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I have two MINI's....an '04 R53 with the standard large pizza speedometer in the center of the dash. Also have an '06 R52 JCW with factory navigation system.
My question is this, is there a "low fuel" chime or light warning of some sort on both cars if fuel level gets too low while driving? I usually don't let any of my fuel injected vehicles fuel level get below 1/4 tank because the fuel in the tank cools the internal pump.
My '06 car with the NAV system has those little orange fuel level squares and the computer says I have about 75 miles left to go....I have only two of the little orange squares lit up right now
Just wanted to know if there was a warning for low level....my wife's car dings like crazy when it has 3 gallons left....
Nothing on my R52. I start shopping when the needle hits the half way point. Talk to most old pilots they'll tell you they prefer to burn off the top half. The few remaining bold pilots don't seem to care.
On my '03 R53, the bar that marks "E" lights red when the fuel level is critically low (maybe 2 gallons left).
As a side note, I'm infamous for running my fuel level to fumes. The only fuel pump I've ever had fail on me was on a car with over 200,000 miles. And I've only run out of gas once in over 30 years.
On my ‘05, the fuel gauge with NAV the last led will light up red at some point. I don’t remember if it will be orange with only one bar, then change to red as the fuel gets a little lower, or if it changes to red as soon as it hits one bar.
On my ‘05, the fuel gauge with NAV the last led will light up red at some point. I don’t remember if it will be orange with only one bar, then change to red as the fuel gets a little lower, or if it changes to red as soon as it hits one bar.
I'm at two bars now, with about 70 miles to go per the computer... I will run it until something changes, or I run out of gas, whichever comes first
Fun story, the first week I bought my Mini I ran out of gas. It is a higher mileage car and I had not learned all of its quirks. But the little red light came on and the computer told me I had 70 miles. I thought I was good. I got to 40 and thought I was good, NOPE, ran out. learned I couldn't trust the computer. However since a good service including changing the fuel filter it is more well aligned.
In short I believe the computer is programmed to light up the red light with the calculated 70 miles comes on.
Last edited by Mini invictus; Oct 14, 2019 at 03:02 PM.
I'm below 70 ,miles to go now....still have two orange squares in the fuel level section of the NAV center.....however, this is the first time I have let the fuel get this low....and it's only had a couple fill ups since I got it back on the road since rebuilding the car over the last year.....
Maybe I need to carry a gallon of gas with me until the little red light comes on, huh?
If you want to play it safe that is a good idea. With the small boot and shared cabin I found that a little annoying. So I pushed my luck in a scientific manner. I knew where all of the gas stations were on my 50 mile drives. I slowly figured it out. So it sounds like you may have already changed the fuel filter. So you should be good.
BTW I am aware the filter does not do the reading for the gauge. However the floats i believe are connected to the pump mechanism.
I have not changed the fuel filter on the car, yet....car only has 108,000 miles....which means nothing, I know.....I have changed out most everything else on the car after I got it last year....
Actually, I have not changed the fuel filter on either of my MINI's....the '04 has around 145k on the clock....
I have a couple filters here...just have not found the time to change them
Fun story, the first week I bought my Mini I ran out of gas. It is a higher mileage car and I had not learned all of its quirks. But the little red light came on and the computer told me I had 70 miles. I thought I was good. I got to 40 and thought I was good, NOPE, ran out. learned I couldn't trust the computer. However since a good service including changing the fuel filter it is more well aligned.
In short I believe the computer is programmed to light up the red light with the calculated 70 miles comes on.
yup, after 4 tanks of gas. i also believe the gas light comes on at around 2 gallons left. therefore the computer should say about 70-75 miles left for most people.
Not sure about the range for the last red led, but I have driven around 25-35 miles on red more than a few times before filling up.
The gas tank is saddle shaped with a tunnel down the center, I guess for the exhaust pipe. Does anyone know how the fuel pickup works in a MINI to get most/all of the gas out of both sides of the tank? An issue with this might be the reason for running out of gas when the tank isn't really empty or still showing miles to empty on the display.
You can turn on the low fuel warning ding with NCS Expert. The setting you're looking for is AKUSTIK_TANK_RESERVE in the KMB module. Set it to aktiv and you'll get a ding when you hit that last petal. It's not a loud ding, but it's better than nothing.
I also set AUSSENTEMP_WARN_AKUSTIK to nicht_aktiv, to turn off the "hey it's 37 degrees outside" ding.
You can turn on the low fuel warning ding with NCS Expert. The setting you're looking for is AKUSTIK_TANK_RESERVE in the KMB module. Set it to aktiv and you'll get a ding when you hit that last petal. It's not a loud ding, but it's better than nothing.
I also set AUSSENTEMP_WARN_AKUSTIK to nicht_aktiv, to turn off the "hey it's 37 degrees outside" ding.
OP, sorry if I am switching topic. Not to hijack your thread, but this comes real handy if any component in your cooling system fails and you are not staring at the gauges all the time
Hi mslatter, you happen to know if there is an option in NSC expert to turn on a chime for engine overheating that goes with the little red temp lamp? Thanks
Just to update this thread, I took the R52 out today, showed 52 miles to go, still had two orange squares for fuel level. Looked down at the cluster and had one red square lit up, miles to go showing in pictures. Just the light on, no warning chime or sounds.
Went to the gas station, took 12 gallons to fill it up
Bryan 52 miles to go 47 miles to go, red light on
Last edited by A383Wing; Oct 18, 2019 at 01:50 PM.
OP, sorry if I am switching topic. Not to hijack your thread, but this comes real handy if any component in your cooling system fails and you are not staring at the gauges all the time
Hi mslatter, you happen to know if there is an option in NSC expert to turn on a chime for engine overheating that goes with the little red temp lamp? Thanks
I don't think so, though there might be one in later models, or other BMW cars. I looked at the translations.csv file that comes with NCS Dummy, and it has an entry for AKUSTIK_KUEHLMITTELTEMP that reads "Coolant temperature warning gong." Sounds like the thing, but there's no AKUSTIK_KUEHLMITTELTEMP in my downloaded files, so I think it's not applicable to our cars. It'd be great to have.
I've looked into the PLX Kiwi 4. It's an OBD2 device that has stand-alone alarms (you don't need to connect your phone for the alarms to work). As far as I know, it's the only other way to get an alarm on temp, and to be honest, I'm not even 100% sure it can do that. The website reads like it should, but doesn't specifically call that out as a feature. https://www.plxdevices.com/Kiwi-4-OB...7346002092.htm
