I just gotta say I don't understand all this confusion about the guage.

First, gas guages are notoriously inaccurate - no matter what car you are in. The common implimentation is a float on a rod that waddles around in a somewhat isolated pool of fluid that moves around a little as the car moves. We can't call this in any way "accurate".

Second - how far you go when your light starts blinking is IN NO WAY relative to how much fuel you put in your tank originally - assuming, of course, that you at least started with enough fuel to not have the light blinking in the first place. It is relative ONLY to the fuel remaining and the efficency of the use of that fuel.

Third - no matter WHAT your average reading displays for the average consumption when blinking starts, the rate of fuel consumption (and the miles you may travel) once the light starts blinking is ONLY dependant on the current conditions. If you have achieved a 50mpg average on the tank, you cannot guarantee this will continue for the remaining fuel in the tank - you can only say "that is my tank average - SO FAR". (It is reasonable to expect the average rate will continue, however)

If you have a 50mpg average and the light starts blinking with 2 gals remaining (seems more like 3+ really), and you suddenly experience conditions that get you actual instantaneous mileage to more like 30 mpg, then you are not going to go 100 miles on that 2 gallons - you will go (about) 60. Your average display will start to decrease as this happens, but will not indicate 30 at the end, due to the buffering that occurs thanks to the higher mileage before. It may end up at say, 42, at which point, if you feel you had 2 gallons remaing, you might say "Why could't I go 84 miles, instead of only 60?" - the answer is for those last 2 gallons, you were only getting 30 mpg - not 50. Or even 42. The value displayed is an average of the entire tank, not the last 2 gallons.

So - what to do?

The easiest thing I can think of is to reset the display when the flashing starts and at least get a running average of those last gallons. That will help - but ONLY if you have a good idea of how much fuel you have left.

What *I* do is carry an extra gallon in the back the first few times - and I actually run the car completely empty a few times - and use one of the trip ODOs to measure the run time when the blinking starts. I am in NO way worried about the fuel pump overheating - the physics involved when this is discussed as a failure mode is flawed.

What I have found (and this ONLY pertains to me because of the variances alluded to above) is that I have about 3 or so gallons left in the tank when the flashing starts. I do NOT measure this by way of what I put IN to the tank at the fillup, but in how far I go with a reasonable approximation of the MPG on the display.

I have actually considered waiting for the flashing to start, then find a way to pump all remaining fuel into a can and measuring it - but that is just me!

I think it is very valuable information to get an approximation of your mileage from the flash start - wherever it may be. I think flashing early is a bit annoying - but on a "normal" car, a warning with only 2 (3) gallons left means only 30-45 miles of travel. With us, it is a bit different. Flashing later is less desirable - to me. If the car waits until I have only 10-15 miles left in it - that is about a quart of gas left! I cannot reasonably expect the curent state-of-the-art in flating gas measurement to determine fluid level down that low!

Sorry for the long post, but this has been sitting waiting to come out for some time now!

Jack

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