So I must have a bad fuel level sender..as the needle was a barely below 1/8 left and trip gauge said 27 miles left but fuel light was on. Driving home going for my 1st 400 miles on a tank only made it to 371. Didnt know why the car just stopped...checked the oil, called the Mini dealer, tow truck, and my wife. Mini dealer said it usually just goes dead. Wife says "I hope the mods you have been doing to the car isnt the issue"...sigh. So my wife brings me 1/2 gallon of gas and car starts right up.

Common for the gauge to have this variance?

Phew

Cody

 

My fuel gauge seems to track pretty accurately. Comes on with about 2 gallons in the tank (based on topping up at that pointand indicates about 60 miles left to go. I've driven it down to about 10 miles left on the computer several times and have never been stranded. It'll take the full tank capacity to fill it at that point. I do believe your dealer can calibrate it.

 

A Ford mechanic told a friend of mine who had a similar problem to add a bottle of techron to the tank every 3000 miles. Keeps the float in the tank from sticking. He said it is because florida gas isn't as clean. Not sure how true it is... But maybe could help.

 

Sounds normal to me. Never depend on getting the same number of miles tank to tank...to many variables for it to be reading the same 400 miles every time.

 

I used to worry about this type of an issue but then had a friend live off the electricity generated by his car during the big black out in Detroit a few years ago. No pumps worked and no electric in his house but he had an inverter and used it for four days. Since then I don't let it get below 1/4 of a tank. I know that it's not really related but it might be a good practice.

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread...

 

If it does it again (I hope not!) and your gauge says you have 1/8 tank, you might have the dealer check to make sure the sender float is not being hung up.

A couple months ago, I had a shop replace the fuel filter, which is inside the tank (not an inexpensive job, btw). A day or two later, I ran out of gas, even though my gauge said there was 1/8 tank. I've had the needle WAY below that many times, and had never run out. The dealer investigated (I had no idea why the car had suddenly died), and it seems that when the guys were in there to repalce the filter, they got some hose misrouted and it kept the sender float from dropping completely. Fortunately, the other shop credited me for the cost of that repair and the towing bill ($160 - ouch!)

 

id get the dealer to check it out. My car ran out of gas once with 60 miles left on the OBC and they fixed it under warranty

 

The REAL QUESTION we want to know. When you ran out, your wife gave you 1/2 gallon, how much gas did you put in the tank, hopefully you filled it. There has been a question as to if the car holds 12 plus 2 reserve or just 12. Give us the answer.............

 

I put in about 1/2 gallon drove a couple of miles to the gas station and filled up another another near 14 gallons! So car holds 14 total if not a bit more.

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

^^ I recently put in 14.07 gallons in my 2004 MCS at the gas station. The car certainly holds more than the 13.2 gallons that is listed in the manual due to the reserve. I think I was pushing my luck...