I am an owner of a 2008 R56, and everything has been great, until last night! I am leaving work, and am low on gas. It says on the computer that I have 70 miles till empty. Well, it only takes me 50 miles to get home, so I was in the clear (It was late, and I didnt feel like pumping gas)

Well, cruising on the highway, I start to feel the engine start stuttering, then silence. I cruise over to the emergency lane, thinking the worst. Just in case, I look at the computer, and it says I have 23 miles till empty. I RAN OUT OF GAS!!!! I had to call AAA, to come bring me gas, while I waited in the car, with no A/C.

Has anyone else had this problem??? I was no where near the limit of being empty. The Gas gauge still had 1 bar on the dash!!!

Another little problem I am having is a varying mpg on the highway. I go the same speed, same highway, with same temps outsite, and some days I get 32 mpg, while other days I get 29 mpg. Driving me nuts!!!!

Nick

 

Yah I know what you mean. I would love to get a traditional needle gas gauge. I got off the highway cause my trip meter said 8 miles. Ended up taking an extra 15-20 minutes to get home since I had to get off.

There have been a number of people with the same story as you, very inconsistent information when it comes to the gas gauge. Lesson, fill her up early.

 

you should never rely on the final miles countdown. Just as the range counter is often inaccurate the final countdown is the same deal.

 

The lowest I let the car go is 1/4 tank but i've heard of several people with your same concern/problem.

 

It's just a computer all cars that have a countdown like that are never exactly right, it depends on how you drive the car. My girlfriend's Explorer does the same thing and is never right.

 

It seems that the computer will "calculate" how many miles till empty based on speed, acceleration, etc. If you're accling hard the miles go down but as soon as you let off they will go back up. I was very careful to watch this so I could get a feel for where empty really was. I got it down to 30 and I started to panic. I just couldn't risk going any farther.

Actually this reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer is test driving the Saab (I think it was a Saab). He and the salesman end up going on a road trip to see how far they can go before having to get gas.

Rule of thumb, look for a gas station when the red bars kick on, fill up now if you happen to make it to only one red bar.

 

There was another thread about this. Quite a few people have had this problem. The gas gauge seems to be rather odd. It drops slowly at first, and then falls fast when near empty.

I was going on a 200 mile round trip so I topped up the tank, even though only one bar had gone out on the gauge. I ended up putting almost five gals. in it!

I wouldn't ever go down below 60 miles left on the tach readout. It isn't good to run out of gas in a fuel injected engine.

 

After reading some of the posts in the other threads on this subject I always make sure to fill up immediately if there are only two bars left. I have the NAV on mine and when you hit the two bar mark it basically tells you at the bottom of the screen you are on "FUEL RESEREVE". I think the problem with the meter is that most other cars I've had place the fuel reserve margin below the 'Empty' mark in the meter, with this it seems like it is part of your tank. Basically with the MINI once the meter goes red you've hit Empty. It is not a good idea to joke around with what might be left after that.

 

I use to agree with that except my other daily driver tells you pull the fuel pump fuse, start the engine and run it until it dies to purge the fuel pressure out of the lines prior to changing fuel filter. I had always heard it was bad but this car has been fine for 215K miles and I've done that at least half a dozen times to it. It's a fuel injected Nissan.

Not that I plan to run out of gas in the Mini.

 

This has been a complaint since the first (BMW) mini's have been out. The gas gage moves slowly for the first half of a tank and then accelerates as you get closer to an empty tank. My 2003 MCS had it and back then there were numerous threads complaining of the same thing.

The answer mini gave back then was they designed it that way because that is how people expected the gas gage to behave... yeah right, no bought that explanation then and I doubt anyone is buying it today, yet it still works this way. I fully expect my 08 MCS to do it as well...

 

You just learned about the buffer zone and the Mini Drivers' Push-mobile Health Program. You had 23 miles to empty but the car never wants to be empty. It has a usable range... ...and then you push the rest.
The cardiovascular benefits of pushing your car shouldn't be overlooked.
You just learned a valuable life lesson, Beaver.

 

My gosh, I had no idea it was a wide spread problem. All of your comments are totally accurate...

I am NEVER going to let this thing past the halfway mark!

 

I know that when I top mine off at 3/4 tank, it takes about 7 gallons. Once I get past 1/4, it drops like a rock.

 

I had an old Nissan Pulsar with old-fashioned needle gauge, and sometimes it would read around 1/8 with no gas-indicator lamp, and I'd run out of gas (3X to be exact--what can I say, I can be a slow learner ), and sometimes it would work as it should. I just started filling it up around 1/4 to be on the safe side.

 

Ditto on this.

I notice it every time when I drive my R53 MCS. The gas gauge barely moves for the first 100kms or so and then once it gets to 1/2 way then it drops so suddenly. Sometimes I can't wait for gas prices to decrease, because when it's 1/2 or less, I know I have very little distance I can cover before my Stella gives up

 

I've noticed that all gas gauges I've had go down very slowly from full, then speed up quite a bit after the half way point. Perhaps the shape of the tank can account for that in some vehicles. My Mini has all the bars lit until I put 80 to 85 miles on the tank. Considering I get a bit better than 400 miles/tank, that's about a fifth of a tank before it shows a decrease. I make it a point to fill up within a few miles of 2 bars remaining.

 

My rules of thumb regarding filling up gas are:

- Fill up when my car estimates I have 100 miles left (it used to be 50, but I noticed with 70 miles left, there was only 1 or 2 gals left, so bumped it up to 100), OR

- Fill up when I have 3 bars left. I once went down to 2 bars and I noticed I had probably 1 or 2 gals left, not a good thing.

It sounds like each car's gas guage is pretty different. Mine doesn't turn out the first light bar until about 60 miles after fillup, and 2nd goes out around 110 to 120 miles, and then the rest goes out at a faster pace. I really really wish guages would be accurate and precise and not play with people's minds. Just give me the facts, madam!

 

Nightsky is right. If you will check the gauges on most cars it appears that you can go for ever on the 1st one-half tank and then the needle jumps off a cliff. Additionally it is not good to let the tank get down low because of sediment and water pickup.

 

Nightsky has hit the nail on the head. Fuel tanks are not shaped like a measuring cup and while driving the fuel sloshes around. Generally there is a float in the tank that goes up and down with the amount of fuel in it. So if a gauge measures 1/4 full in a tank that is shaped like a cone, with the point down (this is for argument sake only) then when the float gets 3/4 of the distance from the top of the cone the gauge will indicate you have 1/4 tank left which is obviously incorrect. Don't let your Mini gas gauge get below 6 lights out and you won't have a problem. Another way I've figured it: there are 10 lights on the gas gauge. I figure each is 10% of the tank capacity, which also is not accurate. However, it generally works out darn close based on the capacity of 13.4 gallons. Try it. When I get below 60% I refuel.

 

I always fill back up when I get to half the bars indicating.

 

Running it down that low is just crazy!
Don't you people watch movies? Jeez! The zombies are gonna chow on you!

Plus it is a good idea to keep an internal pump cool when it is running. "with no A/C" usually means not in a northern climate.

 

Excellent planning. Where are you in S FL?

 

I have an 07 X5, and the BMW manual WARNS not to let the fuel drop to less than 40 Miles to Empty to avoid damage to the engine. I have noticed that once the gauge on the MINI drops to 2 bars, it changes to a red color and the Miles to empty is somewhere in the 53 to 60 range. So I use the X5 fuel warning as a rule of thumb for BMW's.

I keep an eye on the MINI fuel gauge as the bars drop, once I hit 3 bars I start scanning for the nearest location or exit with my preferred station depending where I am at the moment. I never let my mile to empty drop lower than 50 on either the X5 or the MINI. That gives me a comfortable safety margin.

 

After dealing with an Oldsmobile with a less than accurate fuel gauge, I learned to always keep an eye on the trip odo. It serves me well in the MINI, too. I always reset at the pump, and depending on my best guess fuel economy for the tank, don't go more than 350-425 miles before filling up again. That said, I stopped one day when it was down to 12 miles to empty, and put in 13.7 gallons. Oops.

 

Here in northern California where electricity is unreliable (earthquake, forest fires, landslides, redwoods falling, ENRON's market manipulation, etc.) I never let the tank get less than half full because I don't want to get caught without enough gas to get home.

Keeping an eye on the trip odo reminds me thats how I monitored the fuel level on my motorcycles.

I've never even looked at the "miles remaining" number. Doesn't sound reliable to me.