So I noticed my fuel gauge has conisently gotten worse. When I first got my car a few months ago and filled it up it would say 300 miles to empty. Now when I fill it up it says 240. Also it will show 70 miles to empty but the gauge says I have a half a tank...WTF?

 

It goes off by what your current calculations of MPG are... (facepalm) so drive like a dick = lower numbers. Drive conservative = higher numbers.

 

The best part is when youve been doing city driving, then jump on the interstate for a long drive, the Miles to Empty will go up for about an hour of so before starting to go back down.

 

So which gauge is correct?

 

Ugh.

 

Both.

The fuel gauge is measuring volume in a constant space

The Distance to Empty gauge is measuring distance using a continually changing variable.

Its like looking at just the Tach or Speedo, comparing them at different times without knowing what gear you are in can lead to different results and it seeming like one is wrong.

 

well I have had to show _ _ _ which is less then 30 miles and I have a quarter tank...just very annoying.

 

stop begging it? ive never had this problem i drive to work every day on the high way....

 

The problem I have is that the low fuel light comes on with various amounts of fuel remaining. I've had it come on with anywhere between 2 and 3.7 gallons remaing.

Every other car I have owned, has been more consistent with its readings. Its kind of upsetting when you pull off the highway with the fast tank flash going, and you only put in 12 gallons.

 

Which means the warning system it estimating remaning miles as opposed to remaning fuel. Which would seem like an improvement to me, but I can appreceiate you want it to work the way it always has in previous vehicles. Sounds like progress that needs to shake out user perception to figure out which was is best.

 

i just go by how many km's i've driven. i always reset trip B everytime i fill up and drive about 400k's before i refill.

 

haha, clearly you have a heavy foot, and the ac on. Ever thought to relax about these silly little issues, and stop thinking about them so much? Your car is fine, i promise you. If your truly worried, fill up on the low level light, or keep it topped up on a trip.

But, to settle your nerves again, ill explain. The MPG calculation will vary day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute based off how you have been driving the car. FOR EXAMPLE. If you are whipping around the city and it says one thing, go hit the highway on your cruise for 10 minutes and motice another 60-80 Miles added to the fuel when.

In the city when i fill up it tells me any number of things fron 240kms to 300, but 5 minutes on the highway and its up to 560 kms.

 

you have no true way of knowing if you have 2 or 3.7 gallons remaining. Every pump and how if fills your car is different. You can have rough math, and ball park it into that range, but you wont know the exact number.

 

Just pay attention to the fuel gauge. If you get a 2nd message telling you to refuel, make sure there is a fuel pump nearby.

 

kinda seems like a very petty issue, but if it makes you feel better just dont watch that lil gauge. I when i first bought the car kept it on that mpg gauge. And i caught myself constantly wanting to watch it, kind of got distracting watching it cuz i would try to drive to get it to a certain point. so i instead switched it to a more pertinent gauge, Engine Temp. So now i watch how hot the car gets instead, and it doesnt seem to move much so i dont worry about it like i did that silly mpg gauges