Low Fuel Warning Light

[Mikef]

Does anyone know how low the fuel reserves have to go before the warning light comes on?

 

I have a 1.9 tdi (115 bhp), which theoretically has a 70 litre tank (not sure how accurate the manual is on this point).

 

Yesterday the warning light came on, and on filling up I managed to squeeze in 55 litres. So, in theory, I still had 15 litres left, which is a fair few miles.

 

BTW - I had only done 470 miles on that tank of diesel, so that seems a high consumption rate to me, I guess it's worse in the cold weather with the aux heater burning diesel?

 

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

Mikef

[Guest The Doctor]

Exactly the same with mine (130 PS TDI) Mikef. I thought my wife hadn't filled the tank properly on the first occasion as she only got 55 litres in on the warning light.

 

Again i get about 450 miles on that 55 litres which I'm not overly impressed with either. When I was researching the vehicle people on this site were claiming 50 mpg. At the moment I'm miles away from this. Does it matter that the vehicles only done 4000 miles?

[Guest SA Intruder]

I get 520-550 miles on almost 60L

 

Always have done. Now done 24000 miles (in 9 months)

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Too heavy with your right foot!

I also get about 55 litres in when the low fuel light comes on. So far, furthest I've gone after it's started to glow is 30 miles. Biggest problem is that I then tend to fill to the top, which means a second mortgage! Also, supposedly with diesels it's not good to let the fuel tank level drop too low because of the risk of condensation in the tank, particularly at this time of year.

[Mikef]

Thanks for the replies...at least I'm not alone....

 

btw, I'm very light with the right foot! My old diesel cavalier actually gave much better consumption figures, but I was happier to get lower figures with the Galaxy on account of size n shape...but I do think I got better consumption figures on the Galaxy in summer.

 

cheers all

 

happy crimble driving no matter what you do with your right foot!!

 

mikef

[Tigger]

At the moment with cold starts and all electrics on e.g. screen rear window seats if it

[Guest Nik]

It's a 70 l tank. But I managed already to fill it with 73 liters while the low fuel lamp wasn't burning yet <_<

 

How? you can fill your tank while air is getting out. There's on th upper side of the filling whole a little iron plate; when you push it upwards, air can go out the tank and you can fill it up with a 15 liters (!!!) more!

 

So I think there's much more than 70 liters in the tank. Don't do it while it's extremely hot wether and without driving a lot km's after filling up, because the air in the tank lets expand the liquid in it.

 

With this technique, I can do easily 1000 k's before the light goes on! It's a tdi 90 hp so it's little more consuming then a 115 hp, thus with the 115 hp you can for sure reach 1000 kms!

[seatkid]

How? you can fill your tank while air is getting out. There's on th upper side of the filling whole a little iron plate; when you push it upwards, air can go out the tank and you can fill it up with a 15 liters (!!!) more!

 

So I think there's much more than 70 liters in the tank. Don't do it while it's extremely hot wether and without driving a lot km's after filling up, because the air in the tank lets expand the liquid in it.

 

I recently had a nerve racking time trapped on the motorway network in Holland and not knowing where the next station is with the low fuel light on - first red mark, then next and next - went right down to the bottom! Result - managed to get 80 litres of cheap(80 eurocents/litre) diesel in (youve got to keep releasing the air vent just inside the filler) - and I didnt even get right up to the brim as I have done in the past.

In general I would say that 5 litres is a minimum when the light comes on - could be up to 8 or 9 but I dont recommend going that far - your heart will stop before your engine does.

 

You shouldnt really fill the expansion space for the reason Nik states

[Guest shararnman]

Hi Guys

 

We,ve had our Sharan new since Jan 97, initially we got about 45~50 mpg, its a 90 bhp. We fitted a tuning box, massive differnce in performance, also the peak torque was raised by some 20% at 1900 rpm our fuel ec is normally in the mid 50s for my wife, on a run cr control to mid 70s indicated we get about 60 mpg. I normally run about 50 miles once the fuel light has come on, we have run the car dry to test ( the diesel is self bleeding) we had to put approx Litres. The cars now done 123000 miles and still OK.

 

Eric :wub:

[Guest Boggler]

Mine usually has about 7 litres left when the red light comes on. A word of advice, even with 5-6 litres in there if you get caught on a steep forward facing slope the engine starves of fuel because of where the pickup is placed. Its not too much of a problem because once at the bottom of the slope the engine will start again, albeit after winding it for a few minutes. I've had this a couple of times but once on the level have had enough fuel to go for quite a few miles till finding a petrol station.

[seatkid]

We fitted a tuning box....

Shararnman, What tuning box did you fit and how much did it cost? Have you had it on long? My 90hp is so underpowered, I might consider it if I knew it wouldnt damage anything.

 

Boggler, is that going up hill or going down hill when it can get starved?

[Richmond]

Why are so many people so keen to put the absolute maximum amount of petrol/diesel in the tank, even to the extent of filling up the expansion space :wub: ? Unless you are driving across the Gobi, a normally full tank should get you from one filling station to the next, surely (even in a V6).

[seatkid]

Why are so many people so keen to put the absolute maximum amount of petrol/diesel in the tank, even to the extent of filling up the expansion space :wub: ? Unless you are driving across the Gobi, a normally full tank should get you from one filling station to the next, surely (even in a V6).

I only do it when I get cheap fuel :lol: (i.e. when returning from abroad) - never had fuel spill out, even in extremes of weather - does diesel expand that much?

 

I wouldnt do it on a petrol car though...

[grifjl]

Is 70 litre tank. When light comes on you have around 7 litres of fuel left. When you top up with 55l you then have 62 litres. Then you can fill the expansion area with a further 8l by pressing the air outlet by the tank inlet.

 

My wife gets around 35mpg on teh school run - the engine never warms up and it's stop/start. But, get the car on teh m/way and we hit 45-50mpg.

 

Car - 1.9TDi Sharan Sport.

[Tigger]

I agree go to france on fumes come back on a wave of fule, also shop at Tesco 20 miles away get 20p a litre off you have to fill it up at that price!

[Guest Boggler]

sharanman,

 

That's nose pointing down. I've also got a tuning box fitted, there was a thread where I put up my thoughts, I've got the one from mrhoot.com, special deal, less than a ton, suggest you e-mail him (dellboy aka Kevin), see if he can do you a deal. I thoroughly recommend them myself but wouldn't c;aim anything on the fuel consumption front, probably getting less than before, but there again thats probably due to my right foot more than anything else.

[Guest mick]

Just completed a 1000 mile jaunt to in/out-laws in the UK, and averaged about 42mpg. Car has only just gone over the 3k mark, so I guess that the mpg will gradually creep up by a few more notches.

 

Belgium / Holland prices are about 78cents/ltr, France about 87c. Better than UK prices regardless!

 

At 85 ish mph, the computer showed the mpg gradually dropping to about 38, whilst at 65 / 70 in UK, was touching 44. Not that bad to my mind.

[Guest Nik]

Why are so many people so keen to put the absolute maximum amount of petrol/diesel in the tank, even to the extent of filling up the expansion space :o ?  Unless you are driving across the Gobi, a normally full tank should get you from one filling station to the next, surely (even in a V6).

When you drives a LOT of km's, like I do, then filling it up with 55 liters or with 70 liters can make the difference of visiting petrol stations every four days or every week!

 

By the way, I even risked to fill it up completely last summer, drove some 500 meters and placed it half a day in plenty sun. It was about 33 degrees C outside.

Had no trouble :rolleyes:

 

When I push the expansion valve, I can put some extra 15 liters in it! (not 8)

[Jim]

I pay just under 60 pence per litre. On my last fill up I managed to get over 100 litres of diesel in the car - and the tank was half full. The three jerry cans in the car helped to accomdate the extra fuel.

 

That's the least fuel I have bought for a while from my trips abroad (ROI). Hate buying fuel in the UK - can Gordon Brown sleep OK at night? At least Dick Turpin wore a mask. :)

[Guest mick]

I'll start savin' now for when I return to UK permanently (ish) later in year, and have to pay the high fuel prices (and RFT, and .......)

[Jim]

Just returned from a weekend in England. Had the car completely full, including releasing air and then filling again (expansion tank). Managed to do just over 600 miles before the refuel light came on.

 

Over 450 of these miles were motorway driving.

 

Quite impressed with the fuel economy. ;)

[Guest SteveKeeley]

I've just noticed this topic and thought I'd add my tuppence. I've always been a bit obsessed with fuel consumption - I'm a management accountant and before trip computers it used to give a bit of arithmetic to pass the time on my journeys so I've been wotking out accurate consumption figures on my cars for years. My Alhambra 110bhp did about 42.5mpg in 3 years over 115,000 miles from new. My 2002 new model 115bhp Galaxy does about 2mpg better. I checked the computer against the fuel put in for the first 3 tanks and it was absolutely accurate, not even 0.1 mpg out so I rely on it for consumption now (my 1990 Jaguar was over 15% out!). I don't notice very much fluctuation due to weather, air con or load. The main difference by far is how fast and hard I drive. I am quite light-footed. Long trips at 80mph give me low 40s whilst a drive from Portsmouth to Poole in heavy but moving traffic can give me 50mpg. The best ever was 54.0mpg ship to ship on a business trip to Ireland - but I was really trying!! I always fill up when the needle is moving towards empty and get 60 - 65 lites in without feeling that I am running on air. I've got over 670 miles on a tank from the Alhambra and the Galaxy on occasion but I wouldn't recommend trying to beat that as I'm a bit of a brinksman with filling up. I hope that these reminiscences are useful to some of you.