I made several fillups at different pumps. With two red fuel gauge lights left it was 12.2XX which made me thinking... wow... two lights mean you have less than one galon left !!! Another fillup (at another pump) with one fuel gauge light left was 13.3XX galons.

I must say that Mini is not the only car I owned and own and filled up at those gas stations multiple-multiple times. So there's something really wrong or special about Mini's tank, not the stations.

I tend to think they do have some reserve. The question is - how much.

14.75 - nice to know you have at least ~1.5Gal reserve.

I think it really is 2.1 gal of reserve mentioned above. Or, I hope it is, because with fuel gauge letting to go that low to the limit it just does not make much sense.

And I do not beleive fuel pumps are incorrect by that much as I know this is not true based on my other cars.

I mean, nothing is 100% correct, but this would be too much to ignore.

 

When I removed my tank I had no lights left on and the Odo read -- but there was one gallon left in the tank. The big sticker on the top of the tank says 50 Litres.

 

There have been many threads on this. The tank is 13.2 g and the filler neck hold about 1 g so 14.2 g(approx). 50 liters is 13.2 g.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

So does the fuel fills the neck almost completely? Because I never attempt to refill again after the pump shuts off at neither of my cars.

OXYBLUECOOP, do you remember how big the neck was when you were removing the tank? That should be pretty big one

Yes, I just checked the manual it always says 13.2 including the reserve.

P.S. By the way, pretty weird reserve implementation.

At one of my other cars (french one) the fuel gauge light was coming on when the arrow was showing like one quarter of the tank is left according to the gauge (10 liters, the gauge was extremely accurate in any position by the way). So you get the signal - think of the gas station. If you ignore that and let the arrow show the empty tank you still had another 10 liters of reserve. And I must tell you I was never able to use more than 2-3 liters out of that reserve. Warning light and empty fuel tank feeling according to the gauge make you rush to the gas station no matter what

So that car had 50 liters total. The gauge arrow worked for the 40 liters of fuel only and remaining 10 liters was considered as reserve.

The manual said fuel tank capacity is 50 liters.

Hondas I owned did pretty much similar thing. And all those cars had fuel tank necks as well.

So what makes me feel weird - BMW is understating the actual fuel system capacity which is making you thinking gas stations are stealing your money on one hand and not knowing the actual reserve on another one.

14.75 somebody was able to fit in the tank versus 13.2 according to the manual is pretty big difference.

 

The fuel neck on the MINI's is the smallest I've ever seen on an car.It's about the same diameter as the hose on the gas pump. There's no way it holds a gallon of gas.

 

I know a lot of folks probably know this but it is worth repeating. When the gasoline pump shuts off indicating a full tank, do not try to put more in. You may damage or destroy the carbon filter which absorbs gasoline vapors.