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Now that sounds better. I fill my car up to the maximum limit it can hold. (65L), i drive it all the way untill it literally hits the end of the empty line, i go to fill it up, it only takes about 35-40L. Its still got around 20L left of petrol yet it says its empty. The light doesnt come up or anything, im just too scared to risk it incase. Ive heard this is pretty common in skylines, anyone know? Any possible fix to this if any?

It's pretty common on most cars, I think it's a design thing, to stop people running out of petrol. The common thing to do is fill it up when it gets low. Why do you want to run the tank dry? Low fuel warning light usually comes on when the tank has ~10L of petrol left, but this varies with cars.

I've put a new fuel sender in the tank and it hardly changed. The light doesn't come on until the needle goes just past the 'E' it's about 10L left when your needle drops about 1mm under the 'E' on the factory gauge.
Best only do that if you need to change a fuel pump.

You won't find a car (with a working fuel gauge) that doesn't have the fuel light come on with about 10l left in the tank. This is so when the light comes on you have enough fuel to get to a servo. No point having the low warning light come on and the having it run out of fuel 5 seconds later.

You won't find a car (with a working fuel gauge) that doesn't have the fuel light come on with about 10l left in the tank. This is so when the light comes on you have enough fuel to get to a servo. No point having the low warning light come on and the having it run out of fuel 5 seconds later.

I know, and i agree it would be really stupid for it to come on with only 5 seconds left of fuel. I just find it odd that it says im on empty, yet i fill it up and it only takes about 40L of petrol, thats still 25L of petrol left. One day i drove it around for a couple days when the needle was on empty. Eventually i went to fill up because i thought the fuel light would of turned on by now, so i thought maybe my car doesnt have one. It only took 40L, i was thinking it was going to take atleast 55L of petrol before being completely full again. So thats why im thinking i need a new fuel sender but thought id better ask the people on these forums before i waste money on something not needed. Im not complaining that much though, better safe then sorry, just that fuel reading is very misleading.

Now that i know the fuel warning light comes on with 10L of petrol left, im going to top it all the way up and drive it until the light comes on and see how much km i get out of 55L of petrol. I guess im hoping for atleast 450km out of 55L.

Edited by Gw2
  • 2 weeks later...

There is a few things you can do. First, reset your odometer everytime you fill up, then just run it till the needle is pretty much spot on the empty line. Then take note how many litres it takes to fill it. Then you can work out your average economy and then work out how much further you could drive based off how much is generally left in the tank when the needle is on the empty line. This method will give you an accurate way to calculate how much fuel you've used and how much is left down to a few litres. Much more accurately than any fuel gauge as they can work in funny ways depending on tank shape. For example, I've had 2 cars where I could drive close to 150kms before the gauge moved from full, yet my current car will be down to 3/4 after that distance, but yet the last 1/4 (from 1/4 to the empty line) I can do close to 300kms.

But I don't see what the problem is really. Just fill up when you want/need to. It makes difference to whether you fill up with 20l left or 10l left. Your economy will be the same, and in the long run it still costs the same.

Yeah, plus 4cyl rego is cheaper than 6cyl rego. I work between 4 and 6 days a week and drive about 125km (round trip) to and from work everyday. The Commodore got about 8.8l/100kms, the mirage gets just over 6l/100kms (best I've gotten was 5.7l/100kms).

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