Gas Light

[WoodburyMan]

Something that's bothered me since I got this car. The gas light comes on way to early. On my GTO it used to come on when I had about 3gallons left. Very low (only saw it once or twice) would come on when I had just over 1.5g left.

Now last night gas light goes on coming back from school. 300mi on the trip. Decide to test it. Drive to a friends house, then drive back home, then drive to the gas station. 340mi on the trip. Fills up, only takes 16.3 gallons. On a 19.3 gallon tank. (19gal + .3 reserve from what I read). 19.9mpg average, so the damn light went on when I had almost 5 gallons left, a literal quarter tank.

Is something wrong with the gauge or sensor, or does everyone else's lights go on real early? I understand the gauge always has a bit of a reserve, like E/gas light really means like 2-3gallon reserve. But 5 galls seems a bit to much to be bugging me about refilling, especially on a college budget.

[LDM]

Where are you getting 5 gallons from? 19.3-16.3=3. The low warning popped up for the very first time ever on me last weekend coming home. I was literally less than a mile away from the local gas station I was planning on filling up at anyway (I was waiting until I got home because I wasn't going to pay CT prices for gas.) It ended up taking 15.9 gallons, so I still had a little over 3 gallons left in the tank.

[Chewy]

I think mine normally comes on at just about an 1/8th of a tank. I think the DIC usually says 40 miles right before it changes to LOW FUEL. What pisses me off is when it changes, I can't see how many miles I have left. lol Oh our first world problems we have... lol

[Eidolon]

Nice thing about having triple Aeroforce Interceptor gauges is I can actually get the raw number of how many gallons the computer thinks are left in the tank. I hardly ever use the fuel gauge in the dash cluster anymore. The light does usually come on between 3.0 and 3.5 gallons left in the tank, but closer to 3. On an overage of 15-20 MPG, that's approximately 50 miles, which is a good safe margin.

And yeah, I wanna say the gauge reads 19.2 when freshly filled, which is why it does take the dash cluster gauge a bit to actually start moving.

Safe to say, I think the rule is less than or equal to 3 gallons remaining = Low Fuel. Less than or equal to 1 gallon remaining = Very Low Fuel.

[travis gore]

I have never seen the very low fuel light.I have driven a couple of days back and forth to work with the low fuel light on. My round trip is 3 miles

[LDM]

I think my range was at about 60 miles when I got the LOW FUEL warning, but I was averaging almost 25 MPG at the time. Unless you're on a long trip just trying to make time without stopping, there isn't really a reason to let it get to the point that the warning pops up.

[-Ray-]

Mine runs outta gas about 15 miles after I fill it up.

[Eidolon]

Mine runs outta gas about 15 miles after I fill it up.
Rated in gallons per mile?

[LDM]

Mine runs outta gas about 15 miles after I fill it up.

And that's why you have the Fiesta

[WoodburyMan]

Where are you getting 5 gallons from? 19.3-16.3=3. The low warning popped up for the very first time ever on me last weekend coming home. I was literally less than a mile away from the local gas station I was planning on filling up at anyway (I was waiting until I got home because I wasn't going to pay CT prices for gas.) It ended up taking 15.9 gallons, so I still had a little over 3 gallons left in the tank.
I drove 40mi after it came on, average was 19.9mpg so figure that's about 2 gallons, and still had 3 gallons left when filling up. 5 gallons. My main question was just if it was odd for it to come on when I had 5gallons left almost and 20mpg average, so Range said like 60mi then drops to low when it comes on. All other cars are just around 3 gallons usually including reserve.

I'll have to check the gas left. I have a Trinity and I can check most of the parameters. If aeroforce can see fuel remaining that should be able to as well. Sensor could be whacked out, or for all I know my Evap system is messed up and when i think i'm topping off i still have a gallon or two empty and i am really running on fumes. (Happened in GTO, wouldn't fill more the 7/8 sometimes due to messed up evap system..always got CELS for it).

I usually hit it cause my daily commute to work, other work, school, and back home is close to 100mi total a day. The longest single trip back home is 40mi. As long as its not on when I leave If it comes on I know I have enough to get home and get gas, or the next morning get gas as all our freaking gas stations close at 9pm and I dont get back from class till almost 11pm some days.

I'm also just assuming there's a "Very Low" light on the G8 since most Holden things carried over. There was on the GTO, and only saw it the one time. No one else i know ever got their GTO that low as well.

And Yea lol our gas prices suck. Highest price and taxes on gas in the lower 48 except for People's Republic of California.

[LDM]

I drove 40mi after it came on, average was 19.9mpg so figure that's about 2 gallons, and still had 3 gallons left when filling up. 5 gallons. My main question was just if it was odd for it to come on when I had 5gallons left almost and 20mpg average, so Range said like 60mi then drops to low when it comes on. All other cars are just around 3 gallons usually including reserve.


Ah, I see what you're saying now. My bad.

Looking at some older threads, it seems that it varies when the light comes on for some, so I don't think your car probably has anything wrong with it.

Fuel Gauge (http://forum.grrrr8.net/showthread.php?t=20233)
When is this car REALLY empty? (http://forum.grrrr8.net/showthread.php?t=3884)
If you go to Engineering Mode the DIC will tell you exactly how much fuel the car thinks it has left. The only downsides are you can't switch to Engineering Mode on the fly, you can only do it when you turn the key on, and also that it displays in liters, which could be a problem for the metrically challenged.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz352/lenmartin23/G8/DSC_0200.jpg

[WoodburyMan]

Hmm yea seems for the others it sometimes came on around 5 gallons or so left as well. Guess its very dependent on the range. Ill have to keep the car in engineering mode next time I get near the edge to see what it says when it trips.

I noticed there are also two gas mileage estimate systems in our car as well. The average MPG displayed that you can reset with the trip, and a short term one the car calculates that shows you range. If you ever watch range, it will quickly change. After filling up cruising on the highway it will say 400+mi easy. Hit traffic for 2 minutes and it will knock down to 250+mi instantly. I suppose its based on some short term fuel usage estimate the computer calculates based on very current driving habits in last few minutes. Maybe what's tripping it is maybe when I get to 5gallons and say I hit a long stoplight.. then it goes off. As opposed to maybe driving along on the highway, it might not hit till 4gallons or less.

Ill do some more experimenting and report back. I go through a tank of gas every 5 days or so usually.

[Napalm]

low fuel comes on for me right when the needle hits the red mark on the gage.

very low - when it hits bottom of the gage. so low = 5 ish gal. very low = 3ish gal.

One thing that does upset me, coming from the GTO - is the loss of the Miles to empty when low fuel light comes on. and the loss of your mpg readout.

otherwise works exactly like my GTO did. (low was 2gal higher than very low - both hit when the red mark on the gage hit)

[DMVG8]

I've driven 40 miles with the low fuel light on int GT.

[WoodburyMan]

Update:

Gas light came on. Less than a mile later I checked engineering mode. Remaining fuel stated 1gal. Filled up, only took a little over 15gallons. After fillup, Engineering mode states 19gallons. So I am right. My gas light is coming on way to early at over 4 to 4.5 gallons. That's over 80mi range. No way near "low" for a commuting college student budget.. But at least it verifys that theres no hardware fault. Just software programming of when it comes on. I liked the GTO's ~40mi range or 2.5gal light better. Thats the same my G6 GTP had as well. Alas that also told me on the DIC that my wiper fluid was low, yet the G8 and GTO dont..