Fuel Range

[roks]

Just wondering how accurate the fuel range is?

When the fuel light lit up, it showed 16 miles range, its now showing 1 mile, is 'reserve' depleted?

Shall I start walking with a jerry can in me hand or do risk getting stuck on the main road?

Thanks

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Why not just fill up.

[Catlover]

We’re you just testing how far you can push it, or do you always run so low.

[Bernard Foy]

26 minutes ago, roks said:

Just wondering how accurate the fuel range is?

When the fuel light lit up, it showed 16 miles range, its now showing 1 mile, is 'reserve' depleted?

Shall I start walking with a jerry can in me hand or do risk getting stuck on the main road?

Thanks

 

Not very clever letting the juice run so low without a backup can of petrol and a filler in the boot of the car 😲

[roks]

I normally fill up as soon light comes on but lately been doing school and not been paying attention.

its showing 1 mile, so I don't want to risk it as the petrol station is 2.5miles away.

I've never run empty until it stopped so don't know how far I can go.

[Bernard Foy]

1 minute ago, roks said:

I normally fill up as soon light comes on but lately been doing school and not been paying attention.

its showing 1 mile, so I don't want to risk it as the petrol station is 2.5miles away.

I've never run empty until it stopped so don't know how far I can go.

Well you don’t have much choice now, but take the chance on it 🙏

[roks]

Shall I drive with the can in the boot and let you guys know how far I got? 🤣

At least then I don't have to walk the full 2.5 miles 

[Catlover]

If you filled up when the needle gets to quarter full you wouldn’t have a problem.

No wonder people have mental health problems, it used to be called anxiety and stress, whatever it’s called we can make matters worse.

[Excel777]

If it’s only 2.5 miles, I would just drive there.  Sometimes, we worry too much.

[TonyHSD]

You better not running out of fuel on direct injection engine, and it is always a good idea to keep at least 10ltr in the tank as your minimum quantity. Sometimes in an emergency situations you can do some miles in negative after your estimated range has come to 0 but its all on you if you get stranded. 👍

[Roy124]

It's all very well saying what you should or shouldn't do, sometimes S happens. 

I had plenty of fuel.  My wife took the car and did a 60 mile journey but at the halfway point must have done a fair bit of town driving. 

The evening I had a meeting 50 miles away.  What with her late return, tea and my meeting there was little time. 

On my journey, well short of the destination, the fuel low light came on.  Even 25 years ago the number of filling stations was declining and evening ones were almost like hens teeth. 

I got to within half a mile of a filling station.  I had an empty can and almost before I set off I was given lift.  I filled up and someone gave me a lift back.  I explained to the police who were guarding my car and was soon on my way. 

 

[Cyker]

Toyota tends to have a fair amount of reserve past the last block of the fuel gauge, and the GOM/vaguely-inaccurate-range-o-meter doesn't take that into account (Not sure if the case with all as this is the first Toyota I've had with a distance meter!), so I'd not be afraid to go a couple miles over in a pinch.

The last time I did any sort of test like that was with my Mk1 diesel Yaris - Got to the last flashing block on the fuel gauge, drove for 100 miles before I bottled it and refuelled   That's not common tho' as that thing could probably do Lands End to John'o'Groats on one tank  

Normally I start to think about refuelling when I hit a quarter tank, although I have been stretching it lately to try and catch the dips in fuel prices (It keeps bouncing between 140.9 and 142.9 so it's become a bit of a game to try and eek it out to catch the 140.9 when the tank starts to get low without refuelling stupidly early like when I still have half a tank  )

This one reason why I just can't psychologically do EV's until they get more range - The maximum range of most of them in their worst case scenario (i.e. winter) is often less than my Need to Refuel range  

 

[roks]

I know all you guys were loosing sleep over whether I'll make it to the filling station in the morning or not.😅

Well guys, you'll be glad to know I made it, with tons of spare fuel, I recon it can do 10miles easy after the last mark on the gauge.

Take the range display as rough indicator, during my short trip, dropped of daughter to school, got diverted due road works, then spent good 5-7min in slow moving traffic all the way to the filling station. The range changed several times 1mile to 0 to ---.

My old 2004 corolla had appox. 15miles after the last mark, but never went dry to find out exactly.

[Roy124]

12 hours ago, Cyker said:

Toyota tends to have a fair amount of reserve past the last block of the fuel gauge, and the GOM/vaguely-inaccurate-range-o-meter doesn't take that into account (Not sure if the case with all as this is the first Toyota I've had with a distance meter!), so I'd not be afraid to go a couple miles over in a pinch

That is my gripe with my Corolla.  Range 85, fine, must refuel, thinks, 15 miles to my filling station, no problem.  Arrived yesterday, range remaining 69, fine. 

But, on a journey, range 100, check, 85, thinks, then a few miles later LOW FUEL. The range reading disappears as does the central display and I'm on my own having to guess remaining range, not happy. 

Unless I am missing a trick I think that is a bad feature.  Great for the initial attention getter but once I have seen it I don't need it again. 

[Steven83]

When I bought my auris hybrid from Rotherham I had a 2 hour drive over the Pennines to Manchester.

I can’t remember the miles but the trip computer said I had enough fuel to make it back.

 

once I set off the distance until empty quickly dropped, obviously the mpg had been super high and as  I drove at speed it brought the mpg down and so the range came down too.

 

mid journey I was on red, 0 miles left and the next petrol station believe it or not was 20 minutes away, I couldn’t believe it and it was my first time properly driving the car and had no clue of when it would cut out.

I made it to the petrol station with no spluttering or loss of power.

 

I wouldn’t recommend doing it, I was forced into it, but I did get 20+ mins of driving at 40+ mph while on 0.

[Cyker]

I've never had much faith in the range meter ever since they became a thing, and this is the first car I've had one in! I can usually get a feel for how far a car will go on a tank after a few tanks, and just reset the trip meter every time I refuel and use that to gauge how far I can go.

There's a reason why EV people call it the GOM (i.e. Guess-o-Meter  )

 

 

[loz8]

thought I had read somewhere,it's 50mls on reserve,only tested that the once when it lit up and thats what I got,still a bit left to go to refuel. Speeds up to 50.

[Roy124]

Loz, a good rule of thumb.  My first car with a fuel low light was a Triumph 1300.

For a small car it had a huge fuel tank especially in those days.  They stated the reserve was 1.8 gallons.  At 30 mpg that 6 was pretty close to 50 miles. 

[AisinW]

I did it in 2015 on my 06 Prius. I  completely forgot when the fuel light was on. Suddenly i had Christmas lights and slowly stopping.  Fortunately, gas station was just accross  the street and I pressed  the power button and it went in EV mode for 10m and get fueled. 

Normal cars will be in bad luck, you burn the fuel pump by starting car without fuel. If you are on flat road, the first time you see the light, you have about 12L, but assume it is 8 L instead because it fluctuates, depends on how the floater is located. 

I still sometime get that fuel lights on and never get trouble by assuming I have 8L left without panicking.