Fuel Tank Reserve

[zlatko_k]

Hi,

I bought my Aygo 10 days ago. When I bought it the fuel meter blinked, showing that the fuel tank is on reserve. I filled it with 15 liters, but after driving around 110 km, only city traffic, start and stop all the way to work, the fuel tank is on reserve again. Is this normal (I don't think so)? Because is new and I've driven a diesel car before, almost all the time I'm starting with high rps in 1'st gear, is this the reason why I spent the fuel so fast? Does anybody knows how much fuel is in the reserve?

Thank you.

[T600]

Hi,

I bought my Aygo 10 days ago. When I bought it the fuel meter blinked, showing that the fuel tank is on reserve. I filled it with 15 liters, but after driving around 110 km, only city traffic, start and stop all the way to work, the fuel tank is on reserve again. Is this normal (I don't think so)? Because is new and I've driven a diesel car before, almost all the time I'm starting with high rps in 1'st gear, is this the reason why I spent the fuel so fast? Does anybody knows how much fuel is in the reserve?

Thank you.

Welcome.

You don't know how much below reserve it was when you got it though; so if it was running on fumes the first X litres (5 to 10 at a guess) were just filling the reserve capacity. The best way to work out consumption is full tank, drive a good way then fill up and work out on basis of distance driven to litres / gallons added.

I'm sure the result will be a lot better than 110km / 15 litres. I doubt your starting procedure has much affect on consumption, though probably not good for the clutch in the long term.

[Jan van de Wouw]

I think it's a shame the tank wasn't topped up when you bought the car, mine was.

And I don't understand why you didn't fill it up right away, only

putting 15 liters in it is less than half a tank, what good is that???

I allways fill up to the brim, at exactly the same station and pump 95% of

the time. I've had it for 15 months now averaging 5,6l/100km or 50mpg.

As T600 states above, you cannot make any decent calculations

based on the bars of the fuel gauge, only by filling it up properly...

[Superstevie]

Have to say its the worst system for a fuel reserve. You know its low because its flashing. But it depends how fast its flashing that really gets me.

In the smart i own, it tells you how many litres you have left from 5 downwards. Nice and simple.

But personally, i'd rather they were both proper gauges instead of digital ones!

[zlatko_k]

Thanks for the replays.

I didn't fill it up because I was short on cash. Next pay check I'll fill it up and see how much it spends.

[miss_d_bus]

The fuel gauge is a bit odd in that it took me doing 150 miles for the gauge to go down by one but then it sped up and its dropping quite fast now. It was surprising that I got 15 litres into the tank even though it said it was 5/6 full according to the gauge! I understand this is a feature of all cheaper cars and you need to buy something quite luxury to get anything accurate?

[Jan van de Wouw]

you need to buy something quite luxury to get anything accurate?

Fuel gauges are almost never accurate.

This comes down to the shape of the tank and the construction for the sensor.

The only way to make a somewhat accurate rearing would be if you had a tank that has

STRAIGHT walls all around and the sensor would neet to be a sliding ne, not one on an arm.

And even then you couldn't trust it 100% due to the Hysteresis: a delay that should be

built in so the gauge wouldn't be dancing around when thecar is moving (sloshing fuel).

Personally I'm quite happy with the gauge on my Aygo, as on my 100NX I had

a 50 liter tank, but the "proper" gauge would only indicate the "top" 35 liters.

So when the level dropped below 15 liters the gauge would drop below the last ark and

stay there. When the level dropped below 9 liters a light would come on as a warning.

But then the sensor in the tank that controls the light broke, costing over £150 to fix.

On a 14 year old car that wasn;t worth it to me, so I bought a 5 liter jerrycan instead :P

[miss_d_bus]

Come to think about it, I have noticed that before with 'dodgy' readings. I hired a Corsa once and parked it on a bit of a slope when refilling and put much more fuel than I meant to put in to it just before returning it to the hire company as the gauge was underestimating.

Its reasurring then that the people who drive about with a £50k tank of a car suffer the same issues with fuel gauges so I don't feel like I am missing out on some fancy technology! ;) Its not a big deal when I get to know my car a little better so I should be able to predict the levels.

[weevicky]

My house (parents) is situated on a hill and when the car is pointing to the bottom of the hill I have noticed that the guage shows a different reading to when it is pointing up the hill.

The digital guage is very inacurate so I like to keep the tank filled and not go below 2 bars (not that it ever has in a while).

Also as someone pointed out earlier I can get 50mpg which is about each bar (through calculations so far) but I have noticed that when i have first filled the tank I am able to get about 100 mpg for the first bar and then it starts to go down very quickly.

I have only had the tank once in the flashing zone (really fast "im going to die" blinking mode) and the car starts the chug. That was only because I couldnt get the fuel cap off due to the pressure build up in the tank.

I prefer the fuel guage in the Ford Focus (before I crashed It <_<

[discotack]

Aygos fuel gauge while being digital is non linear.at present uk fuel prices a full tank from empty flash is about 35-37 quid,the fist half of the dial is about 20 pounds worth and the last half is about 10 pounds worth,usually i recon about 350 miles around town till i start flashing. (im not obsessed honest)

[discotack]

there was some discussion about how much was in reserve back in sept on the forums ,my best to date on flash is 40 miles but i think the general consesus was aygo has not got a big reserve at all

[weevicky]

The most I have done to my reserve is about 35 miles which i wasnt happy doing. Don't want all the slime at the bottom of the tank being brought up as this can cause damage

[hora]

tsk tsk vicky, you know you should always pop a tank/injector flush in every 1,00miles or so!

[dlt1366]

I get about 400 from a tank, which I reckon is about 55-58mpg. I always fill mine up as soon as I can after the bleep and flashy indicator thingy.

[SJandMR2]

tsk tsk vicky, you know you should always pop a tank/injector flush in every 1,00miles or so!

I dont know, whats that then?

[zlatko_k]

Hi,

yesterday I finally tested how much it spends. I drove around 190 km, combined open road and city, and it spent about 9 liters, so that averages around 4,7 liters on 100km. Now I'm testing it only in city. I hope it won't disappoint me.

[hora]

Oops Redex Petrol Injector cleaner (every 2,00miles)

[PaulT]

The fuel economy increases if you only fill it up half a tank each time, so not that daft!

Paul.

[hora]

The fuel economy increases if you only fill it up half a tank each time, so not that daft!

Paul.

I'm confused!

[adilmon]

The fuel economy increases if you only fill it up half a tank each time, so not that daft!

Paul.

I'm confused!

Less mass to accelarate = less power required from the engine = lower fuel consumption. half full tank saves about 15kg