Petrol Light

M

mjh1234mjh

Member
Being a newbie, getting used to the car.

Maybe an odd question but when does everyones petrol light come on?

Rather than when its at 0, mine comes on with about 1/4 tank left. Is this normal?

Ive got the computer set to range now for a bit of comfort.
 
Hello there.

Yep that's completely normal for an 'M'. The light on the car I test drove and the one I eventually bought both come on at a quarter full.
 
Another question:

On one or two occasions I have run the car down to zero miles left on petrol and I have ran it for maybe another 5-10 miles but then filled up as I didnt want to take the risk.

How much is actually left and would I get away with once it hits zero?
 
On mine the light comes on around 50 miles remaining.

After it reads -- I have been to around 15 miles over, I woudn't risk any more.

Bear in mind if you do this for the first time ever (previous owner didnt risk it, etc) you will risk bringing up sludge from the bottom of the tank.

Basically if I'm in a strange place I wait until "--" before I use the Nav to find me a close station 8)
 
Mine seems to come on at about 60 miles to go.

Once the light comes on I fill it up as soon as is practical, but only on one occassion has it been near 0, and even then I only got 52 litres in (so probably half a gallon or 10-15 miles left the tank).
 
Andy said:
Bear in mind if you do this for the first time ever (previous owner didnt risk it, etc) you will risk bringing up sludge from the bottom of the tank.
Click to expand...

I've always thought of this as a bit of a myth ...

a) Surely there's not much 'sludge' present in petrol these days
b) Isn't the fuel pick-up towards the bottom of the tank anyhow? Meaning it takes the fuel from the bottom'ish first
c) If there was any nastiness in there, then the fuel filters and such like will stop it doing any harm

That said ... maybe I'm wrong on all of the above :D
 
The worst "myth" I heard was when a DIY type was changing the sparkplugs in his daughter's Fiesta and he commented on the deposits on the plugs.

"You see, it's because you keep running the tank nearly dry, you're getting sand in the engine and it's sticking to the plugs"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
My light comes on at around 50 miles to go. I recently ran it down to 10 miles remaining range and managed to squeeze in 50L. The tank capacity is 55L, so I had around 1 gallon left in the tank when I filled up. My fuel consumption figures are around 20-25 mpg, so a rough calculation would suggest that I had around 25 miles of fuel left. So, in thoery at least, when the range reads zero, there is probably enough fuel for another 15 miles.
 
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