Fuel gauge. Is it crap at being accurate, or just mine.

[iwelford]

Ok, so i would say i roughly get about 330 miles form a full tank of petrol on average and i'm not complaining about this cause I am no angel when it comes to accelerating, motorway driving etc etc, but really annoys me is the fuel gauge reading.

For the first 210ish miles my gauge is over half full, and 90 miles later I am on the fuel light. How am is supposed to gauge if this is accurate or not?

surely it should not be 210 miles for the top half, and 90 miles plus reserve for the last.

Is it just me?

[Woolsy]

my gauge is never accurate i hate the digital think why cant we have needles? easier to read

it will say 109miles then 60miles does my head in

[Bigfeet]

The reason for the digital gauges is simple, it's to avoid misreading.

The fuel system does a 'dip' very couple of miles to recheck the status of the fuel and then it will reset the display. The idea is that the fuel gauge does show a false 'high' when you are going around a corner, moving up or downhill when the fuel is moving in the tank.

Another thing to note is with the bars shown you will not know how much of the top bar has been used, so you could look and see three bars and then check again in 5 minutes and there may now only be two because bar three was nearly done anyway.

Best advice? Use the range counter instead.

[cyclone]

Don't know if the DS3 is set up like this or even if Ford still does it but my mates dad was a engineer at Ford in America a while back and said that they intentionally calibrated the gauge to go down slower for the first and last 1/3 and fast in the middle. Some kind of psychological crap to make you think you were getting better gas milage.

[iwelford]

Some kind of psychological crap to make you think you were getting better gas milage.

Ha Ha, I am always hopeful every-time it passes halfway that THIS might be the time I will get another 210 miles, so there might something in that

[mattds3sport]

ive found this also upto half tank goes slow but thn bars drop like flies every 10 miles very poor

[Robiero]

Funny you should mention this topic. I was on a quarter of a tank this morn on the way to work and BOOM it had dropped to 1 bar throughout the journey. Crapped it and went and fuelled up asap despite it having a range of 34miles in it left. I am still unsure on if I can trust the range much, and the same goes for gauge. Im half tempted to take a jerrycan one day and fill it then see how far it really will run before it runs on fumes.

[Chrisp]

The range computer is crap, can't put it any more clearer really. In my last 2 cars it's been fairly accurate and counted downfairly slowly by a couple of miles at a time, this one is up and down and had nearly 30 miles range then dropped to 0, done it twice now so don't rely on it at all, now it's saying I'm going to get 650 miles from a tank, probably say 450 when I start it tomorrow. Still like the car but little things are getting on my nerves now

[x6411]

For me I've noticed we seem to get 40miles from each of the top 3 bars, then its less and less per bar :s

[tonyt4265]

my hi tech method is easy - fill it up the neck and when it bleeps i fill it up again until it bleeps again after about 500 miles.

[jaspabt]

the fuel tank would have to be perfectly square to provide a consistent mileage per bar from full to empty. Tanks are not shaped this way and often take more of a Y shape, hence it seeming to do more fuel when the tank is full compared to empty. Thats how all my cars have been in fairness. With regards to the digital milage reading as Bigfeet states it takes a reading every so often and recalculates. I completed a 30 mile round journey yesterday and ended up with more "available" miles showing than when I left Sadly, I find it a fun little game.

[Bigfeet]

The other option is to play 'Fuel light bingo'....

Keep driving until you hear a mis-fire from the car, this is the ECU telling you that you really need to stop for bloody fuel!!

[jamsta]

I have just got a DStyle+ EHDI90 so meant to be 48 litre tank. Flashed up the other day saying "Fuel Too Low", still had range of 54 miles and was on my last bar. However filling upto the neck only resulted in 39 litres going on. Surely the reserve is not that much? Could easily get a good 100miles out of that. Love the car but this really could get on my nerves.

[Bigfeet]

^

What a car making sure that you don't run out of fuel??

[joeking27]

You mean you fill up when the fuel light comes on? I waited until the range reached zero and still only got 44 litres in!