Well, I know it's not news for a good deal of you out there (ahem, Ray), but I finally achieved a 600 mile tank. I didn't have my camera with me, but I was quite happy to finally break the barrier, so to speak. And, minus one tank that was 2 miles short in mid June, the past 5000 miles have all been tanks over 500 miles. Here's the stats: Tank Miles: 605 Total Miles: 14367 Car MPG: 55.2 Gallons filled: 11.5 Miles past last bar blinking: 65.9 -m.
When you push the envelope like that do you keep a gas can in the back for when you run out? I've had several 500 plus tanks (thinking that 10 * tank mpg should be safe) but just haven't had the nerve to push it much beyond that. I've also put in a bit over 11 gallons a couple of times but it's usually closer to 10.
Well, I usually aim to not fill up until I hit between mpg*10 and mpg*11 since I'm consistently able to fill between 10-11 gallons. Plus, I also usually base it off the previous tank. IE, I know for a fact now I have 11.5 gallons in this tank, so I will absolutely go no further than 11.5*mpg, which means I will probably fill up in the 10-11*mpg range. -m.
Blinking guage I have a curiosity question. Do you know how many gallons your car takes when the gage starts blinking? I have only filled up at this point once, and it took 9.6 gallons, which is the most I have ever put in at one time. I realize the tank "size" can vary with temperature, etc., but I was just wondering how consistent the onset of the blink is. In other words, can you fairly reliably estimate how much gas you have left when the blinking begins?
I think I have 3 gallons left at the blinking bar on a fairly consistent basis, but others have reported different results. Oh, and congrats rflagg. I've been rooting for you. I just tinted my windows, so I hope it becomes easier to maintain my mileage in the afternoon heat. Not sure it will since I drive right into the sun in the afternoon but it should at least help to start the car out a little cooler.
Re: Blinking guage Short answer: No. With my figures that I track, every time the last bar begins to blink, I trip the second odometer (ODO B). Then, when I fill up, I'll mark down how many miles I've driven since the last bar started blinking. By keeping track of this, I can calculate approximately how many gallons were used when the final bar starts blinking - and with my gauge, it's anywhere between 8.7 gallons and 10.66 gallons! In the extreme case (the 10.66 gallons), I had gone approximately 560 miles before the last bar started blinking, and the car mpg showed 51.4 when I finally filled up at 580 miles. If you want the long answer, I'll attach my spreadsheet with all the numbers included for the past uh, 6 months of data.
doesnt it seem that under certain circumstances, the gauge changes too slowly? for example, for a while i was tracking how many miles each bar would go before changing. i soon gave up on it because of the wildly varying distances. nearly every day, i would lose a bar over night, making me think that the bar should have disappeared the day before but didnt which essentially added mileage to the bar because of slow reaction of the gauge. i considered temp changes, but there was several days when the temp didnt really change much or should have added a bar if anything. i also thought that this might be a factor in cases when i had a short bar. (a bar that disappeared within a few miles of the previous bar or disappeared at nearly the same time.) i never thought about "burping" the tank (removing and replacing the gas cap) mostly because it would be hugely inconveinent and shouldnt be necessary if everything worked ok.
