Hello Fellow TL Owners,

I know this has been asked before but I still have'nt seen the answer I'm looking for so here it goes. I have a new '04 TL that has me refilling gas tank at around 290 miles. I have yet to break 300 miles on a full tank of gas. I know that I'm getting 22-24 mpg but the tank seems to hold a reserve, according to many of you, of around 3gallons. My question is how many miles are you getting on a full tank of gas before reading zero on the trip computer. My dealer tells me that he has never heard of this problem before. Has Acura come up with a solution? (any hot sheets)

P.s. this is an amazing resource and I'm so glad I mistakenly found it.

 

How do you know you are getting 22-24 mpg? When you fill up the tank are you dividing the miles driven by the gallons pumped to come up with the average mpg? You can also use the MID, which has always been very accurate for me. If you don't compute the mpg accurately, you can't really tell what the problem is. I don't mean to infer you haven't done this, but you didn't say you did so I am asking.

Here's some info I wrote up about the capacity of the tank and information on what happens when.

This info is excerpted from a very long thread I started about fuel tank capacities, etc. and is based on actual and precise testing

a. When the low fuel warning light comes on, if you are getting 25 mpg you can go 94 miles, but if you are only getting 20 mpg, you can only go 74 miles. Of course, other miles per gallon figures will result in different results. This means you have approximately 3.7 gallons remaining.

b. When miles to empty reads zero, that is time to fill up, but you can still go 57 miles at 25mpg, but only 45 miles at 20mpg. This means you have approximately 2.3 gallons remaining.

c. When filling the tank, if you stop at the first shutoff, you will have about 17 gallons in the tank.

d. The tank will actually hold about 19 gallons, but it is not recommended to fill the tank to capacity, so stop at the first shutoff.

If you want to read the whole thread, go here http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showt...threadid=71425

 

Cap off the gas after the filler snaps indicating a full tank. If you can then add more fuel slowly you will see that another 3 to 5 gallons can be added after the pump stops. You will easily get 350 miles per tank.

 

OK, somethings not adding up.

17.0 gal/full tank - 2.3 gal @ 0 miles = 14.7 gal used X ~23mpg = 338 miles

OR

17.0 gal/full tank - 3.7 gal @ low light = 13.3 gal used X ~23mpg = 306 miles

You state that you have to refill at 290 miles and are getting ~23mpg. This equates to 12.6 gallons used.

I'm going to assume Rets numbers are accurate for tank capacity. Are you sure about the 23mpg? Are you calculating this yourself or are you using the MID?

 

when i am empty, my tank only fills to 12 gallons

where are the other five gallons at?

this is a 17 gallon tank, and i have never broke the 12 gallon mark even when it is on E.

 

tjker: you can run for 2 more days on E.. and drag it way down to major E.

Another thing you guys can watch is the diag mode on the nav screen, I've been doing that the last few weeks, hit the map/menu/cancel combo till the diags come up, then go into .. crap. forgot the name, 2nd column, 2nd to last item, something diag I think. Then on the next menu, hit the first button.

It brings up mm/sec travelled, ml/second of fuel consumption, measured fuel reserve, calculated fuel reserve, gallons till refill, and several other neat things and it updates by the second.

One of the fuel reserve measurements changes as you drive, my guess is as the gas sloshes around it reads it sporadically, and one doesn't change as it is the calculated fuel till empty based on consumption. But the 2nd reading is instant fuel consumption and you can see when you floor the pedal just how much more gas it uses to accelerate versus cruising versus idle (at a light). Kinda puts in perspective how you can moderate your usage.

My idle is like .4 or .6 ml, then take off can be 3-7mL, passing jumps up to 15-18mL, and cruising is often 2-4mL on a flat road. If you let off the gas it goes down to 0.0mL if it's truly just coasting under the inertia of the car. So you can see there is 2-10x the fuel usage to floor it to pass someone, and how drastically that can affect your miles per tank.

But you can also see that near empty it shows about 4 gals left "measured"

Enjoy

 

Remember, when it is on E, it is not empty. As Ron says above, you still have approximately 3.7 gallons still in the tank when the MID shows zero miles left. If you go ahead and top it off after the nozzle shuts off, you will get about 2 more gallons in. So, 3.7 gallons left in the tank, plus 2 in the filler neck from topping off, plus your 12 gallons equal 17.7 gallons. These are all just approximations, mind you.

 

i just reached 3000 miles and my MID indicates that i'm still getting 18 mpg....is something wrong or is it normal??? I usually drive about 260-280 miles per tank. About 70% suburbs, and 30% highway

 

2.3 gallon left when MID indicates "0 miles". 3.7 gallon when low fuel warning light comes on.

 

I guess the answer is that in order to get over 300 miles form a full tank I have to drive the vehicle with the empty gas indicator light on for about 50-70 more miles. I just think that Acura should address the enourmous gas reserve issue so we can drive comfortably without annoying indicators. Thanks for the info guys...

 

I agree with Acura on this one...I think that by having a little extra reserve, it prevents us from getting into any trouble/problems....meaning that if you are driving and can't seem to find a gas station nearby and your car is at 0 miles, then at least you know that within the next 25-50 miles, you should find a gas station...if they lowered the normal capacity, then some people might wait till the end to fill the gas and then eventually they may just run out of the gas by using up all the "limited reserves"....so i think that by having 3 gallons or so of extra reserve is only towards our benefit....

 

I'd have to agree with Jinan on this one..

One of the last places I'd ever want to be is out in

the frigid weather conditions we have been experiencing lately

with a gas can in one hand and miles and miles of nothing

staring me in the face, and my car out of gas. Glad to have

the cushion as life line so to speak

Just my 2cents worth.

TL42 - Gord

 

I would not recommend trying to top off a full tank. The additional fuel may find it's way into the evaporative system, which is meant to hold fuel vapor only, not liquid. This can cause a Malfunction Indicator Lamp to come on, and I can speak with authority that evap system failures can be difficult to diagnose & repair.

 

Neither would I. tjker was just trying to figure out where the other five gallons were.

 

Thanks for the info, I would stilll like to know how many miles (average) TL users get from a full tank of gas before light comes on.

 

Another reason for having the light, and the "0 Miles to Empty" on the MID, come on early is because, as rets has noted, the "Miles to Empty" cannot be an exact reading--it's an estimate based on recent fuel economy performance. If you are idling a lot in stopped traffic, it will give a lower reading than it would if you are doing a steady run on an empty Interstate. But what it cannot do is predict how your fuel economy might change--for example, if the reason for the stopped traffic is a multi-vehicle pileup and the road opens up when you pass it, your fuel economy should improve.

The average TL driver who doesn't read the manual and who has never heard of this forum may have no idea how the "Miles to Empty" feature works. If there were no buffer, you'd get some fool who sees "50 miles to empty" and then runs out of fuel after 30 because he was relying on the 50. By having it kick in early, Acura is insulating itself from complaints, or even frivolous lawsuits, from the clueless people who don't know that it's an estimate.

 

I'm getting 19 MPG with a similar suburb/highway drives. My average MPH is 23

 

At about 280-290 miles when the light comes on, on average 23-24 MPG.

 

FAWK! Yeah I notice that I only get 280-290 on a full tank and usually fill 12-13 gallons. I know it's a V-6 engine but damn only 280 avg miles on a full tank? I was hoping after break-in I would be seeing like 350 miles at least before empty. Damn.

 

you are getting about avg for MPG ...23 ish... Depends on your driving it will get better ... I got on avg of 25-27 on mine with 93 octane and synthetic oil. The worst it was is when I took a job across town and drove 10 miles a day...I got like 21, but I did not fill the tank more than twice a month.

 

I've found the MID fairly accurate regarding MPG. Using that and a little math, you can basically ignore the gauge and warnings and schedule your fill-ups based on that. I would play it safe and figure 15 gals. If you're getting 23 MPG you can easiy go 345 miles before you need to fill up.

 

If you get 280-290 before you fill up, and it only holds 12-13 gallons, you know that you can push it safely at least 50 more miles.


Edit: 50 is a conservative figure. If you drive it hard, though, it drops significantly.

 

When the light comes on, there is approximately 3.7 gallons remaining in the tank.

I usually wait until the miles remaining figure is around zero, which means another 1.4 gallons used, leaving about 2.3 gallons in the tank.

If you do this, you would get around another 31 miles, giving you 321 miles @ 22-23mpg. Naturally the type of driving you do affects the mileage you will get on a tank.

Driving on the highway, people are reporting 28-32 mpg, which would definitely get you over your 350 mile requirement.

 

Why are you so fixated on how many miles before the light comes on? It is ENTIRELY dependent on the type of driving you've been doing. Mine varies between 18 (summer, local trips, AC on) and 32 (turnpike) mpg.

A more relevant question is, "how many gallons are remaining when the light comes on?" At least in the case of my car, a fillup when the light has just come on invariably = 12.7 gallons.

When I do see the light come on I switch to the 'B' trip odometer, zero it, and know I can comfortably travel 3 gallons X miles/gallon for the type of driving I'm doing (not the type I had been doing).

The farthest I've ever pushed it is a 16.1 gallon fillup.

 

Werd. It all depends on where you drive and how you drive. I used to get 220~250 per tank before the light comes on in the city, and have 400+ when hitting the highway. The data like this means nothing to other ppl.

 

Word to the wise. You should not let your fuel tank fall below 1/2 in the colder weather if you park your car outside overnight. This can promote condensation in the tank. Better to try to maintain a full or near full tank during these times.

Also, why worry about how many miles you get from a tank. If you're concerned about mileage, it's how many miles you get from a gallon of fuel anyway.

Also, never try to "top" the tank by continually adding fuel after auto-shutoff. You will fill up the expansion "tanks" and this could have a negative affect on your engine and ECU. Not to mention you risk overspill onto the side of your car. Best to round to the nearest 5 or 10 cents after auto-shutoff. Also, never fill your tank with the nose of the car higher than the tail if you can help it. This can definitely cause overspill.