Reading my fuel gauge

[DoubleOughtCel]

Hey, I have to ask this quick question. I've never had a car with a digital fuel meter like the one in my 2000 GT-S. I used a calculator and found that each quarter tank on the meter equals like 3.625 gallons or something like that. I can drive down to my shore house (about 100 miles away) and I will lose maybe 1 bar. 1 bar should equal about 7/10's of a gallon. However, sometimes i will be sitting at idle in a parking lot and lose 2 bars out of nowhere, only to get 1 of them back later on that day. I am really confused. Any help?

[Yoda's Master]

it's not that accurate, i get about 25+ mpg, sometimes i gain 1-2 bars at stop :crazy2:

[slidr]

Don't think that each bar equals the same amount of fuel. It doesn't work that way, even with an analog gauge.


Digital or analog, it usually takes like 70 miles of driving for me to lose one bar or for an analog gauge to even budge.

[TRD-CELICA-GT02]

Yeah each bar doesn't seem to be accurate. If it isn't anymore obvious, the first bars on the full side are even larger too and shorten towards the empty side. I can go about a good 100 miles before the first bar of a full tank is gone. I tried calculating it once but just kept getting various numbers with each bar.

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

Yeah, thats just how our gas gauge "works," you'll get used to it and it is normal.

[ckd]

On average I lose a quarter tank every 100 miles so by the time I hit fifty miles the first two bars are gone and I get about 28mpg. Mine seems to be consistant but every once in awhile it'll be off and then average out again.

[ibanezgfx]

so once the bars are all gone, is there any fuel left?
stupid question, but with analog gauges, the needle can be under E and still have some gas

[CinciCelica]

Yes, but I wouldn't want to find out how much....

Mine has dipped that low but only for a second
(I was on my way to the gas station)

[wacko604]

i'll get about 80km for the first bar

[shrumdude]

If the fuel light comes on, you had better be on the way to the gas station.

[oONoGoAutoOo]

Yeah each bar doesn't seem to be accurate. If it isn't anymore obvious, the first bars on the full side are even larger too and shorten towards the empty side. I can go about a good 100 miles before the first bar of a full tank is gone. I tried calculating it once but just kept getting various numbers with each bar.


:werd:

[SuuPaSeDan]

If the fuel light comes on, you had better be on the way to the gas station.


:werd: On time i tried to push it, it started to boggle... anyways... i pulled in and filled it with like 12.9 gal, our tank is only 13.5 gal... yeah... that was a close one...

[Lomeinhu]

Go to howstuffworks.com and see how the fuel gauge works. The basic concept involves a float in the fuel tank. Think of the float as an inflated beach ball in an ENCLOSED tank of water. When you fill your tank, the gas level covers the ball because the ball can only go up so far in the tank. Now, as you use up the gas, the ball will only start to drop down when the gas level is nearing the bottom of the ball. As a result, the fuel gauge will not indicate a drop until quite a bit of gas is used up. THIS is why the first fuel gauge bars seem to cover so many miles. A similar thing happens when the ball drops down to the bottom of the tank. As you can imagine, a ball can rest on the floor of the tank (meaning the guage will read empty), while there's still plenty of gas in the tank left, because there isn't enough gas to lift the ball. Therefore, you can have a gauge that reads "empty" and still have gas left. This, then, becomes a built-in safety measure so that you can get to a gas station on the little bit of gas left.

D@mn it! I wasted my 666th post on explaining how fuel gauges work! Doh! :furious: :D

[FireWakizashi]

When I first got my car, I found that it would read full, with all the bars, for a ridiciculously long time, then the bars would drop like flies. It was sorta nice always looking and having a "full tank"...
I reset my ECU and now I find that the gauge is a lot more accurate. Does that make sense that it had such an impact on the gas guage?

[Pink Spider]

I notice all the crazy fuel bars too. I'll sometimes "gain" fuel just by driving. :AF: I hardly ever get a full tank of gas, I get a 1/4 or half mostly, and them bars drop like hell.

[DaileyDog]

I rarely let my tank get below half empty.

[wacko604]

I rarely let my tank get below half empty.
yea same here....it's bad to run your tank lest than a quarter i herd. It makes i harder for the pump to wrk

[SuuPaSeDan]

Go to howstuffworks.com and see how the fuel gauge works. The basic concept involves a float in the fuel tank. Think of the float as an inflated beach ball in an ENCLOSED tank of water. When you fill your tank, the gas level covers the ball because the ball can only go up so far in the tank. Now, as you use up the gas, the ball will only start to drop down when the gas level is nearing the bottom of the ball. As a result, the fuel gauge will not indicate a drop until quite a bit of gas is used up. THIS is why the first fuel gauge bars seem to cover so many miles. A similar thing happens when the ball drops down to the bottom of the tank. As you can imagine, a ball can rest on the floor of the tank (meaning the guage will read empty), while there's still plenty of gas in the tank left, because there isn't enough gas to lift the ball. Therefore, you can have a gauge that reads "empty" and still have gas left. This, then, becomes a built-in safety measure so that you can get to a gas station on the little bit of gas left.

D@mn it! I wasted my 666th post on explaining how fuel gauges work! Doh! :furious: :D


nice, i love howstuffworks.com