500 The range on the twinair

[ScottABarrett500]

Hi, I picked up my fiat 500 TA S on the 22nd, and immediately noticed an issue when I turned the ignition on, the tank said I had over a quarter of a tank but I beeped and flashed saying that I was low on fuel, but the orange/yellow fuel light wasn't on. The dealer was also confused and said to fill her up and see what happened. Before I even got to a filling station, it said I have 64 miles on the range, but still no light! I filled her up, the guage went to full, but when I checked the range it said I only had 250 miles left. I them proceeded to drive and the range crept up to 400+ miles. I kept an eye on this and the range was always a lot less when I started from cold, or was starting and stopping in traffic etc (which makes me think its telling me what range I have depending on how efficient the engine is running, my driving style or if I'm in the city). When I got down to just over a quarter of a tank again, it tells me I am low on fuel, but no fuel like, which gets me worried so I head towards a fuel station, even when I though I had over 100 miles left. The range then proceeds to creep back up, finally again to 130 miles. At this point I head to my dealership, and they're picking my car up from work on the 7th to look at it. I've been driving it since and the range varies by 100 miles, often it reduces by 100 miles quickly, then slowly increases back up. I've been doing an average of 50mpg with varied journeys. After filling up the first time, I got almost 400 miles out of the tank and only filled up to 30litres suggesting I hadn't touched the 5 litre reserve. On the present tank I've done 250 miles, I have a quarter of a tank left and it says I have 150 miles left, but it did go down to 90 at one point, but has gone back up!

I had a fiat 500 1.2 sport and the fuel light always went on at 77miles, and at 30 miles it said I was on low fuel. Every time I filled the car it said the range was 439 miles as well!

Is this common for the Twinair? Should the range change a lot dependant on driving style? Does anyone know of what the issue could be? Or has had this problem? Is it easy to sort?

I'm loving the car and the service department has said until they look at it, I should just go by the guage and ignore the range, and if I don't like it beeping at me, to fill at quarter of a tank, but sometimes that isn't possible when you think you have 150 miles left between quarter and half, then when it reaches quarter it just starts beeping telling me I'm low on fuel!

Many thanks

 

[jrkitching]

I had a fiat 500 1.2 sport and the fuel light always went on at 77miles, and at 30 miles it said I was on low fuel. Every time I filled the car it said the range was 439 miles as well!

My 1.2 does exactly this too. And after fuelling, the range will stay at 439 for a few tens of miles, before beginning to count down.

Apart from the bars on the fuel gauge, you get two low fuel warnings; the light and the "low fuel message" in the MFD. After the second warning, the range will change from about 30 miles to "---".

Provided you are in a place & time where fuel is readily available, you can safely run down to the second warning without risk of running out - you'll have at least 25 miles to find a garage after hearing the low fuel beep & the car then warns you every time you restart.

Actually running out of fuel therefore requires considerable ingenuity but it has been done (usually in pursuit of some meaningless endurance record ). In practice, filling up an the next cheap garage you come to after the first warning, and if you don't find a cheap one, adding some fuel as soon as practicable after the second works for most folks.

The range does take account of your recent driving history. If you reset Trip A each time you refuel, and mentally add the range & miles covered figures as you go (the two added together are the predicted total miles on the current tankful), you'll see how the range adapts to your driving style & traffic conditions.

 

[ScottABarrett500]

My 1.2 does exactly this too. And after fuelling, the range will stay at 439 for a few tens of miles, before beginning to count down.

Apart from the bars on the fuel gauge, you get two low fuel warnings; the light and the "low fuel message" in the MFD. After the second warning, the range will change from about 30 miles to "---".

Provided you are in a place & time where fuel is readily available, you can safely run down to the second warning without risk of running out - you'll have at least 25 miles to find a garage after hearing the low fuel beep & the car then warns you every time you restart.

Actually running out of fuel therefore requires considerable ingenuity but it has been done (usually in pursuit of some meaningless endurance record ). In practice, filling up an the next cheap garage you come to after the first warning, and if you don't find a cheap one, adding some fuel as soon as practicable after the second works for most folks.

Thanks, so there is an issue as the range is over the place and it goes to ---------- miles before the warning light goes on, but then it goes back to to saying I've got more than 30miles again! But it's good to know it should be the same as the 1.2! S hopefully they can fix it quickly!

 

[306maxi]

No, there is no issue IMHO, this is how a car can behave.

If you do a cold start with a low amount of fuel you can sometimes get the blank range warning which means you've got 30 miles of fuel, drive far enough to get the engine warm and then restart again and the trip computer can sometimes display more than 30 miles.

When you're just driving along the trip computer will re-evaluate the range based on the amount of fuel in the tank and your recent fuel consumption. So you could be driving along absolutely spanking it and it could show 100 miles range and then you could slow down and the range will actually increase.

If the car was being PDI'd with the engine running and doing virtually 0mpg then you could probably be in a situation where the car would think it wouldn't do 30 miles on a quarter of a tank.

Personally I don't think you've got an issue

 

[The Twins]

Great explanation maxi. I get similar behavior with my TA.

 

[ScottABarrett500]

No, there is no issue IMHO, this is how a car can behave.

If you do a cold start with a low amount of fuel you can sometimes get the blank range warning which means you've got 30 miles of fuel, drive far enough to get the engine warm and then restart again and the trip computer can sometimes display more than 30 miles.

When you're just driving along the trip computer will re-evaluate the range based on the amount of fuel in the tank and your recent fuel consumption. So you could be driving along absolutely spanking it and it could show 100 miles range and then you could slow down and the range will actually increase.

If the car was being PDI'd with the engine running and doing virtually 0mpg then you could probably be in a situation where the car would think it wouldn't do 30 miles on a quarter of a tank.

Personally I don't think you've got an issue

Ok thankyou, I'm going to get them to have a look anyway, as they didn't think it should be doing it! There's no harm in them checking over after I've been driving it for a couple of weeks! I'm just used to the old 1.2 where it always started at 439 on a full tank and would only decrease gradually!

Other than that I'm enjoying the car and the extra power! The only other thing I'm confused with is I thought I'd still get storage under the passenger seat as that's what the spec said, plus it said I would get a space saver spare wheel and a fix and go puncture repair kit! Except no storage or puncture repair kit! I got the interscope but nowhere says I'd lose the storage!

 

[306maxi]

The dealers don't own a 500 and know them as well as people who've owned them and driven them for years though.

 

[ScottABarrett500]

The dealers don't own a 500 and know them as well as people who've owned them and driven them for years though.

Well I'd been driving a 500 1.2 for a few years and never come across this until I got the Twinair! And the guy at the service desk drives a twinair and said it shouldn't be that sensitive so I'm confused! My main concern is that a quarter of a tank should hold about 10 litres yet it'll beep before the warning light even goes on. Surely the warning light should go on when it hits the reserve, then it should be beep later to say low fuel. No way should the range be less than 30 miles when there is still 5 litres left in the tank, even my driving isn't very economic. My 1.2 never did it.

 

[306maxi]

The warning isn't directly linked to any specific fuel level. It's linked to range, if the consumption is high then you will get a blank range warning at a higher fuel level.

that said, having run out of fuel, the empty range warning does tend to come on when there's about 5 litres of fuel left, but that is simply when the car says it has 30 miles left to go under typical consumption.

 

[ScottABarrett500]

The warning isn't directly linked to any specific fuel level. It's linked to range, if the consumption is high then you will get a blank range warning at a higher fuel level.

that said, having run out of fuel, the empty range warning does tend to come on when there's about 5 litres of fuel left, but that is simply when the car says it has 30 miles left to go under typical consumption.

Thanks Maxi, that helps a lot

 

[ScottABarrett500]

The warning isn't directly linked to any specific fuel level. It's linked to range, if the consumption is high then you will get a blank range warning at a higher fuel level.

that said, having run out of fuel, the empty range warning does tend to come on when there's about 5 litres of fuel left, but that is simply when the car says it has 30 miles left to go under typical consumption.

Had them look at today, they said there isn't an issue and that I am to wait a bit longer to see if it settles as it is still below 1000 miles, the only thing is, after I got it back today, it wasn't acting half as erratic as it was before lol!

 

[306maxi]

Lile I said, there is no issue, the behaviour can be easily explained, the trip computer doesn't 'settle' I could make it do the same thing tomorrow if I reset the trip and then left it to idle for a while

 

[jrkitching]

The 500 MFD is far less erratic than the one in my Mk3 Panda.

The Panda has a very much narrower window of past driving history & in consequence the range indication is all but useless.

 

[grimwau]

The only other thing I'm confused with is I thought I'd still get storage under the passenger seat as that's what the spec said, plus it said I would get a space saver spare wheel and a fix and go puncture repair kit! Except no storage or puncture repair kit! I got the interscope but nowhere says I'd lose the storage!

Unfortunately, you don't get storage with either interscope (even though the sub-woofer is under the driver's seat) or if you spec the leather option, and if you get the spacesaver then you don't get the repair kit. So you have exactly what you should have (or haven't) so don't panic, all is as it should be.