zcacogp Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 Chaps, Simple one. But I'm confused. Did a journey from Southampton to home on Sunday afternoon. It showed 96 miles on the SatNav, distance-to-empty on the car display showed as being (I think) 84 miles. The fuel light wasn't on. I was driving very gently for a number of reasons; a desire to see how much I could eke out the tank and I had the wife and the cat in the car. (Yes, all good reasons to go quite gently, I'm sure you will agree!) The distance-to-home dropped and the distance-to-empty dropped but a little more slowly. The difference was 12 miles at the start of the journey but I got it down to about 4 or 5 miles, with a distance-to-empty reading of 14 miles or so, at which point we then passed a petrol station and stopped to put £10 of juice in. However when I turned the car back on the distance-to-empty still showed 14 miles - it hadn't increased at all despite having put about 7 litres of petrol in. The obvious question is whether this was normal? I assume that the petrol pump did actually dispense some fuel rather than just some expensive air (!) and the granularity of the gauge is not that great. However 7 litres of petrol should have got us about 50-odd miles of range, which I'd have thought was enough to show on the system. Can anyone shed any light? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygo Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 It's prolly a bit like the oil measurement system, only registers in incremental blocks. You shoud have put 8 litres in, skinflint! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul P Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 I think it’s all a bit of guesswork when the tank is really low. Due to the shape of it I think. I know that you sometime need to fill it up (well a good more than half ) for the light and and gauge to start behaving again once it’s got really low. when I picked my first one up it was low on fuel. Dealer put two gallons in (watched him do it from fans) and the gauge and the low fuel light stayed at “panic”. It sorted itself (as he said it would ) when I filled it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcacogp Posted May 11, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 1 hour ago, andygo said: It's prolly a bit like the oil measurement system, only registers in incremental blocks. You shoud have put 8 litres in, skinflint! Yes, I see what you mean, but I would expect the measurement system to register on the way down and the way up. This counted down from 84 to 14 or so but didn't count back up to 50-something when more was put in. Skinflint - cheeky hound! ☺️ The petrol station was selling the stuff at about a million billion pounds a drop, compared to the £1.22/L or so of the normal place. 44 minutes ago, Paul P said: I think it’s all a bit of guesswork when the tank is really low. Due to the shape of it I think. I know that you sometime need to fill it up (well a good more than half ) for the light and and gauge to start behaving again once it’s got really low. when I picked my first one up it was low on fuel. Dealer put two gallons in (watched him do it from fans) and the gauge and the low fuel light stayed at “panic”. It sorted itself (as he said it would ) when I filled it up. Thanks, I guess that's my experience as well. I normally fit it to the brim and this was the first time that I have run it low and only put a small amount it. I filled it completely later in the day and everything seemed to be as normal from that point on. Thanks for your help chaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menoporsche Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 2 hours ago, zcacogp said: was driving very gently for a number of reasons; a desire to see how much I could eke out the tank and I had the wife and the cat in the car. There’s your problem. I think the engine is more efficient with a full decat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB.T Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 Fuel gauges are inaccurate at best, the expected range thing is worse, on all cars! Speaking as someone who has to attend people who have run out of fuel, don't rely on either measurement! 😂😂😂⛽⛽👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clivescoobydo Posted May 12, 2021 Report Share Posted May 12, 2021 I think the computer works on averages. Probably adjusted to greater economy during journey but then reverted back to the overall average once restarted meaning no increase range. Probably if you then drove a while, very economically, it would stay the same with miles passing or adjust upwards. Either way a risky way to drive lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iborguk Posted May 12, 2021 Report Share Posted May 12, 2021 Russian Fuelette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcacogp Posted May 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2021 Chaps, Thanks for your answers. I guess that's pretty much it; don't trust the fuel gauge and even less the range-to-empty reading. The latter certainly does learn as you drive the car; it goes up slowly but steadily after filling up until the tank is half empty then drops after that point. Perhaps that's the machine's way of telling me that I drive it too gently. 10 hours ago, Menoporsche said: There’s your problem. I think the engine is more efficient with a full decat. 29 minutes ago, iborguk said: Russian Fuelette Really chaps, do you think that comments like that are at all helpful or funny? Good, because I do! 😁 Keep 'em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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