fuel consumption/mpg

[pug306driver]

tried to find the fuel consumption thread, went back some 15 pages and cannot find it......

anyways we had our summer blast to the south east which was great, first time we have ever filled the tank and no leaks. we filled it to the 3rd pump autostop on pump one and it seemed to do 60 ish to the gallon, mostly good a roads and 40 miles of motorway. We used the performance as we wanted to get there before dark but mainly kept to the speed limits ( no tickets throught the post yet! ). a new air filter was fitted the day before we set off.

we filled it agin on the same pump and same methiod but with very rural driving now, again using the performance but gentle acceleration. We have done 55o miles and the gauge is just on 1/4 tank left.

we have emptied the tank to less thank 1/4 full ( just touching the red at one stage ) before but take notice of the possible problem in so doing.

what I would like to ask is at what level does the red fuel warning light come on please?

will be filling up again soon so will come back with a rural mpg then.

as ever brilliant forum

[Toms306]

The red light comes on when the needle hits the red on the gauge...about a gallon left. But I wouldn't trust a 306 gauge!

[powerandtorque]

Does differ somewhat between cars, but as above the light comes on as the needle moves into the red and there will be somewhere in the region of a gallon left.

When I say it differs between cars, to give you an idea when the light comes on, my '99 HDi hatch has about 4 litres left and my '99 HDi estate has about 7 litres left (judging by how much you can add to fill the tank to a nominal 60 litres)

But I wouldn't trust a 306 gauge!

Try a 205 fuel gauge - the 306 one is the paragon of accuracy by comparison

[pugmanxud]

SEcond this about the 205

yours truly

the owner of a bipolar 205 fuel guage

[Poodle]

Varies massively depending on how you're driving. I've had well over a hundred miles after the red light has come on, on another occasion it didn't even manage forty lol. If you're driving hard the light will come on sooner thanks to the heavy damping on the level sender signal - acceleration forces the fuel away from the sender unit, artificially dropping the fuel level it sees, keep this up for five minutes and you'll see the level drop right down. Relax for five minutes and it should go right back up again.

I'll carry that motion on the 205, although tbf it is more accurate than the speedo - "we're definitely doing something between 10 and 30 mph, so i'm going to wave frantically between the two, but that's a bit tiring so i'll have to stop and rest for a bit every couple of minutes".