Ran out of gas today, with the meter showing two ticks left and the computer telling me that I had 40 more miles to go before fill-up. The indicator had been on for about 14 miles. Thought for sure that I could make it the 2 miles to the gas station by my work. I know that the computer isn't going to be super accurate, but I've had the meter go down to one tick before filling up.
I had 280 miles on this tank of gas.

 

Only 280 miles on one tank .....that seems awful low, what kind of mpg are you getting??

 

Could it be that wacky fuel pump/sensor problem noted in other forums?

 

That's easily what I averaged during break in.

 

I'm getting around 300 when it goes to reserve. All my driving of late is on surface streets so my ave mpg is around 24 +/-. I really don't obsess to much about mpg. It is what it is.

 

You sure you ran it dry? How much did you put in?

 

Welcome to the club, same thing happened to me, bad fuel sensor. Replaced sensor and pump took 10 days

 

I fill gas when the tick marks is showing half a tank.

 

So like every other day or so

 

Is there a way to fill with the indicator active without the engine on? I'm thinking you could record which candy corn you start filling with and start filling the tank. Watch the tank fill and see the gauge progressively light a candy corn. Once the last candy corn is lit, record how many gallons it took you to get from your start candy corn to the full candy corn. You can then to then see how many additional gallons are placed into the tank after the last candy corn is lit until the pump clicks off.

This way, you know when the fuel gauge begins decrementing from full, you have X gallons in your tank between full and whatever candy corn you recorded when you started filling. You should be able to come up with a rough estimate of your range between the recorded fill candy corn and the full candy corn. By doing this and taking the known tank capacity, MPG into account, a rough calibration of when you need to fill up and total fuel in the system can be made.

It's probably overly complicated (my nature) and one that requires you to pay attention to the gauge. I'd think after doing this a few times, a driver could get a pretty good feel for how much range so many candy corns get and it will vary from car to car based on what I've read here.

 

I think the fuel gauge is more a reflection of the 'miles to empty' than actual fuel in the tank, I have noticed that i gain candy corns when going from stop n go traffic to highway driving, as the range increased, the number of corns increased. I noticed that in my audi as well.

couldnt be any worse than the VW cabrio i used to drive where the gas gauge only went up to half even when full, and then the odometer quit working, i never knew how much gas i had!! every road trip was a nervous adventure!

 

I was recently on the last marker. OBC said 60 miles to empty and I was going to drive 35 miles to get to work and fill up there since gas there was 10 cents cheaper . Based on what I've been reading, I chickened out and filled up near home .

 

I used to fill at the half way mark but decided that was too ****. I then filled when the first indication of going into reserve showed up; somewhere around 50 miles remaining. But now that I've read more of this thread, I'm gonna err on the side of caution and fill between a quarter and the half way indicator. I've read you don't want to run these engines dry since it causes issues with priming the injectors or something.

 

Went all the way down to zero candy corns and when you hit zero on the dash computer it's just a bunch of ------------ across instead of numbers. Did this the other day on the highway and still made it another 12 miles to the gas station after it went to ------

 

I am getting about 220 when I see RED. Thanks to NYC traffic. I allways zero when I refill. At 200 i get it refilled.

 

My wife's Volvo v70 will go from 35 miles to empty in anywhere from 1 mile to 40 miles..... I quit believing in the OBC's of cars after that, but I am worried about the Countryman gauge. I hope they have '12's worked out.

Michael

 

i just treat it like i did my audi, the 'ding' means get thee to the next available gas station !

or fill after hitting 1/4 tank at your leisure... i usually got 300 miles out of a tank in that car too, but it held 18 gallons !

once got stuck out in colorado on the open road with no towns in sight in my 89 silverado 4x4 and the gas gauge disappearing into the dashboard drove almost 50 miles sweating the entire way with the gas dial completely gone when i finally found a little town, and put exactly 26 gallons in (capacity)

probably safest to fill by mileage and not the gas gauge

 

I've been getting about 22 mpg here in Philly, mostly city driving. 3500 miles on the car. I forget how many gallons I put in, but it was more than I've ever put in before. What annoys me is that I usually take it down to one tick before I get gas, and this was still on two ticks.

 

I haven't relied on a gas gauge since I ran out of gas in 1989 on VW GTI. I religiously track my gas mileage - I'm getting 25.9 mi/gal. I know at the 300 mi mark 'll need 11.6 gals of gas, Therefore I'll always refill before the 300 mi mark on each tank. Usually at the 280-290mi mark.

 

The furthest I've gone on a tank of gas was 416 miles...a mixture of highway & city driving. It was down to 2 lights showing (which I don't usually go down to, as 3 is low enough for me).

 

No...more like every other 4 days.

 

In NJ, gas is pumped for you.

 

Sounds like the best bet is to treat it like you're riding a motorcycle without a fuel gauge and base it solely on range. Once you've got your avg MPG, reset your trip OD every time you fuel (assuming you fill tank full each time) and don't go past your max range:

 

I guess I'm going to have to stop seeing "red". It'll make my wife happy.

Bill

 

I'm not advocating my driving style but I routinely run the tank to the low extremes. I'm almost 100% highway driving and won't think about filling up until the trip meter nears 400. I've pushed well past the OBC telling me I was empty and probably gone more than 35-45 miles beyond. Although the tank is supposed to have a 12.5 capacity I've filled to almost 13.5 at times. My girlfriend thinks I am nuts since it has nothing to do with price and I run out of gas 3-4 times a year, she might be on to something !?!