72 plate Fabia fuel gauge issues ?

[SeanyH]

Just picked up a brand new '72 plate Fabia as a courtesy car whilst my Octavia PHEV has its sat nav fixed for the 2nd time

Car only has 750 miles on the clock

 

Distance range showed 15 miles possible and physical fuel gauge right at the bottom of the red zone

Left forecourt and then almost immediately it dropped to 10 mile range so i stuck £5 of fuel in to get me home

Approx 8 or so miles down the road, gauge has dropped further and range now down to 5 miles possible left so worried i wont get home, stuck a further £5 in

 

So my journey door to door was only just over 12 miles and the range is now showing 0 miles of range and the manual fuel gauge is right at the very bottom !!!

 

£10 for 12 miles.....REALLY ??????

 

Any ideas guys/gals whether this is yet another known fault and how i can reset so i can have some degree of assurance of not breaking down when i return the vehicle ?

 

This brand is really a tough sell

[Ootohere]

What engine is this car a 1.0 or 1.5 TSI?

 

WTF were whoever playing at putting it out with a near empty tank.

 

15 miles possible was nothing really, 10 miles likely near the thing, vapours,

that was dependent on the last miles someone drove in the period before you read that. 

 

?

Did the car even register getting £5 of fuel, 3 litres or so, then another 3 litres or so? 

[SeanyH]

@toot thanks for the reply 

 

it’s a 1lt petrol

 

nope adding the first and second £5’s worth neither caused the gauge to move 1 jot !

 

I’ve just been out and rocked the car left to right and bounced the boot to see if it’s a manual gauge if it would jog it free

 

It’s done nothing !

 

So either this is the most uneconomical car on the planet or it has a leaking fuel tank !!!

 

in answer to your first question, a Skoda dealership in the west mids !

[J.R.]

It is perfectly normal behaviour as the guage does not reflect the true tank level below approx 3/8 of a tank, from that point on it gradually becomes more and more pessimistic to create a virtual reserve capacity of about 7 litres.

 

When your display first shows "zero miles remaining" you will in fact have between 5 and 7 litres remaining.

 

Fill the tank up and it will tell you the truth and be breathtakingly accurate, below 3/8 of a tank the lying starts 😆

 

To help you better understand I ran my last car dry on the first tank to be sure what the actual virtual reserve capacity was so I could get the maximum miles out of each tank, it was a PD diesel so no risk to the injection system.

 

When it finally ran dry I emptied a 5l jerrycan into the tank and drove to a filling station very near, the guage barely moved but the maxidot showed me as having 40 miles remaining, remarkable accuracy for what can only have been a few mm on the bottom of the tank, it was a 2 mile drive to the filling station and in the distance the miles remaining indication dropped to 20 miles, then 10, then zero!!!!

 

I brimmed the tank and it showed the correct range of IIRC 700 miles.

 

Your car has no problem so you can stop worrying about it, if you always fill up the cheating wont concern you other than having to fill up more often than you really would, if you only ever top up a fiver at a time which is a lot less than a gallon then you will not know if you are coming or going.

 

I suspect that despite my explanation you are going to remain convinced that the car has a problem.

[SeanyH]

@J.R.thanks for the reply

not sure if you read my original post but this car is purely a courtesy car to get me home today which it has and then back to the dealership when my Octavia is fixed and that’s it

i have no intention to put more fuel in the tank than necessary to then hand over to Skoda gratis after all, my car is in their garage to fix an issue caused by themselves when my car was in for a safety recall and they proceeded to break something else as a result…remarkable really !

 

ive had plenty of cars from fords, BMWs, Audi and most recently an Octavia and I can say 100% that if I had put £10 of petrol in any of those then the fuel gauge would move and it wouldn’t leave me concerned that I had zero miles left and likely to breakdown at some point 

[J.R.]

You are incorrect in regard to the Octavia, it would have and will behave in exactly the same manner if you were to run the tank low enough.

 

My instinct was correct, trop bon trop con as we say here!

 

1 hour ago, SeanyH said:

i have no intention to put more fuel in the tank than necessary to then hand over to Skoda gratis after all,

 

I'm afraid you already have, the second £5 top up!!! £5 would have been more than enough for the 24 miles.

 

Why deny someone else the use of a courtesy vehicle if you are only going to use it to get you home and then back to the garage?

Edited 12 January, 2023 by J.R.

[SeanyH]

@J.R. well I reserve the right to beg to differ re the Octavia 

trop Bon…… no idea what or who that refers too

and re me taking a courtesy car, how else do you propose I travel those 24 miles there and back ?

I think it’s the least Skoda should provide considering the vehicle in question that’s in the garage in for the 6th time in 12 months and this issue was caused by themselves whilst fixing another issue and clearly not testing it before delivering it back and it’s still under warranty !

you may be happy with that level of service but I can assure you I’m not and no one else should for a £37k PHEV !

[SurreyJohn]

It's not just the Fabia, most VW group cars do it (possibly all of them), fuel gauge doesn't really go down for about 60 miles from full, and is poor near the bottom.  When low if you go up or down a hill fuel will tilt in tank.

 

Putting in tiny amounts (2.5-3 litres) might not even register that fuel level has been refilled when you restart it.  The digital read out is only an estimate based on recent driving style and is to nearest 5 miles anyway.  I have refilled after city driving and get some open road and range has climbed 120 miles.

 

If it ever happens again and you are expected to add fuel you use for few miles  in a courtesy car, just use the rule of thumb.  About litre for every 7 miles.

 

[J.R.]

1 hour ago, SurreyJohn said:

It's not just the Fabia, most VW group cars do it (possibly all of them)

 

All of them and they have done for the last 20 years since the introduction of the Maxidot and the removal of the direct connection between the tank sender unit and fuel guage with the instrument cluster module adding its fiddle factor to the readings to create the virtual reserve capacity that is quoted in the handbook, same deal for the water temperature guage remaining rock steady at 90°c

 

Well all of the vehicles except SeanyH's Octavia that is 😆

[Routemaster1461]

Had a diesel Superb as a loan car. As I didn't know how long I would have it for (turned out to be 7 days) I put in 4 small top-ups, min 5L, max 8 L. Only two of these top-ups caused the gauge to register.