How far below empty?
28 February 2017, 06:09 PM
#1
How far below empty?
OK... so after 303 miles, I've just filled up with exactly 50 litres of Tesco's finest Momentum petrol which was enough to completely brim the, supposedly 60 litre tank in my 1997 daily-driver Scoob. As you can see, the petrol gauge was slightly below the 'empty' mark at the time, however I should in theory have had at least another 10 litres of fuel in there.
Mine has an early style dash so doesn't have a low fuel light - I've only got the gauge to go from. As I hate having to go out of my way to find a petrol station selling either Momentum or V-Power (there isn't one near my house), it seems I may be filling up long before I actually need to so I'm curious to find out exactly how far below the 'empty' mark I can realistically go before I start to risk running out of fuel. Presumably there must also be some fuel held in the fuel lines, fuel filter etc adding further reserve capacity too?
Has anyone ever done a full fill-up from completely empty and know the real total capacity on a later (60 litre tank classic)? How low do you go!?
Oh, and before people start talking about "crap in the bottom of the tank" or "risk of running lean", that not the point of what I'm asking. I regularly change my fuel filter and have an AFR gauge which I keep an eye on. Anyway - the last thing I'm likely to do is go full boost when I'm potentially running low on fuel! I'm interested in the tank capacity/calibration (or lack of) of the gauge.
Last edited by ben.harris; 28 February 2017 at 06:11 PM.
28 February 2017, 08:50 PM
#4
Never let any of my scoobs go below qtr tank... don't fancy fuel starvation... pulling crap through the system (despite there being filters) or having some sort of emergency and no fuel in the car 
never managed to get much more than low/mid 30's litres of petrol in one either... even when it's been on the qtr mark... in over 12yrs and 4 Subarus.
Not something I'd ever do to any car really, most of my fill ups are around or just below the half a tank mark, then it only costs 20/30 odd quid to fill the car and it protects against dodgy fuel.
never managed to get much more than low/mid 30's litres of petrol in one either... even when it's been on the qtr mark... in over 12yrs and 4 Subarus.Not something I'd ever do to any car really, most of my fill ups are around or just below the half a tank mark, then it only costs 20/30 odd quid to fill the car and it protects against dodgy fuel.
01 March 2017, 04:43 AM
#6
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Middle of e before subarus cut out usually having shared ownership of a few old work beaters with old man in days gone past. Russian roulette on who went to garage to fill up.
01 March 2017, 06:05 AM
#7
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probably 1.5 litres in filler neck plus the 60 in tank , but i know what you said re not running low , once it's a bit less than a quarter tank always worth filling up , a slight bend in the road is enough to cause a problem but you don't get any warning of the problem
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01 March 2017, 01:32 PM
#8
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The biggest danger when playing 'petrol gauge chicken' is driving to your preferred garage of choice to find it either closed or out of the good stuff.
Then you're stuck with either chucking the cheap crap in or panicking as you try to drive on fumes and prayers to the next place.
I don't like to live in fear so I prefer to fill up once I'm down to 1/4
Then you're stuck with either chucking the cheap crap in or panicking as you try to drive on fumes and prayers to the next place.
I don't like to live in fear so I prefer to fill up once I'm down to 1/4
01 March 2017, 07:16 PM
#9
01 March 2017, 09:24 PM
#11
Lol - looks like I need to try harder then! Over 400 is impressive!
My last fill-up in that photo was just based on my everyday driving - mainly to work (15 miles each way), over a couple of weeks. Although it's mostly fast(ish) B-roads it also includes quite a bit of stop-start queuing traffic into and through a couple of villages and sets of traffic lights so not really ideal for optimum MPG! I reckon for the actual time taken to those 304 miles, almost half of it would have been spent stationary in traffic with the engine idling.
On another note, I was looking at the Parkers website earlier today and was surprised to see that whilst a classic (UK) turbo is quoted as 28mpg, the non-turbo 2-litre is only supposed to be 2-3mpg better and even the 88bhp 1.6 is only 6mpg better at 34mpg! I realise the AWD probably doesn't help things but I guess the boxer engine just isn't good at economy - not that anyone buys a Scoob expecting it to be economical! :-)
My last fill-up in that photo was just based on my everyday driving - mainly to work (15 miles each way), over a couple of weeks. Although it's mostly fast(ish) B-roads it also includes quite a bit of stop-start queuing traffic into and through a couple of villages and sets of traffic lights so not really ideal for optimum MPG! I reckon for the actual time taken to those 304 miles, almost half of it would have been spent stationary in traffic with the engine idling.
On another note, I was looking at the Parkers website earlier today and was surprised to see that whilst a classic (UK) turbo is quoted as 28mpg, the non-turbo 2-litre is only supposed to be 2-3mpg better and even the 88bhp 1.6 is only 6mpg better at 34mpg! I realise the AWD probably doesn't help things but I guess the boxer engine just isn't good at economy - not that anyone buys a Scoob expecting it to be economical! :-)
02 March 2017, 11:40 AM
#13
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the map was leaned off on light cruise , one fsti has coilovers and a thicker arb the other fsti just coiloves , if you can freeze your foot at 70 mph they are surprisingly economical same as my jdm wagon i've had that at 32 mpg , i don't want to drive that carefully most of the time but on a long trip it's well worth it