How much fuel left in my tank?

1inchpunch

1inchpunch

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I heard the bing and I ignored it. I saw the yellow pump icon and I ignored it. The DIS now says 5 miles left so with a 30 mile drive home I can no longer ignore it.

My questions is. If the DIS says 5 miles does it actually mean 5 miles or will it do a fair bit more? What about a reserve tank? Does the A3 have one?

Cheapest petrol station is about 10 miles away and i'd like to make it :)
 
When I had my car at Awesome GTi it went in with less than 1/8 tank in (i think) and the car was there for best part of 10days. When I went to pick the car up they still needed to do the remap but there was no fuel left in the tank so had to go fil up. Now with me being a V-Power 'obsessive' the closet Shell was in Lymm and my fuel guage said 5miles - well that changed to 0 more or less as soon as I left Awesome GTi.

The petrol station I had to get to was 7miles away and it made it. Maybe I got a bit lucky but a while agao my dads TT sais 30miles left and he got 5miles away from his house and car cut out on him (from what he said).

SO I think it's all down to the car - I honeslty don;t think they are very accurate at all.
 
Wizza said:
When I had my car at Awesome GTi it went in with less than 1/8 tank in (i think) and the car was there for best part of 10days. When I went to pick the car up they still needed to do the remap but there was no fuel left in the tank so had to go fil up. Now with me being a V-Power 'obsessive' the closet Shell was in Lymm and my fuel guage said 5miles - well that changed to 0 more or less as soon as I left Awesome GTi.

The petrol station I had to get to was 7miles away and it made it. Maybe I got a bit lucky but a while agao my dads TT sais 30miles left and he got 5miles away from his house and car cut out on him (from what he said).

SO I think it's all down to the car - I honeslty don;t think they are very accurate at all.
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Ok, now I'm worried.
 
I'm guessing there is no petrol stations closer than 10miles?

If you can take it steady for the next 10miles then you should be fine but that's the risk you gotta take - it doesn;t feel as though it's bogging down at all does it? I hate running on fumes but only done it in desperism (sp?)

I'm not 100% sure on my dads story but I vaguely remember that's what he told me. Might have been 20miles on the DIS.
 
The reading on the Dis is based on recent fuel consumption. so if you were thrashing it last time you switched off this will be reflected in the DIS ie: how far you would get.
 
just risk it stop being a pussy:sly: Let us know how you fair tho haha
 
Neil201 said:
I've often run the gauntlet when the DIS say's 0 miles left and managed 30+ on several occasions without it running out!
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cant be good for the engine thou mate... really getting the crap at the bottom of the fuel tank in the engine
 
Drive like an old woman and you'll probably be able to get that figure up a bit.
When I got mine, it said 10 miles left and I had to get home which was 7 miles and then to the Shell garage near my work which is 12 miles. By the time I'd sat on the M1 at a boring 60mph for 5 miles, I suddenly had 20 miles left. I managed to get there showing more miles left than before I started the drive. :o.k:

It was the most boring, tedious drive of my life though to be fair.
 
Risk it for a biscuit!

I cant say anything... I tend to fill up as soon as the old beep dings!
 
I was too scared. Bit the bullet filled up at the station round the corner from work. Cost me 50p more for a full tank. The DIS said 0 miles so thought I better just break the bank rather than risk causing a massive hold up on the m8. :)
 
1inchpunch said:
I was too scared. Bit the bullet filled up at the station round the corner from work. Cost me 50p more for a full tank. The DIS said 0 miles so thought I better just break the bank rather than risk causing a massive hold up on the m8. :)
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Bottled it! your no fun haha
 
dont be so worryed buddy ive driven for another 40 miles when mine has clicked to 0 on the range not too good for the fuel pick up yes as all the shizle at the bottom of the tank could be picked up but i wouldnt worry about driving 10 miles dude
 
My dad's RS6 made it 50 miles on the reserve tank, it drinks fuel like a mother ****er, and I was surprised we made it to the pettie station!

It all depends on how you drive and have been driving, if you accelerate hard the range drops considerably! then driving easy it increases
 
Stiggles said:
My dad's RS6 made it 50 miles on the reserve tank, it drinks fuel like a mother ****er, and I was surprised we made it to the pettie station!

It all depends on how you drive and have been driving, if you accelerate hard the range drops considerably! then driving easy it increases
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does anyone remember the top gear when jezza clackson drove a audi a8 tdi from lands end to scotland and back on one tank says it all really
 
50p eh...oouch :)

That would have taken you another 2.5 miles...hardly worth travelling 10 miles to save it :whistle2:
 
Less fuel = less weight = better MPG... or better acceleration :yahoo:
 
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I'm having to drive mine fairly careful at teh moment - I don;t feel as though I'm getting teh best out of my fuel. Getting it logged on VagCom tomorrow night so will see what readings come back.
 
paddy said:
50p eh...oouch :)

That would have taken you another 2.5 miles...hardly worth travelling 10 miles to save it :whistle2:
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10 miles in the direction I was going so actually pretty crafty thinking.

The car took 55 litres so had 1 left in it. That would have got me around 10 miles I think.

I'm so tight I've actually thought about just putting the right amount of diesel in for each journey so the car is lighter. I sacked it off as a step too far even for me.
 
1inchpunch said:
I was too scared. Bit the bullet filled up at the station round the corner from work. Cost me 50p more for a full tank. The DIS said 0 miles so thought I better just break the bank rather than risk causing a massive hold up on the m8. :)
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Did you fill it to the brim ? If so, how many litres did you get in ? That will give you an idea of how empty it was and you'll know next time
 
On my Leon 170 an extra screen appeared when I had my Dension unit on. This displayed the actual litres in the tank in the corner. When the DIS read 0 MTE and the needle was right at the bottom it still displayed 4-5 litres.

I've done Just over 30 miles on 0 before from Kinningpark to BP @ Prestwick airport.
 
1inchpunch said:
10 miles in the direction I was going so actually pretty crafty thinking.

The car took 55 litres so had 1 left in it. That would have got me around 10 miles I think.

I'm so tight I've actually thought about just putting the right amount of diesel in for each journey so the car is lighter. I sacked it off as a step too far even for me.
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i only keep 10 liters in my car at a time to save weight lol , i only fill her up if i know im going somewhere
 
Wizza said:
Less fuel = less weight = better MPG... or better acceleration :yahoo:
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I used to drive a Disco3 with a 90 litre tank. It was generally agreed on the LR forums that filling the whole tank up adversely affected MPG and you would be better off only ever filling it half up!

Think how much a 2 litre bottle of coke weighs, times that by 45 and thats going to take some shifting!
 
I often ignore the ding and the yellow sign on the DIS... and i try to only fill up at Shell in Shooters hill (southeast London) as the price is good as is the fuel. i have on several occasions driven 20 miles to get to that petrol station from home when the DIS said i only had 5 miles left... today i did not risk it though :unsure: tank said i was on 0 miles so i filled up at the local Morrisons
 
itwasntme187 said:
I often ignore the ding and the yellow sign on the DIS... and i try to only fill up at Shell in Shooters hill (southeast London) as the price is good as is the fuel. i have on several occasions driven 20 miles to get to that petrol station from home when the DIS said i only had 5 miles left... today i did not risk it though :unsure: tank said i was on 0 miles so i filled up at the local Morrisons
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And i bet the car runs just as well and it cost you less.
 
I only ever put in £20 at a time. petrol station is only a mile away mind and i do drive past it every day :)

i've had my DIS read 0 before and still drove the 10 mile journey to work and back 3 days running until pay day :)
 
audi upgrades
steve bain said:
I only ever put in £20 at a time. petrol station is only a mile away mind and i do drive past it every day :)

i've had my DIS read 0 before and still drove the 10 mile journey to work and back 3 days running until pay day :)
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3 days :faint: on 0 miles??
Lucky bastad!!!

mind i do 30 miles to get to work
 
paddy said:
And i bet the car runs just as well and it cost you less.
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for some reason i like to fill up a full tank at a time, dont like going into petrol stations much and i feel like a bit of a cheap skate if i fill up like £10-£20 and leave. Plus i can see how much i am spending to manage my month... not to mention £15-£20 diesel only lasts 2 days for me!
i usually can get a week out of a full tank = £70-£75, so a month is £300ish
 
Im not so sure about Morrisons diesel to be honest, feels like it drains too quick! mind you fill up enough and you get a £5 voucher!
 
Every fighter knows that 1L of water weighs 1kg. I'd imagine that petrol or diesel is more or less the same so in an A3 a full tank only weighs around 56kg which is about the weight of an average woman. If you were driving an F1 car that kind of weight would matter but I don't think it will impact much on your A3. Same goes for the Land Rover, 90L = 90kg so around the weight of a big strapping handsome chap like myself. On a car that already weighs about 3 ton I don't think it would make a massive difference.
 
So if i fill up to the top and get the average woman to get out............I should be ok ?

actually petrol weights about .7kg/ltr, water sinks to the bottom of a petrol tank that's why you should drain a bike tank every now and then because the water can rust the bottom of the tank out.
 
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I get this train of thought about the weight of a bottle of coke and all.

Let's say the Audi weighs about 1500kg. 55 litres of fuel weighs around 40kg. That means that a full tank of fuel accounts for about 2% of the total weight of the car.

There are a few issues about weight saving that are mentioned above:
1. Only fill the fuel tank half full. 'Saves fuel and improves handling/acceleration'
2. The advantage of minimising fuel in the tank to improve handling/acceleration yet further
3. Pulling "gunk" out of the bottom of the tank as it drains to the dregs

1 & 2 are really the same thing. In keeping the tank half full, the weight of the car will be reduced by around 1%. Acceleration will improve but not by as much as 1%. Whether the handling improves is not so clear. The front/rear balance of the car is massively important, but without exhaustive testing, who's to say whether more weight at the rear improves or degrades handling?
3 - "Gunk" in the bottom of the tank should not be an issue. Firstly, modern fuel tanks do not degrade in the way older fuel tanks did. There won't be rust and cack swimming around in there. Also, the pipe(s) leading to and from the tank are not flush with the bottom of the tank. In fact, they attach to a plastic fuel pump immersed inside the tank itself. and that certainly doesn't scavenge the very bottom of the tank. Then there are numerous fuel filters in the way of any foreign bodies making their way to the engine.

I'll get me Nectar card.
 
I've got a 35 mile journey home tonight. The DIS says 95 miles remaining. I am literally just above the second red segment of where the reserve starts. I turned off the blower this morning and the stereo. It was 115 on the range when I drove 25 miles into work. I drove dead 70 though because it was heavy rain. Let's see what happens..
 
I fill £30 at a time, makes me feel better about burning money away in the first place.
 
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