Mpg fuel light on

[Shacky13]

Hi all, 

  Question on fuel light, recently travelling 100 miles a day for work, left work yesterday and computer said I had 75miles to empty so thought I’d fill when home, well..... got 20 miles down the road and it said 0 miles left and gauge went to the R so felt I had to find fuel quickly     
    What mileage are people getting from when fuel light comes on as my gauge seems to drop like a lead ballon as soon as fuel light comes on

   Also what are people getting to a full tank ... mine is around £70 to fill from empty and best I’ve managed is 560 miles which is worse than the old work van , yet the car often shows 65mpg to and from work 

[langers2k]

The light comes on when a set amount of fuel is left rather than a distance. I've had the light come on anywhere between 70 and 100 miles range left. I find mine is relatively accurate as long as I'm driving sedately but it can drop quickly if you're not.

 

I'm currently getting ~700 miles from a tank (56 litres) but I can have completely different 2l CR engine ;)

[pikpilot]

Don't worry, it is normal. The miles left is based on current/recent fuel consumption. So when you started your journey home it would be based on the pre-stop consumption but as your journey proceeds then you will have worse consumption with a cold engine and it will recalculate the display to a lower miles left.

 

People have travelled quite some distance with 0 on the display (using a light right foot). I only did it once and it was about 15 miles after it displayed zero miles left and I was still going.

560 miles per tankful is quite good and is typical for long B road journeys or slower motorway runs. On my 1.9 I got 500 to 550 miles per tankful.  

 

I am guessing your van had a larger tank or (more likely) a lower power version engine.

[Golf-Fiend]

550 miles from a 55 litre tank is 45MPG in case you were wondering.

[J.R.]

There is always at least a gallon left when the display reads zero miles.

 

I ran my PD Octavia dry on the first tank to see what its ultimate range was, refilled it with 5l from a jerrycan and it then said there was 40 miles remaining, pretty impressive I thought for a tiny amount sloshing around the bottom of the tank, I drove it 5kms to a fule station to fill up during that time the 40 mile range dropped to 30, 20, 10 then zero miles within the first km

 

I would never refill that car or the MK1 before I had done 600 miles except for if I were leaving on a long autoroute trip, first reminder would be the fuel light and the bing bongs, second reminder would be zero remaining miles, I would look at the trip meter and if it was at 575 miles like it usually was I would drive till 600 miles before filling up.

[shyVRS245]

Filled our Karoq petrol up yesterday when the light came on saying range was 65 miles left after covering 403 miles (50 litre tank) Could only squeeze just over 41 litres in so had I kept driving there was at least 90 miles left in the tank giving 25 miles more range after zero had been reached.