Has anyone noticed that their fuel gauge and warning light is overly conservative??

For instance... recently I had driven 330 miles since the last fill-up when the low fuel warning light came on. I drove another 22 miles to a gas station near home. (trip odo showed about 352mi). I filled the tank and only put in 13.5 gallons. It's got a 17.1 gallon tank, right? So I figure I still had about 3.5 gallons in the tank when I filled up... probably a little over 4 gallons left when the light came on.

Anyone else noticed this? Next time I take it in for service I'm gonna have them check it out. Not a major deal, but definitely annoying.

 

Indeed -- You're right.

This has been noted on many different threads, going back to our "old site."

Consensus is that Honda in general calibrates their gauges very conservatively.

 

For reference my 97 volvo light comes on when it has 3 gallons left. (although it has a 21gal tank)

 

I agree the light comes on early. Just as well, I rely on the trip computer anyway.

 

The low fuel light comes on around 1/8 tank. I've run down to the "E" (needle pointing straight down) and filled up a little over 15 gallons.

While we're discussing the fuel gauge, does anyone notice that the fuel level drops from Full to 1/2 rather quickly?

 

Couple of points need to be made before we go any further:

1. The guage is not intended to show Full, 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4. It is just a guage.

2. Most people don't realize this, but the fuel is actually used to cool the fuel pump, so running it dry or close to dry is not a good idea.

Having said this, I agree with the fact that it comes on early. I filled up when the light came on and noticed that my 17 gallon tank had 4 gallons left.

Not a big deal, just bothersome... kinda like the temp gauge being slow to adjust to the outside temp.

 

not for me, i get approx 200 miles from full to 1/2...but it does drop quickly from full to 7/8, only get approx 30 miles

my fuel warning light is conservative as well, lights up around 350 miles and when i fill up it's just over 13 gallons

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-gauge.htm
Read up. Good article on Fuel Guages.

 

Depends on what you mean by "quickly." With city and hwy driving, it gets to 1/2 after about 150-160 miles for me. However, the gauge needle seems to move from 1/2 to E much slower, so I get 320 miles on that tank of gas well before hitting E, and usually before the yellow light comes on.

 

How is it that dabuda2004 gets 200 miles to a 1/2 tank, yet Speed Demon gets 150-160, which seems inline with my results?

dabuda- what kind of driving do you do to get such good mileage? Do you baby the throttle and drive the posted speed limits?

 

I have also found that the first 1/2 goes by very quickly. Without fail in every other car I've ever driven the 1/2 half lasts a lot longer than the 2nd half (usually stays at F for a disproportionate amount of time to make me feel like it has good economy).

In this car, by the time I get to "1/2" I haven't used up "half" my mileage (I usually get 600 km on a tank, it's only a 240 at "1/2"). It's quite disconcerting.

Furthermore, the last 1/6 or so on the gauge seems to last forever. I've driven 150 km after the light's come on and found that I still had many litres left in the tank. I usually err on the side of caution but I still don't like seeing that gauge drop so unexpectedly then slow.

More of an irritating niggle than a problem though so I'm fine.

 

Everyone read this damn article. It explains it! Click. Read. Then click next. Read. The click next. etc.

 

Its true, this is an interesting article, but for me, it still hasn't changed my opinion on the fact that the indicator is inaccurate. To be perfectly honest, I've already learned the limits of my fuel tank and know when to fill up.

 

Thanks for the link, jack, and I took a look -- but, like most others on here, I really wasn't in the mood to go through all of it, mainly because it's not really related to exactly what we're talking about, which is:

THE FACT THAT THE GAUGE DOESN'T SAY EXACTLY WHAT WE BELIEVE IT SHOULD SAY.

While it's interesting to know WHY this is the case, it's besides the point, because surely choices are made by the manufacturer to make it say what it says, and surely the technology does exist for them to make it say more like what we think it should say.

Also, BTW: I noticed that the first part of the that link says that part of what bothers people is that the gauge doesn't start going down from "Full" for a while. That's not really true, I don't think, on a couple of levels:

(1) I don't think it bothers many people, because of reason #2, which is:

(2) They know that when this happens, it's just because they've topped off the tank on the last fill-up. That's how it's been for me on every car I've ever had -- it doesn't happen like that unless I've topped it off.

But don't get me wrong, jack -- Thanks! It's a good link, and it's interesting for us to have it there. I'm just trying to explain maybe why people aren't more interested in it right here. It really doesn't quite address what they're talking about.