[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by drasitkhanna

That reminds me of an old warning while learning to drive diesel cars... Never drive a diesel car on emergency/reserve because the engine TAKES IN air ("sucks in air") .... Causing an air lock or something to that effect... I had one such incidence in my old Indica.. The engine shuddered and kind of hiccuped.. I got scared and shut it off and asked an elder and he asked me ..are u driving in reserve and I said yes. He reprimanded me and got me to fill it up immediately . But then I restarted the cars smoothly and drove to the very near petrol pump and got it topped. Never to repeat this thing ?
So how correct is this warning ?

The problem with many older and even new diesel engine is indeed if you run the tank dry the fuel system will gulp in some air. Some of the systems can't get rid of the air themselves, which means you need to bleed or prime the system during starting. Some systems have a special little priming pump. It actually also happens with some petrol injection system as well. On some engines it can actually be quite a job to get all the air out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApAhgWHW_dU

So best not to run a tank dry, be it diesel of fuel for this reason alone and for some of the other reasons mentioned in other posts.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

As per my understanding, when the fuel tank is near empty and when the nozzle latch is kept at 2 or 3 position, fuel flow is faster hence creating more vapors inside the tank and the fuel filter understanding it to reach the auto cut off point before the fuel actually being filled.

Hence keeping it at higher latch position means lesser quantity filled in. Am I thinking wrong?

Dont worry about fuel vaporizing, it doesn't, or at least not at any rate that you could measure due to filling. The only thing is if fuel spills over. You pay for the fuel that comes out of the nozzle, not for what ends up in your tank.
Jeroen

[Jakku]

I have 2 cars - Indica Xeta GVS in Kerala & Hyundai Accent Executive at Chennai. for both these cars, I have noticed that after the indicator comes on - it comes on and goes off after some time, and does so for about 2/ 3 times and then steadily glows after that. Not sure if this is a feature or the unevenness of the road/ parking floor which creates this strange behaviour.

Xeta (2006 Dec model) - after the indicator glows for the first time, I have driven for 30KMs max.
Accent (2009 April model) - after the indicator glows for the first time, I normally drive for ~65KMs (why this odd fig? - one way office to home is 16km, and I fill in 2 days). I have once driven for about 80 km and this was the max.

I have never stranded within this time in both these cars.

[sukhman134]

Mod note: Please use Search before opening a new thread, moved to a related topic thread. Thanks.


So I had a question. How far can the Toyota fortuner 2.8 AT 4x4 go after the fuel indicator comes on ? How much utilisable fuel is left in the tank after the light ?

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by sukhman134

So I had a question. How far can the Toyota fortuner 2.8 AT 4x4 go after the fuel indicator comes on ? How much utilisable fuel is left in the tank after the light ?

Generally when it's at about 15% of full tank capacity. This varies from car to car.

The exact quantity is mentioned in the owners manual generally in the section that covers steps to be followed in case of a emergencies. The low fuel warning light will turn on. But don't let fuel level drop too low as it can affect the fuel pump

[sukhman134]

Thanks a lot ! Gonna check the manual and get back to you

[Aroy]

I read some where that the low fuel indicator will come when there is around 50 miles (80 km) range left. Depending on the FE this will be any where between 5 and 10 liters.

In my Alto K10, there is a reserve of around 5L, so the distance varies between 50km and 100km depending on whether it is aB2B or Highway.

Here is a chart prepared in US

https://www.good.is/articles/low-fuel-light-meaning

[Jeroen]

Until a few years ago most fuel indicator simply indicated a certain amount of fuel left in the tank. For most cars that was usually somewhere between 4-8 litres left. Usually a very simple measurement on the physical level of fuel left in the tank. There might be a slight delay built in so the indicator doesn't pop up when you corner and the fuel sloshes around.

On more and more modern cars you will get a low fuel indication based on how much range is left. So the amount of fuel left is measured as well and an average Fuel efficiency. On our Fords I get a fuel indication when my range drops below 80km. When it'd all's below 50km I get a second low level indication. On my Alfa it is just a simple fuel left measurement with a float in the tank. With 30% fuel left, say 15 litres whilst cornering hard the low fuel indicator will light up and extinguish again when driving straight on.

Jeroen

[knightrider_7]

Took delivery of Baleno petrol a few days back. The RM said 7 litres of fuel will be there. But the MID was showing --- km range with low fuel indicator being on.

Went to the nearest Reliance pump which was around 15 km away. Did a full tank and the auto-cutoff happened at 30.xx litres. So I guess Baleno has 7 litres of reserve fuel when the low fuel indicator comes on.

[V-16]

Basically the reservoir would be between 5-7 litres left in the tank when the light comes on. On newer cars its easier because they tell you the range and one has an idea of approximately how many kms/miles the car can go. Lets speak of the Isuzu Vcross now. its showing around 80 kms left and suddenly the light comes on and now the the message is "LOW FUEL" the range does not tell you how many kms are left..strange i thought. so if you are not attentive and do not know exactly when the light came on, them just speculate and drive to the closest gas station, all the time wondering if t here is enough fuel left in the tank to take you there.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by knightrider_7

Did a full tank and the auto-cutoff happened at 30.xx litres. So I guess Baleno has 7 litres of reserve fuel when the low fuel indicator comes on.

I second that, I have been in situations wherein from 65kms range left car has gone to --- in MID, and then it takes around 30 litres till auto-cutoff.Fuel pump will work with as low as 4-5 litres of fuel, I was told by my SA.

Nano on other hand has approx 3 litres of fuel left when showing "E"

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by V-16

.... so if you are not attentive and do not know exactly when the light came on, them just speculate and drive to the closest gas station, all the time wondering if t here is enough fuel left in the tank to take you there.

In case of older cars (i.e. no DTE display), all one has to do is to reset the tripmeter to '0' when the low fuel warning lamp lights up - it will show how much you have driven with low fuel and you can estimate how quickly you need to fill up...

...simple cars, simple logic

[Wanderers]

My maruti cars (800, Omni, 1st generation swift) never had low fuel yellow light but all my Hyundai cars (Santro, Gran i10) had yellow lights.
My swift has roughly 7 litres at E point, however Grand i10 yellow light comes up with less than 5 litres in tank.

[adisan]

For the first ever time, the fuel levels became so low that the fuel indicator came down to the final bar and started blinking in my Beat the other day.

On refilling, it took in almost 33 litres of petrol (auto cut-off). The user manual says that the "nominal fuel tank capacity" is 35 litres.

If we consider the definitions of "nominal capacity" and "actual capacity", it suggests that less than 2 litres were remaining when the fuel indicator started blinking.

[IamNikhil]

Generally, it's safe to assume that the tank still retains about 4-5 litres of fuel even when the alert light comes on. Never delay filling it up, you don't want your car gasping for breath.