mjirvine

I thought it was a 60 litre tank?? did i think wrong?

my light comes on at 2ish bars then goes out for a while when I park on a hill then back on, off, on etc complete;y random but not as bad as the fuel guage of course.

MJI

mjirvine

of course one of my old cars a fiat punto was much worse! you could add or lose more than a quarter tank of fuel by turning right or left respectively!, funny to get the fuel light flicker on when tank is over half full....but quite annoying after a while.

MJI

Beardie

It's definitely a 50litre tank.

Spanners

My car came with a book written by a guy called Manuel Owners. He says (page 273) "Approx 50L".

It is very hard to measure (cheaply) the level of fuel in a tank when it is "low" as the level is sloshing around. One way is to reshape the tank so it has a roughly conical sump at its lowest part, so as the fuel level gets lower it is concentrated in a defined small area of defined shape where a small change in depth does not mean a large change in volume. Sadly, this means either reducing the ground clearance (bad) or mounting the tank higher up in the car (also bad). Oddly it is easy to measure the tank when it is full as the fuel cannot slosh - which is exactly when you do not need to know the level.

What would be nice is the ability to "tune" the warning based on your own experience. For the first few tanks I took great note of what lights/bars were on not just as the car was stationary but also as the car is being driven and then noted how much I had to put in to fill it up, hence working out how much had been left in the tank. I concluded the warning light is a bit premature - and the bars are panic inducing. I assume the warning lamp is triggered by the electronics driving the level display - so it would be nice if this could be "adjusted".

Having said all that the warning time is about right if you are a) in an area you do not know and b) use Optimax and so have to go hunting. Arguably the introduction of the BP high octane stuff eases this a bit.

On my old Lancia I got so fed up with the warning light illuminating when I had about 20 litres left I drained the tank one day, then put 5 litres back then took the wretched sensor out and bent the wires until the lamp just came on. In those days the sensor had two parts. A variable resistor to work the gauge and a separate float arm and switch to work the panic light. I had several identical cars and each had different characteristics. On the worst one the gauge stopped moving when the warning lamp came on - which was the one I "modified". When the lamp lit you knew you had about 100 miles to go - but then you forgot when it had come on - and two days later ran out. After I had fiddled with the sensor I put the fuel back and was OK after that. Wonder how easy it is to get at the sensor on the S?

Frisbeekylee

well after posting the other day drove home from work to the nearest shell garage, on my way still had 2 bars (warning light on) driving down a dual carriageway, noticed it went down to 1 bar 15 secs later i saw i had 0 bars left started thinking i should have put a spare pair of trousers in the car (or some fuel). it was one of the longest 5 miles i have ever driven but still only got 43.8 litres in!!!!! oh well live and learn. thks to those who replied!!

Also weirdest thing someone smashed my wifes car window last night!! nothing stolen. the weird thing is the S was parked right next to it so the person would have to walk between my car and hers to smash my wifes car window!!! I'm glad it wasn't my s but puzzles me somehwat!!! still very