2005 RL I bought new
For the previous 8 years the low fuel warning consistently came on with between 18 to 20 mile range left. Now last 2 times, it came on with only 10 miles left on range. Ave fuel mileage has not changed and was not doing more city driving than other times.

What gives?

 

If I remember right, the warning comes on based on level of fuel in the tank, and the number of miles left is based on type of driving, so it's possible it could come on and say just about any number of miles left.

Fuel economy can dwindle over time can't it? Maybe air filter needs changing?

 

but the mpg has not dwindled. Ave mpg is virtually identical over the last few fill-ups

 

your car is saying, you've been driving like a grandma and there is no need to fuel because you can go a looooong way on 10 gallons.

 

Perhaps the sender is dirty. Try running a bottle of techron through it to see if it helps. I've had issues with false readings in my other car and techron did the trick.

 

Thanks, I'll monitor it for a couple more fill-ups

 

Speaking of low fuel warning, at certain level where ur tank is about to go dry, the ECU wont let u rev over 3K as a measure to conserve fuel. Had that happened to me once, I freaked out, thinking something's wrong with the car, went straight to fill up and no more rev limiter.

 

wow - I've never heard that before. I must have got pretty close to that once.

 

Stop running you car to a low fuel warning! You're straining your pump.

 

there's over 3 gallons left when that thing comes on

 

I got down to zero miles - fortunately the garage was just over zero miles and a bit of hypermiling sorted it.

I'll be less blase in future.

 

how many gallons did you put in at zero miles? I can only put 17.5 in at zero on the range.

 

I always thought that there was some crap at the bottom of your gas tank so I only let my gas get to a half tank before filling up again.

 

It's a rule of thumb that all the old farts live by. As your fuel level goes down, you a losing pressure on the tank side of the pump. In theory, it has to work harder with 5 gallons than 19.

 

Probably about 70 litres. Cannot fund the receipt now.