How much reserve fuel do we have after -----?

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aadadams
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How much reserve fuel do we have after -----?

Postby aadadams » Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:02 pm

The title says it all. I was pushing it today as I traveled to my favorite exxon after work. So it made me wonder, after the dte flashes -----, how much fuel do we have?


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disallow
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Postby disallow » Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:03 pm

well, my fuel light came on the other day, and it said I had another 24km to go. I filled up, and it only took 65L, out of 80L. Thats 15L or almost 4 gallons of gas in reserve.

You should do the same exercise. Tank has a capacity of 21 gallons. I'm pretty sure this amount will differ by vehicle, given the questionable nature of our level sending units.
Last edited by disallow on Thu Aug 01, 2019 6:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

aadadams
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Postby aadadams » Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:13 pm

The most gas it has held when I filled it up was 20.7 gal and I suspect the tank holds more than 21. When my light comes on it indicates I have ~20 miles left. Unfortunately, I work about 20 miles from gas with decent prices. I feel like I'm gonna run out one day. I guess the road side assistance will come in handy when I actually find out the answer to this question... LOL!

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Postby disallow » Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:17 pm

well the listed capacity is 80L / 3.78 = 21.16 US Gall.

You might get an extra 1/2 gall in the filler neck, but I can't see it being any more than that.

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disallow
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Postby disallow » Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:22 pm

oh yeah and I've gone about 50km over and never run out. pretty sure you could go at least 50mi.

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Postby skinny2 » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:54 am

I've gone 15-20 miles after the DTE hits the goose egg and have never pumped more than 19 gallons. I don't try to squeeze it in though...once it kicks off I'm done. I normally don't let it get that low as it's not good on the fuel pump. Wish this thing had a bigger tank. Even averaging 18mpg I usually need to fill around 300 miles to keep it from hitting empty. I have a 30 mile stretch through no-mans land I drive where there's no gas (or cell service).

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Postby CPLTECH » Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:58 am

aadadams wrote:The most gas it has held when I filled it up was 20.7 gal
This comment reminded me of some of the past network investigating stories where fuel delivered was less than what was paid for. So to me, putting that much in a tank that holds 21 gal raises a red flag. Also if MPG suddenly changes for the worse at a certain station, it may not be just the quality, it may be the quantity. They figure "Who keeps track of MPG anyway?" When travelling out of town, I avoid small stations when possible, for that reason.

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Postby Tim » Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:31 am

The fuel tank was something that troubled my when i got my 2007 Pathy just last month...The fuel tank has 80lt capacity yet everytime i top it up in the garage it only takes 45-47lts to get full. I top it up as soon as the gauge shows 1/4 full. So i've come to the conclusion that despite the 80lt tank the fuel indicator shows empty when you've consumed 50lts of fuel. That gives me an extra 30lts of "emergency" fuel. I guess it's a way to make sure that you'll never run out of fuel.

that was my first post in here btw, i just joined.

cheers

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Postby skinny2 » Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:58 am

CPLTECH wrote:
aadadams wrote:The most gas it has held when I filled it up was 20.7 gal
This comment reminded me of some of the past network investigating stories where fuel delivered was less than what was paid for. So to me, putting that much in a tank that holds 21 gal raises a red flag. Also if MPG suddenly changes for the worse at a certain station, it may not be just the quality, it may be the quantity. They figure "Who keeps track of MPG anyway?" When travelling out of town, I avoid small stations when possible, for that reason.
It's very common on vehicles today to have the gauges set up to be very conservative. The last three or four I've owned have never taken on anywhere near the full tank. I believe it's to protect the fuel pump and people like my wife that don't pay attention until a blinking light and chime are telling them to get fuel :roll:

Given the number of folks with similar experiences here and the number of stations I frequent I would not expect there to be any fraud on the part of stations.

I did a lot of highway driving this week averaging well beyond 20mpg (even at 75-90mph speeds). Thanks to Gasbuddy I found a station 30 miles further down the road with $.20/gallon cheaper fuel so I plugged on even with 370 miles on this tank. With almost 400 gallons on a tank last night (a big-time first for the PF) I filled up and only took on 19.4 gallons. That was 45 miles after the light came on. 360 was my previous record before filling. This was on regular fuel as well so I'm not sure if it would have been better with premium.

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Postby aadadams » Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:22 am

Thanks for all the comments and warnings guys! I tend to agree with the poster about the stations being pretty reliable even though they are 20 miles from DC proper (where I work). The stations are still in the DC Metro area and there are a number of stations that I use in Prince William County and the results don't vary much at all. With that said, it seems I should be fine as long as I go directly there after the light comes on... i.e. 20-25 miles.

twinblown
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Postby twinblown » Mon Sep 12, 2011 6:16 am

Yeah there are aproximately 2 gallons or 7.5 litres in the tank once the light comes on. :shock:

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Postby skinny2 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:10 am

twinblown wrote:Yeah there are aproximately 2 gallons or 7.5 litres in the tank once the light comes on. :shock:
According to my numbers above there's a lot more than that. I drove 45 miles after light came on and still only took on 19.4 gallons.

CPLTECH
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Postby CPLTECH » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:23 pm

aadadams wrote:Thanks for all the comments and warnings guys! With that said, it seems I should be fine as long as I go directly there after the light comes on... i.e. 20-25 miles.
Are you sure you want to be near empty in an area that recently has become earthquake & hurricane prone w/electrical outages? Not to mention 9/11.

I think too many of us figure fuel will be there when we need it. No matter where we live we ought to ponder the possibilities. We tend to assume too much.

megawatt
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Postby megawatt » Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:13 pm

verified from experience when the DTE displayed "0" I drove 15 more miles on the interstate at 53 mph to the next exit and made it :)

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Postby disallow » Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:25 pm

CPLTECH wrote:
aadadams wrote:Thanks for all the comments and warnings guys! With that said, it seems I should be fine as long as I go directly there after the light comes on... i.e. 20-25 miles.
Are you sure you want to be near empty in an area that recently has become earthquake & hurricane prone w/electrical outages? Not to mention 9/11.

I think too many of us figure fuel will be there when we need it. No matter where we live we ought to ponder the possibilities. We tend to assume too much.
I get your point, but having 20 gallons of gas vs 10 in the event of an apocalypse will probably not make any difference at all. Having 1000 ggallons stored at your house might...


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