The fuel gauge on my 2010 justa has never been very accurate but it seems to be getting worse. Currently, I have 225mi on this tank and the gauge is only missing 2 candy corns; the computer says I have 410mi left to go before I'm empty. From a previous bad experience I know that I only get about 385 mi on a tank with my lead foot in urban traffic. Is my gauge bad enough to get any real attention from my dealer when I go in for my first service?

 

The real problem is if it tells you that you have gas, when infact you just ran out....lol. I find mine really accurate...I've many many times run my tank down to when no petals/"candy corns" are showing, and miles past when the computer says 0 mi left.

As far as the "candy corns," they are not equal. The first few take more miles to go out than the last few. Someone actually broke it down, what percentage of the tank each one represents. You can find it if you dig around here...I have no idea where it was.

The distance to empty indicator is computed using your avg gas mileage that you are getting currently. So if you're on the highway for a little, it will increase. Then let's say you get off and get back into city driving....its still going to compute high due to the highway driving you just did.

 

We fill ours at half a tank, which is 3 or 4 bars gone. Heck of a thread on it here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...gas-again.html

 

Someone once said:
Run out of gas once, shame on MINI.
Run out of Gas again, shame on you.

Having had many motorcycles, I am used to filling up by the trip odometer. I know what the least number of miles I can get on my MINI regardless of driving conditions and I try not to go beyond that, hence I have never run out. However I have, several times, put more gas in the tank than the manual says it will hold.

The funny thing about the gas gauge is that each "petal/candy corn/carrot" is worth less than the one before it. And if you think the gas gauge is silly, you should try an R57 with its Openometer.

 

Yep, I'm an old motorcycle rider too so I regularly depend on the odometer to remind me when I need to refuel. However, every motorcycle I've ever owned had a reserve that I could access with a twist of the petcock. When my Mini ran out I had 2 candy corns still illuminated and an onboard computer telling me I could go another 50+mi before refueling. I learned my lesson and regularly refill when I have 300mi on the trip meter but more accurate fuel gauge would still be nice.

 

Yeah, I pretty much treat my gas gauge as a fun accent light and not really having anything to do with the fuel in the tank. Like AustinS said, after riding motorcycles for years and using the odometer to track when to fill up, unfortunately that is the method I use with the MINI too.

Oddly enough, my last car had the most accurate gas gauge I have encountered in a car and it was also one of the cheapest, a 2006 Kia Rio.

 

Every Chevy I have ever owned always had a few gallons left when it read empty. Yet some will still run out of gas.

 

My situation was a bad gas gauge sensor. Which caused me to run out of gas when the gauge showed 3 lights.