Mike,

I don't think either of us could get 66 miles past 0, I'd be really careful with that. I went 9 miles past 0 and only had 1 gallon left. I personally won't try going more than 40 past 0, and that's also getting 33 mpg.

Was that a high mileage challenge you're issuing? Kinda sounded like one.

You're going to have to beat my 37.55 from early February. Of course I have a little advantage, 2WD.

I had 35.3 on the Nav before I made a little trip to the mountains this weekend, and when I got back it was indicating 38.4. That was with a tank that already had 250 miles on it of more local driving. I think with a strictly up and down the mountain trip at these higher temps I could get close to 40!?

Tom

Thanks for all the great analysis of the DTE. Now if the weather would get better in Cleveland, I could get better gas mileage. My first 3 tanks I'm Getting around 25 mpg. But it's been very cold. Also, I have a few stikes against me. It's not broken in yet; My Drive to work is only 2 miles; Below average temps; I am still learning to drive this thing. I will point out one driving tip that may go against all the previous recommendations: If you driving in cold weather, do drive gingerly during warming up the car, it only takes longer to warm it up; Use a few RPMs to get it going.

Most modern "In tank" fuel pumps use the fuel itself for lubrication and cooling. Draining your tank to low can damage your fuel pump. Also you should never run a fuel injected engine out of gas because that can also damage your injectors.

I was wondering about this, since I've noticed that the numbers don't seem to "add up". (I don't have the "nav" option, so I only have the "standard" dash display data.)

For example, right now the "Avg. MPG" is reading 30.8, I have put 177 miles on the tank so far (reset trip odo at fillup), and it's telling me that I only have 218 miles "to go". At 30.8 MPG, with a 15 gallon tank, I should be able to go about 462 miles. But my miles "so far" (177) and my miles "to go" (218) only add up to 395!! I'm only on my third tank, but on the last tank, I went down to about 30 "miles to go" before filling, but was still only able to put in 12.172 gallons (my average MPG for that tank was 29.2 on the dash, 28.4 by calculation). So the car "thought" that it could only go 30 miles on the last 2.8 gallons, while at the same time "thinking" that it was getting 29.2 MPG.

Something ain't right here. You'd think whoever wrote the software would at least have made it internally consistent...

But if you figure that it's set to register as empty with about 2 gallons (or perhaps a little less) left, then it makes more sense. I would actually have 218 + 60 (2 gals @ 30 MPG) = 278 miles to go, added to the 177 I have gone would give me 455 on a 15 gallon tank, or 30.3 MPG - pretty close to the number it's showing for Avg. MPG.

Now it makes (at least some) sense.

C.

I've seen a couple instances where the computer seems to hiccup and delivers strange results. Specifically, one tank took 14.5 gallons when it hadn't even reached 0MTE (0MTE usually leaves me at about 13.5 gallons).

Also, I ran out of gas again today - long stretch of Texas highway that had gas stations every few miles and then all of a sudden there was nothing for about 70 miles, and the warnings for 50MTE and 0MTE came only about 20-30 miles apart!

When I watch it carefully, I notice that the countdown to 0MTE does go faster than actual miles driven. I'm sure Ford made sure to err way on the conservative side (to avoid owner complaints and having to pay for roadside assistance), and I'm fairly convinced that the computer can screw up, so while you may usually be able to go 50 or so miles past 0MTE, it may not always be the case.

I'm not going to go past 0MTE any more since the computer can screw up and the gas guage is so inaccurate.

For those that do not know, after the Low Fuel Warning comes up you can still watch the countdown to zero by just clicking the Set button. This will switch the text off and the reverse odometer back on at less than 50 miles.

Mike Maline - Sdctcher
2005 Ford Escape Hybrid Owner
California School Teacher