Has anyone had the fuel guage report too much gas? Twice now in the past month I've gotten gas with the needle completely above the red bottom indicator and put in more than 13 gallons. Last night it took 13.702 gallons and then stumble real bad two blocks later until I droppped the gas pedal real hard to force some fuel in the system (this leads me to believe tank plus lines comes to 13.750 before the engine is bone dry) and ran smooth the rest of the night befoe and after. Just wonder if anybody else had the same thing happen, this is a model covered under the fast clock issue so I'll probably have the whole thing replaced next time I'm in for service anyway. And Iusually get better gas milage so the 330 miles on the trip tricked me into thinking I had another 30 miles left, I forgot it was the first time I had extend use of the AC beyond just cycling the compressor since Nov.

 

Sounds like your sensors might be a bit off. I've never put in more than 13gals even when I'm at the bottom of the red fuel reserve light. I'm assuming it didn't set any lights when it stumbled? Usually a fuel starvation will light up the check engine light as a misfire.

 

The most I've gotten in my gas tank was 14.0 gallons, last week. When I pulled into work the car was starting to stumble and miss from being too low on fuel, but thank God I was able to drive the mile to a gas station after work to fill up (it was 3am). I usually don't push it quite that far, but when I left home the range function indicated I had 5-10 miles to spare to get to work and the gas station, but it dropped rapidly, even with very careful driving, once I left home.

-Keith

 

Yeah about two blocks after the station shifted into thrid press the gas pedal nothing,keep going nothing almost at WOT and hearingthe engine sound like it was going to stall then kicked in back to normal. Andyes I made sure I was in the right gear. But I'm pretty sure that the guage or sensor is off cause I had white space between the needle and the red bar and put in 13.702 and the tank is supposed to hold 13.2 according to the manual so leaves about 1/2 gallon of fuel line.

 

Mine reads more gas than I have until it hits the half mark. Then it drops fast. Fyi, the most I have put in was 13.5. When I really tempt fate I usually see low 13's.

Barnabas, I'm pretty sure that the dme specifically does not turn on the check engine light when there is a misfire that corosponds to with low fuel level. There will just be a stored fault for misfire with low fuel level.

 

Ya know what I just realized, if it misfired it probably would have at least stored the code for a little while, I'll plug in the scanner when I clean the interior in a little while.

 

I'm not sure that obd2 will store that, but I do see it with bmw diagnosis. Keep us posted

 

On my wife's '05 MCSa, we've gottne a tad over 14 gallons a couple of times. It definitely still had more fuel in the tank although the low fuel light was on. Both cars' fuel gauges do seem to drop faster after half a tank.

 

It doesn't set the MIL or check engine light? I thought it set a misfire code and save the fuel lvl if it was in the reserve zone to make it easier to diagnose

 

As I understand it, it STORES a code, but does not turn on the light because the dme assumes the misfire was caused by the low fuel level. I have used this to help diagnose complaints that don't present themselves in the shop. I'll check my references and edit this if I find different.

 

Well I found out I threw a P0138 O2 sensor circuit malfinction high volts bank 1 sensor 2, but no light

 

Thanks would be appreciated. I swear I thought my instructor said if a customer comes in w/ a check engine light, check the code to make sure if it has code for low fuel lvl or not for quick diagnosis...at least on BMW, MINI might be different but given how similiar the two systems are I don't see why not!

 

I learned the hard way. The light does come on when you run out of gas. I was trusting the digital gauge on my 30 mile commute home.

When I left work it said something like 35 miles, I drove for about 10 and it said 25 and stayed there until I ran out of gas. Scary on the capitol beltway but I made it to the shoulder.

Dont trust the numbers, go by the needle.

 

In my case don't trust the needle trust the ODO and trip functions (NO OBC yet)

 

My first car had a broken gas gauge. I almost wish the one in my MINI was completely broke because of the way it works. 125-140 miles for the 1st quarter tank, about 100 for the next quarter tank, and then about 75 for the last half tank. As measured by the needle.