My tank was showing as almost empty (about 1/2 way up the red), and the fuel warning message had come on, but I could only get just under 40 litres in the tank before it started spilling out. Bearing in mind the tank is 45 litres, does this mean I could have driven another 40-45 miles on the remaining 5 litres beacuse the on screen display is inaccurate, or is the capacity less than Fiat state?
General Fuel tank capacity
- Thread starter Fistral
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General Fuel tank capacity
I wouldn't like to put a distance on it, but yes you probably did still have a couple of liters left. It's a low fuel warning light (as opposed to a no fuel warning), and the Range indicator is by no means accurate.
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yesterday my range indicator stated 35 miles left, it stayed at 35 miles for the whole morning and i drove about 10-20 miles 
The range indicator is crap lol. I drove around for 3 days (bout 30-40 miles) last week with mine stating zero miles.
Range is only a guide, and will only be most accurate at a constant. If driving around town then it may as well be ignored
jameshobiecat
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I often keep driving untill the needle goes off the very bottom of the red zone. I usually manage to get about 44 litres in but my pb is 45.4 Inc filling the neck.
Range indicators always give a conservative figure, saves people running out of fuel and blaming the manufacturer.
Range indicators always give a conservative figure, saves people running out of fuel and blaming the manufacturer.
You must have been running on the fumes in the fuel lines.
A couple of times I've managed to get just under 44 litres in and I thought I was doing well
Dcthebear
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Hmmm, problem is your not running on fumes! Your running on all the crap that lays in the bottom of the tank. Never a good idea to let any fuel tank drop too low unless you enjoy replacing fuel filters and injectors for the bits that do get through.
jameshobiecat
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Ah but if you do it every time then the dirt doesn't get a chance to accumulate.
And what a great misconception that is!
Fuel pump always sucks from the bottom of the tank, regardless of if it's full or empty
And you'll be hard pushed to find any crap in a fuel tank of a car within 20 years of age
My range says 366 miles regardless of how much fuel I have etc. Its stuck on exactly 366 miles, resetting it would work I imagine but I just find it lifts my spirits when the petrol light comes on and it says I can still do 366 miles
Dcthebear
Member
Its not a matter of how clean your tank is! Its the cleanliness of the tank your filling it from. Do you trust every forecourt in the land to have clean tanks, pipes and nozzles? Besides running a modern electric pump in an empty tank does it no favours when it comes to cooling. Its the fuel that cools the pump. Keep it quarter full minimum in my opinion, most crap will be moving around the fuel or floating on top of it away from the pump inlet and the pump remains submerged.
I still say you're worrying yourself over nothing, 12 years my car's been running on the same pump and same filter, I run it down to almost empty everytime and have filled up at some utter dives over the years.
Having not only worked in the petroleum trade, but also having scrapped numerous cars at 18-20 years of age each I can assure you crap is nothing to worry about.
Not one fuel tank in a car I scrapped had any crap in, fuel retail in Europe is one of the most refined and processed in the world, so you're unlikely to pick up crap from it.
Pump cooling is also something that isn't really affected by the fuel level in the tank. Nearly 3 years of running a hybrid with less than 1/4 of a tank, often well into the red, and running on fumes and I've yet to have any fuel pump issues - I doubt highly that people ocassional lay running into the red in full are ever going to have any issues.
Running a Landy in the Sahara and filling it with jerry cans though......then I can see your worry.
Dcthebear
Member
And air being drawn into the fuel system from an empty tank won't cause hassle? You fully trust the fuel gauge float to be accurate? Running empty is NOT a clever thing to do. Fuel is the food for the engine, deny the food or poison it and that engine will suffer. Yes it may take time, yes you may pass the car on before it reaches that time but for those of us running older cars its vital to keep it in good order.
Hi all,
Thanks for the replies, even though some went off the point a little! I suppose it comes down to the accuracy of the manufacturers fuel tank reading, and it sounds as if the Fiat one isn't great. I've owned a Skoda Fabia VRS and Octavia VRS, and they were spot on with their remaining mileage and fuel tank capacity, but it always worries me when readings are a bit iffy in case you run out of fuel. I get 56mpg on regular South Wales to Cornwall runs in my 57 Punto Sporting so consumption is brilliant, but thanks to all who replied.
Thanks for the replies, even though some went off the point a little! I suppose it comes down to the accuracy of the manufacturers fuel tank reading, and it sounds as if the Fiat one isn't great. I've owned a Skoda Fabia VRS and Octavia VRS, and they were spot on with their remaining mileage and fuel tank capacity, but it always worries me when readings are a bit iffy in case you run out of fuel. I get 56mpg on regular South Wales to Cornwall runs in my 57 Punto Sporting so consumption is brilliant, but thanks to all who replied.
Air in the fuel system will easily purge if you are stupid enough to run out of fuel - gauges are accurate enough, its people who still choose not to fill when showing empty who are not cleaver!
If running fuel that low or running out completly was that detrimental, with that they can do with modern cars they'd make them not run with less than X amount of litres in the tank.
Have to agree to disagree on this one.
If it's any help to bring things back on topic a bit, I did a cross-country drive recently and forgot to fill up before we left.
The second half of the journey was on A-roads, so we expected to go past several petrol stations, but ironically the only one we passed was closed as it was being filled by a tanker, so my fuel did get quite worryingly low.
For the last 80 miles or so I was comparing the distance to go on my satnav to the range on the car and they were about the same (when going uphill the range was less, downhill the range was more).
At about 25 miles range the display goes to ----, at which point the satnav reckoned I was still over 30 miles away.
I made it there, and was able to drive 5 miles to a petrol station the following day (with the needle not moving off the bottom of the gauge when the car was started!), and even then could only fit in 43.7 litres, so at the point the car reckoned there was zero range there was still about 1.5 to 2 litres of petrol in the tank.
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Thanks Juggers2k. The trend of the responses seem to be there's more fuel in the tank than the reading indicates, which which be borne out by me only being able to get 40 litres in yesterday. With about 5 litres left in the tank I could probably get another 45-50 miles out of it based on average consumption to date, but I'd be worried about leaving it run too low especially in locations where I didn't know where petrol stations were.
