mk1 cinquecento and punto owners only, do you trust your fuel gauge??

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mk1 cinquecento and punto owners only, do you trust your fuel gauge??

do you trust your mk1's fuel gauge.

  • yes trust it with my life

    Votes: 7 17.5%
  • only to a point, use it as a rough guess

    Votes: 30 75.0%
  • wouldn't trust it as far as i could throw it.

    Votes: 3 7.5%

  • Total voters
    40

61ason61

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right if you don't own or drive a mk 1 cinquecento or punto, please feel free to post, but please please don't vote.

do you trust your fuel gauge.

the cinqy was terrible, around quarter tank or less the light would come on every so often and the fuel gauge would fluctuate between absolute zero and quarter tank. was gonna change the sender but killed car.

same with punto, not quite as bad, but light does flicker from around quarter tank (its a guess, only got full/ half and empty marks on gauge)

but it still does it. now its right down, bit better, but it still tries to confuse me.

hav you had this issue, do you trust your mk 1's fuel gauge.??
 
it just fluctuates when cornering - doesn't take much to figure out!

my cinqy's was awful, when test drove it thought quarter tank, then few miles down road nothing, then quarter. fine if more than quarter tank. reckon they must of economised on fuel tank baffles to stop the sloshing, or not!!
 
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mine drops slowly from full to around 3/4 - 5/8 then drops very quickly down to 1/2 - 1/4 then drops slowly again from there down to Empty.
Normally 5-10L still in tank when it says Empty with light coming on around 15L:p

I often fill up when the needle is 1-2 mm from very bottom, i still often have 10L though:p
 
I Trust the fuel gauge in my Punto more than my Xsara, the Punto fluctuates when cornering but then again so do most old ish cars.

Miss driving my Punto, so much :( Never ran out of fuel in it either. :D
 
I Trust the fuel gauge in my Punto more than my Xsara, the Punto fluctuates when cornering but then again so do most old ish cars.

Miss driving my Punto, so much :( Never ran out of fuel in it either. :D

the cinq was a p, my newest motor, the punto's an m. had a few n regs and much older cars. the mrs's motor is a T reg. the only cars i've ever had issues with that i've owned ref the fuel gauges are the fiats!!!!!!!!:bang::bang:(n)

probably due to build quality but i could drive the merc to the light, and then know EXACTLY how far i could go on it. once we played the motorway game, the next service after the light comes on. lucky really, started coughing as we pulled into the next service 33 miles up the road. normally this wouldn't have been a worry, but as i had a caravan on the tow bar, it changed the rules sligthtly :) lol

must say the light flickers on a lot, even after 8.50 worth of fuel. however the needle is much better behaved than the cinqy was. fluctuates a bit but settles quickly and gives a better idea of when its proper low and not teasing me.
 
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My Seicento gauge wandered all over the place but its fuel mileage was consistent so I just used the trip milometer. So what its a cheap basic car. My Punto is pretty good, though the low fuel light comes on with 60 miles to go, but at least the gauge is still above zero & moving down.

My Mother's 2007 Panda would start beeping madly and flashing "fill fuel now" with about 3 litres in the tank. It had at least 20 miles maybe 30 still in the car. 10 minutes earlier the computer had announced 60 miles fuel left. At least it still had an electromechanical gauge.

My 2002 Audi was accurate on fuel levels but being a diesel I never took chances of it running out. With all the computer power of today's cars I cant see why fuel gauges cant be accurate.

My bike fuel gauge shows nothing for the 1st third. Drops like a stone to zero when 2 thirds used. Finally it flashes the reserve light at 20%. Just when you need to know how much fuel you have its telling nothing useful. In a 22 litre tank with average 45mpg its pretty crap TBH. On long runs I carry a spare fuel can. But it is a 1997 Yamaha so its forgiven.
 
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My Seicento gauge wandered all over the place but its fuel mileage was consistent so I just used the trip milometer. So what its a cheap basic car. My Punto is pretty good, though the low fuel light comes on with 60 miles to go, but at least the gauge is still above zero & moving down.

My Mother's 2007 Panda would start beeping madly and flashing "fill fuel now" with about 3 litres in the tank. It had at least 20 miles maybe 30 still in the car. 10 minutes earlier the computer had announced 60 miles fuel left. At least it still had an electromechanical gauge.

My 2002 Audi was accurate on fuel levels but being a diesel I never took chances of it running out. With all the computer power of today's cars I cant see why fuel gauges cant be accurate.

My bike fuel gauge shows nothing for the 1st third. Drops like a stone to zero when 2 thirds used. Finally it flashes the reserve light at 20%. Just when you need to know how much fuel you have its telling nothing useful. In a 22 litre tank with average 45mpg its pretty crap TBH. On long runs I carry a spare fuel can. But it is a 1997 Yamaha so its forgiven.

not sure just how far i have been down the tank, but let the gauge get pretty low the other day, put a fiver in and drove 20 ish miles on it, quite aggressivly home as had an argument. surprising i know. :)

can't use the milometer as they didn't give me one(n):bang: but will fit a 1.2 one soon. have the info on tachometer, but would like help with temp gauge nearer the time. agree the puntos is quite good on the needle, but that light is next to useless to me as you say, its always bloody on when last 60 odd miles in tank. thats my usual carry around fuel wise. she'll never have more than 5/10 quid in the tank cause i never need more than that at once. longest journeys are around 15 miles, and average is 1 - 2 miles. only use it for shops or taking dogs out on the plain locally. just easier with six dogs to use the car more. having had a 4x4 for last 3 or 4 years, feel i've done my bit enviromentaly by down sizing. done for cost reasons, cheaper to own and run this for a month taking all usual running costs into account than it was to insure the 4x4 for a month. although did use it in snow to help NHS and WRVS meals on wheels.
 
i have to say i love mine(y)
If you put your foot down the fuel gauge drops a bit, take your foot of the gas and it goes back up a bit:p

Even better when no fuel in the car, drops off the scale then back up:p

Happy days
 
Fuel gauge is officially rubbish. Sick of that bloody orange light winking at me when I go round a roundabout. There must be a way to electronicly baffle how keen it is to react.
Any electronic experts out there?

As for running out, not really an issue. I also ride a 1996 Honda Fireblade that does a measly 26mpg, but it is 146bhp so I forgive the cost for the smiles it gives me when I hit the throttle. 100miles and i'm on reserve, 125miles and i'm walking, an 899 cinq in comparison is great.
 
My punto's gauge goes down quite a bit and the fuel light sometimes can come on when i'm ragging it. Quite good as a little reminder to stop driving like a dick. But as someone mentioned above, annoying for roundabouts.
 
Mk1 Punto 55SX. Fuel gauge is a typically inconsistant elctro-mechanical device. First half tank last 250 miles, second 'half' about 150 miles. When the amber warning lamp comes on, I have about 40 miles grace.

My Punto was built in 1996. I also own a 2004 VW Passat. Guess what, the fuel gauge on that suffers exactly the same fault.

I suspect that the fuel sender unit is sending a signal that changes on a logarithmic scale, where as the fuel gauge operates to a linear scale. Thus the 'Rush to zero' as the fuel level drops.

If the gauge is truely erratic, may I suggest a fuel cleaner additive is added to the tank. A simular action cured my VW of an erratic fuel gauge.
 
i bought my punto new 8 yrs ago and iv never let it get below the halfway mark ever ..... .however in the last 2 weeks iv let it go below a quarter of a tank and im waiting for the light ...........not appeared yet ............still waiting ............i think i must get around 49 to 56 to the gallon which i find is real good .......but im still waiting for the light ........:cool:
 
nowt wrong with them. the go up/down with cornering but as soon as you hit a straight they read completely true.... dont get what the fuss is about.

swap it with a 16v pump and it stops doing it :)
 
I trust my on my cinq sporting till it gets to 1/4.... Although other day I had a full tank, was on a motorway doing about 90 for abit and 1/4 of tank had gone... and as i slown down to 70 it went back up again :/
 
I didnt vote as I have a mk2 but seem to have the same issue as you guys, as soon as the gauge gets below or hits the 1/4 tank mark the light comes on. not sure why it comes on so early but it does frustrate me!
Also I have a massive van for work which takes about £98 to fill and its really boring standing at the pump for that long so try to fill up as little as possible by driving like a Nana! :)
 
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