zico

I thought there is more variance on lower end, as the gasoline is sloshing around.

jdong

Unless a computer can predict the future, there's no value you can put into VAG-COM that makes this indicator valid. It's the same problem as predicting how much battery life is remaining in your cell phone / laptop -- there must be some assumption made.

If you're cruising happily at 65mph, you might be getting 30mpg. But then if traffic suddenly slows to a crawl, you might only be getting 10mpg. Or, if I just leave my car on in the parking lot for 10 hours, I can guarantee you that my tank of gas is getting zero miles

At best, the indicator is useful as a conservative estimate of "ok, if I continue driving the way I do..."


This exists and is a bigger problem on electric cars where the amount of battery life you have left has a lot bigger consequences than just needing to spend 5 minutes refueling.

mirekmal

Zico, that was just example of non-linearity of fuel sensor. I have no data about real characteristics...

Jdong, I think car makes initial calculations based on average consumption from 2nd computer (long term data). Then, especially on longer trips, it switches to average consumption of 1st computer (trip data) to get readout more suitable for current trip.

Reggie

The real question is why one would rely on that light to tell when to fill up. My rule of thumb is when traveling to fillup when I have 1/3 - 1/4 of a tank left

jdong

The point is, unless the DIS has time traveling abilities, you can make your next tank of gas last either 0 miles or 400 miles, and there's no way the computer can predict what you are going to do with the rest of your tank of gas.

zamojski

How exactly do you make your next tank of gas last 0 miles?

markben7746

Even with the level indicating Full (after driving some for a week) she took 4 gallons before the fuel nozzel stopped the flow.

Mrchntmarine

not sure what to make of this - so my fuel gauge needle was at the 1/2 tank mark exactly and I was able to get over 11 gallons of fuel which puts the TTL tank capacity at over 22 gallons not 19.8 gallons as stated in the manual... Any thoughts????

jdong

Start your car, turn on the AC, sit in driver seat for 80 hours. If nobody hits you, you've gone exactly 0 miles and will burn about 1/4 of a gallon an hour.

jdong

The halfway mark isn't really half. At the empty mark, you still have reserve capacity.