they should NOT....... you really don't have a lot of women in your life, do you?


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But seriously, when the float can no longer go down, it will send a "0 fuel left" signal but there will still be some fuel left in the tank. It's a side effect of how the floats are designed and we can call it "reserve". The same thing happens when the tank is filled completely. At some point the float cannot rise any higher but there is still space left for extra fuel -- the reason why it stays on full mark disproportionately longer.

They can address and fix this with a more sophisticated system but it's pointless.
 
Never understood the angst some people have over this? If they designed the vehicles to be stumbling the nano second you hit "E" on the fuel gauge, people would be complaining about not having safety margins.

First world problems.
 
I've noticed the opposite in some older cars I had. 1993 Toyota Pickup supposedly had a 17.5 (something like that) gallon tank. I have actually put 19.2 in it once. I had been driving on E for several miles (truck didn't have a fuel light). 2000 Civic is 11.9 according to the owner's manual. I actually ran it dry once and rolled it to the pump. Put in 13 gallons till it clicked off.

My 2001 Civic has the most useless gas gauge I've ever seen. It will not move while driving. So if you start with a full tank and drive 200 miles, it will still read full until you turn the car off and restart. According to the manual's listed capacity and the amount I've put in when the light comes on, I have about 2.5 gallons of reserve. That's 95 miles at 38 mpg! (love that car)

Anyways, all this is really pointless. Just fill up when you should and you'll not have any problems. I usually fill up once a week in whatever I'm driving so I'll have a full tank for the weekend.
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