I'm working on my first tank of gas since I just picked up the car. One light went dark somewhere between 55 and 60 miles. Is it set up so that it takes a long time to get to a half full indication and once you get there, you blink and your pushing empty? My VW works like that.

 

Basically, yes. Virtually every car gas gauge is set up that way. Perhaps not to the extent you make it sound, but it is certainly not linear.

 

Not all. My F-150 truck does the opposite.

Goes from Full to 1/4 in 5 minutes, then takes months to burn the last 1/4.

And it gets 11 MPG!!

 

That's unusual. But, I did say car. Maybe on trucks they are set up differently.

 

Minihound-not sure what you've got, and you've probably seen this around here, and I will stop prefacing someday, but the MC does in fact have a 13+ gal tank, not 10+ like the manual says. So that changes things too.

 

roandren,
You sure about that? The official specs say 10.x gals, the manuals says 10.x gals, the sales brochures say 10.x gals.

What makes you say 13?

 

Heh! That made me chuckle.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Somebody run it out of gas, fill it up and post it. Hurry up!

 

That's the official word that I've heard around here, repeatedly. I apologize I'm too lazy to look it up for you at the moment! Search through the 2007+ forum.

 

There are several threads about this (painfull, long, tiresome...)

For whatever reason, MINIUSA is shipping 13gal gas tanks to US. Enjoy!

 

Oh yea, as implied by dwjj, there is the very odd bit that the rest of the world (??) does have 10+ gal

 

STOP! Do not run it out of gas. Your fuel pump will not like that. Might even let you know by burning itself up. With a K series BMW motorcycle, you run it out of gas and your pump is toast in about as long as it takes you to say OH SH*T!! Fill your tank when it reaches half full. It's not good to run around with a half tank down for weeks on end. Moisture builds up. Moisture is the ENEMY of your engine....well ONE OF EM anyway.

 

Well-not using the bottom of the tank is probably overkill. The pump motor is cooled by the fuel in the tank sloshing over it. You need to have enough fuel in the tank so the motor doesn't overheat. Definitely not in your best interest to make a habit of running around on fumes!

 

Maybe they are sending 13+ to the US and letting us think its only 10+ so we get incredible gas milage.

 

hahaha that's it!

Actually-I could phrase it impolitely (and politically...), but suffice to say that our market demands it. The distances driven, etc, require longer range. They must have been afraid of losing sales with a smaller tank.

 

Good theory!
I actually have the opposite problem. There "current MPG" is always staring at me from the tach, at below 30 which is a bit disappointing for me in my MC. (I gotta get around to putting it on "miles left in tank".)

 

The specs changed.
Why would MINI have two seperate tank sizes for basically the same vehicle?
Different tanks would require several parts to be different. Tank sensor, mounting hardware, wiring harness.
You get price breaks for volume, save money ordering all the same.

The part numbers for the tanks are not listed, but they appear identicle. Venting is done by a different method, but that is understandable. Turbo vehicles are required to have a pump shut off valve inline (in case of accident).
MCS:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...63&hg=16&fg=05
MC:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...62&hg=16&fg=05

 

The trip computer is located in the speedometer rooandren. Press the "Menu" button and press what looks like a volume control **** next to the "Menu" button and it brings up the trip computer. You can select different tidbits and reset them as well.
-----EDIT

Actually 4XAAA, they could use the same parts in a different tank, depending on how the different tank was shaped. All the rest is computer controlled and would be a simple software load for a U.S. vehicle.
I still have my doubts the tank is 13.2 U.S. gallons as I put in 12.1 U.S. gallons at my last fill, which the computer told me to gas up (low fuel warning). But the trip computer still said I had 80 miles left to drive and the current AVG CON was 26.1. Which meant the car thought I had 3 gallons left.

I will test this again soon as I am nearing needing fuel again, only this time my AVG CON is at 30.6.

 

Bye the bye, 10+ UKgal is 12= USgal. perhaps that is the difference

Motor on

 

That's been hashed and rehashed too...

You'd have to convert the UK13.2gal to US then. Nobody has a 16 gal tank...

 

Danka Skuzz-been too busy driving to fiddle with the toys!

 

Can't have the NFR folks lookin like we do not know what we are doing. We are soooooo clued in its scary. We are the lint bearers in a fuzz free world!! We are NFR!! WOOT!

 

Errr, actually, the tach display options are all controlled by the button on the turn signal. And that actually made things worse. Now I got to see the current mpg and that was at 10 for a long time! A dangerous toy!