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I am the proud owner of a 2015 MINI Cooper S Roadster. I love the way it looks and handles. The exotic dash layout gets a lot of attention.
Wow, that's a large speedometer! I have a question. There is an indicator light positioned above the gas pump icon, what does the light indicate? In the photo I circled it in yellow.
Most fuel gauges have a dial that sweeps past lines that mark empty, quarter, half, 3 quarters, and a full tank.
The mini has none of that. Just a bunch of corn kernels. You can't even use how much of the circle is full as a full tank is only around 75% of the circle.
So how to tell if the tank is full? That dot functions as the full indicator.
Without the dot it would be harder to tell if you have a full tank.
That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. When the last kernel is lite the tank is full.
I could see this is to tell you that the gauge is working, that there is gas in the tank. So in the event the last kernel is out (which one should not attempt too often) it makes the distinction between almost out of gas vs the gauge is broken.
2012 gauge don't seem to have this. They may have realized that without some form of indicator, someone may not realize they are almost out of gas because there is no indication to bring their attention to the empty gauge.
When in the dark, without the dot there isn't necessarily a point of reference to understand quickly how much fuel has been used from full. So the dot helps visualized quickly the level of gas in respect to full.
I must admit, the fuel gauge might be one of my least favorite part of the mini. I've never liked it and don't think the kernel and circular shape is intuitive for the least. Someone should have said "NO" during the design process...
I barely ever look at the gauge, I use the "miles to empty" on the computer much more. The only time I look is really when setting off on a long trip that I would be able to do without stopping on a full or nearly full tank. Other than that I just fill up when I get the "65 miles to go" alert.
That little top light should always be lit, the OP is right it's a reference point. It doesn't mean you have a full tank. It used to be the 1st kernel was 3 gallons, 2 and 3 were 2 gallons, then one gallon from then on down. So 3 kernels dim and tank is about half empty (7 gallons gone). I think on my Coupe the first kernel's only about 2 gallons.
Just a Point of Interest on the dash. Or could be one of those thousand points of lights everyone use to talk about, gone astray.
It's merely an indicator to let you know the fuel gauge is working. If you continued to drive after the last two "carrots" turned WARNING Red and those "carrots" then went off as your fuel diminished, it might look like the gauge wasn't functioning. That little spot of light is there to tell you that, yes, your gauge is really still working and that the reason there are no "carrots" lit and engine sputtered and quit running is because you are now out of fuel.
01-04-2017, 02:57 AM
