Dodgy fuel reading?

[Mits-88]

Seeing as some of you have owned the auto version and rest of you know your stuff i needed help with my fuel reading-

Basically when i went to pick the car up from the dealers he told the tank was bone dry and he had put £20 of petrol in for me, the reading on the dash said 82 miles so im guessing thats what ive got left but when i got home (st helens to bolton) it said its only got 40 miles left and then the reading kept on changing but going down very fast and i was not driving it alot so im not sure whats up with it? Does the fact that it had hardly anything in it to begin with affect it? Im popping in to citroen tomorro anyways so will ask them to check it but any help from you guys would be nice thanks

[mattds3sport]

depends on which readout you were going by? The one on the speedo or the trip computer on the mono screen ?

[DaveB]

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong! The range recalculates as you drive, based on recent fuel consumption. When you've got an almost empty tank you'll see big changes over a few miles; with a full tank the changes will be more gradual. When my tank's almost empty I can knock 10 miles or more off the range just accelerating hard up to 70mph from a stop at a motorway roundabout!

I'm assuming from what you say it's a brand new car? If so, the computer won't have had much data initially so the first few figures you saw won't have been accurate.

[mix]

When you've got an almost empty tank you'll see big changes over a few miles

^This. I'm on the last bar at the moment and on a 10 mile journey tonight it started at 55 miles, went down to 40 and had increased back up to 60 as I pulled into my drive.

Fill her up a couple of times a see how it reacts then. If you're still concerned that there's something amiss after filling up a couple of times, then would be the time to talk to your dealer.

[Mits-88]

Its the reading that is on the small screen next to the speedo on the right. Its not brand new has had one previous owner and had done 13,000 miles its an 2011 plate. Ive only had it 3 days too but i think your right DaveB it was changing the reading alot as it was quite empty but it was getting really annoying as the trip computer kept on saying "fuel really low" and "fuel too low" it started scaring me cause i though i was going to run out lol i also think on my automatic version its takes too long for it to move out of first the revs get really loud then it changes gear and is fine. going to have to get that checked aswell oh well at least ive still got a warrenty from citroen

[CliveP]

Every car I've had, has always taken ages to drop from full to half on the fuel gauge (whether old analogue meters or new digital ones), and the estimated range left does the same - when getting low it will say 100 left, I'll drive a few miles and it will say 20 left! When it's full it's more accurate (it is fun flooring it then driving gently to see how much it changes the range left in the tank, but the real fun is driving the DS3 to its full potential!).

Bottom line is I keep all my consumption stats 'outside' of the on-board computer - so I can compare the average mpg the computer says to reality, and it's about 10% different...

I know roughly what I'll get out of a tank.....

Advice, drive and enjoy

Regards,
Clive.

[Bigfeet]

Most likely what has happened is your dealer forgot to reset the trip computer of all it's data before you picked it up. The car will have been working out it's ranged based on the driving that it already had experienced which would only have been loading mileage. I regularly see cars that have been delivered to the showroom which have about a bar of fuel but a range of 18 miles.

By the way the reset the computer press the button on the end of the wiper stalk until you have one of the trip computer displays on the centre console, now press and hold that button down for about 3 seconds and the info will be reset.

[DaveB]

Most likely what has happened is your dealer forgot to reset the trip computer of all it's data before you picked it up. The car will have been working out it's ranged based on the driving that it already had experienced which would only have been loading mileage. I regularly see cars that have been delivered to the showroom which have about a bar of fuel but a range of 18 miles.

By the way the reset the computer press the button on the end of the wiper stalk until you have one of the trip computer displays on the centre console, now press and hold that button down for about 3 seconds and the info will be reset.

Resetting the trip computer doesn't affect the range data!

[Bigfeet]

Actually it uses the previous data as a guide for consumption, seen many a time on cars that have arrived. I always reset the computer before handover and it does affect the estimated range.

[Mits-88]

Thanks for the info guys and cheers Bigfeet i will have a go at resetting it in a little while

[Mits-88]

Hi ive reset the computer and it did help as the miles it said i had left went up and down as i drove so i think it was working but today ive basically filled up the tank and the computer says ive only got 254 miles on that tank! Its getting me worried now as its going to cost me slot in petrol if thats all im getting. I was under the asumption i could get 400+ miles on a full tank! Anybody know what ishould or could do? Should i take it to get looked at the citroen dealer?

[lfcrule1972]

Just drive it normally now you've filled it up, you'll find that the range will increase based on your driving. That is unless you drive like Vettel ! When I fill my diesel up the range starts at about 500 miles and then goes up to about 600 miles as I drive ending up about 550 miles on the tank when it's empty. The range is just a guide and varies a lot, try not to panic

[Mits-88]

Cheers mate will see what happens on this tank hopefully it gets better and i get 500 miles to a tank! Id be happy with that however i do quite alot of small trips so that will bring it down

[lfcrule1972]

Is yours a diesel then ? If so 500 should be achievable, if its the petrol versions I don't think you'll get that mileage from a tank but you'd need someone with the same model as you (tell us what you have) to give you a better idea

[Mits-88]

No mate its a petrol its the 1.6 automatic version its the only auto model they do. Yeah i was thinking closer to 400 miles for a tank i would be happy if i got something along them lines but i think that trip computer just annoys me as i know its not a true reading but i still take notice of it lol and cheers for the help