Due to unforseen circumstances I ran the fuel down to an indicated  5 miles remaining . When rechecking the next day it indicated 0 miles range.

To ensure I reached the filling station I topped up with 5 litres of fuel but the guage still registered 0 miles.

The garage is about 6 miles away and the guage continued to register 0 miles until I filled up.

It then reverted to the normal 445 miles range.

I wonder how the guage measues fuel capacity?

Completely normal, I have done the same myself but deliberately.

 

The guage and remaining miles display are accurate down to just over 1/4 of a tank at which point they fall further than reality to create a virtual reserve capacity of around 5 liters.

 

I ran mine dry, I wanted to be sure that I could drive at least 60 miles with zero miles remaining as on the previous Skoda, it was indeed the case, I put in 5l from a jerrycan and drove maybe 4km to the nearest fuel station, after putting in the 5l it actually showed as 20 miles remaining, pretty accurate as it could only have been 1cm across the bottom of the tank, within 1km it had dropped to 10 miles and then dropped straight to zero miles again, after filling the tank it showed full and the correct range.

 

In general, different driving conditions and journey profiles aside, when you fill up it shows the true range that the vehicle can cover on the fuel, at 1/2 a tank it is still truthfull, I will have driven 300 miles and it shows 300 remaining, thenat 1/4 of a tank  it does as I described, it will show zero miles remaining at little over 500 miles but I continue driving for another 50-80 miles dependant on speeds & journey profile.

 

All the above figures were from my previous Octavia, I would not run dry the common rail engine on my Yeti to test so I dont know exactly what virtual reserve I have but I still drive 50 miles after "zero miles remaining" and have not run out yet.

Thanks, I guessed that something similar was occuring.

C’mon, you know the fuel gauge and range figures are simply an approximation.

 

In the real world you fill your car when it’s convenient and the gauge is showing something under 1/4 full.

 

Anyone dicing with death reading a range down to zero is asking for trouble.

 

Saying that, I once ran my bike down to something like -5 or -10 and filled the tank with the official maximum capacity. But have never played that game on 4 wheels.