How accurate is gas guage?

[RedlandRanger]

Well obviously I hope that I never run into this but if I do I'll be very glad I saw this post. I'll have to permanently engrain this into my mind for future use! As always, I appreciate the insight!

I'm also in the, as soon as it hits 50mi DTE I try to fill up immediately, group. I have only put 500 miles on my truck and this is only my second fill up but I was definitely curious when I got to "1/4 tank" and the 50mi DTE light came on. I'm used to the light showing just before it hits the last line before going into the red. I came here to see if anyone else has this same readout from the gauge and it looks like that is the case. I was thinking that the calibration would adjust over time but it seems that I'll just have to get used to knowing that "1/4 tank" doesn't actually mean 1/4 tank. I know it would only really represent about 50-60 more miles (depending on gas mileage) if it was actually 1/4 tank left so I guess this is a nice EARLY warning to get fuel.

One thing I had not known until recently was that most modern cars/trucks have the fuel pump in the tank and the gas actually helps to cool it. Running down the fuel level below 1/4 tank on a regular basis can shorten the life of the fuel pump since it doesn't have much fuel around it to cool it. That might play into why the low fuel light comes on early?

Phil? Any thoughts on that?

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[AzScorpion]

Well obviously I hope that I never run into this but if I do I'll be very glad I saw this post. I'll have to permanently engrain this into my mind for future use! As always, I appreciate the insight!

I'm also in the, as soon as it hits 50mi DTE I try to fill up immediately, group. I have only put 500 miles on my truck and this is only my second fill up but I was definitely curious when I got to "1/4 tank" and the 50mi DTE light came on. I'm used to the light showing just before it hits the last line before going into the red. I came here to see if anyone else has this same readout from the gauge and it looks like that is the case. I was thinking that the calibration would adjust over time but it seems that I'll just have to get used to knowing that "1/4 tank" doesn't actually mean 1/4 tank. I know it would only really represent about 50-60 more miles (depending on gas mileage) if it was actually 1/4 tank left so I guess this is a nice EARLY warning to get fuel.

I with you as I like to try and fill up when the light comes on,but when I get a new vehicle I do run it a little lower just to see how accurate the DTE is. IIRC I ran mine down to 30 miles and I put in just over 17 gallons so it looks to be fairly accurate.

 

[Ranger in Maine]

My old ‘58 VW bug doesn’t have a fuel gauge, none of the older VW’s had them. They had a ~10 gallon fuel tank in the front compartment. You just kind of had to remember mileage when you filled it up so you had a idea when it would be empty. If you remembered wrong, there is a little lever behind and above the pedals. When the engine started sputtering, you reached your foot down there and tried to turn the lever. It opened up a second tank outlet lower in the tank and you had another 1.5 gallons left. If you had big feet it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Made for some exciting driving if in traffic.

 

[Toytec]

My old ‘58 VW bug doesn’t have a fuel gauge, none of the older VW’s had them. They had a ~10 gallon fuel tank in the front compartment. You just kind of had to remember mileage when you filled it up so you had a idea when it would be empty. If you remembered wrong, there is a little lever behind and above the pedals. When the engine started sputtering, you reached your foot down there and tried to turn the lever. It opened up a second tank outlet lower in the tank and you had another 1.5 gallons left. If you had big feet it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Made for some exciting driving if in traffic.

My dad's '61 bus had the lever down below in between the driver and passenger seat. Damn, does that bring back memories. I'll never forget the "sputter" and "oh shit"!

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