Interesting
If I may quote from my verbose review of a new Clio I hired in France last year - see www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=46...2
"... when I started the ignition, the fuel gauge told me that it was about 7 eighths full. Over the next few days, I watched the needle slowly fall to about ¾ full. Then (on the morning of Friday 13th) it was reading full. As if that wasn't puzzling enough, the trip computer wasn't giving me any odometer reading at all, simply a message which said 'Pas de messages memorise' (or something like that.) I stopped a few miles down the road, and the odometer reading returned when I restarted - and it was fine until the day when we returned the car, when we got the error message again on starting in the morning. This time, at least the needle on the fuel gauge behaved itself, and gave us the same reading it had been giving the previous day. When we turned it in at Nice airport, we reported these two things to Europcar, and the gentleman on duty just laughed and said "It's a French car.""
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In this case there are no errors, messages or varying readings.
Its just lying. 35 miles to go means empty. Its not lying when the warning light comes up - that means fill up now!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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You mean some of them lie, some of them make mistakes, and some of them are just wildly unreliable??
::rolls eyes:: Ahhh, les Français perfides!
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Bell Boy - for those who do a lot of miles, Extreme Fuel Light Bingo keeps you amused!
The Golf works in reverse. I can regularly do 10-15 miles past 0 miles to go without running out. Then I lose my nerve and have to fill up!
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when the warning light comes up - that means fill up now!
Quite so TVM. Naughty Nicole.
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I recently stopped to help a damsel in distress in a Herald with a dead engine. The petrol pump priming lever felt like it was pumping air, but she assured me it had enough petrol in it!
She looked puzzled when I asked her to open the boot, and had absolutely no idea it had a reserve lever (which was fortunately on main).
Ole gits like me can guess the rest, but I bet it's permanently on reserve - the blank look in her eyes when I told her to put it back on main after putting some petrol in it said it all.
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How did you remember to do all that, when you can forget that for the last few months you "monicker" has been T.V.M not R.F!! ;-)
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Update.
After some discussion over a biscotti and cappucino in cafe nero, it seems the real story is thus:
The warning light came on when 85 miles to go was showing, this was Wednesday. Since then we had done 50 miles. "So I must have 35 miles left then musnt I?" she says. (the miles to go display goes blank when the low fuel warning light comes on)..
Anyway I put 5 litres in from a can, she topped it up with 49.5 litres in after i got it going. The tank holds 55 litres.
So probably no blame on Renault.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I've taught myself over the years to treat 1/4 of a tank as nearly empty. So when it reaches that level I know to fill up as soon as possible. I don't like driving around without a reserve because you never know when you could be stuck in traffic for a while.
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why dont they fit a reserve tap like on motorbikes
i know the dealers answer would be " but they will run that dry aswell"
never did on a bike personally
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Because then they would say why can't you just give us a warning light.
Have never run any vehicle (car or bike) to the point where it is immobile through lack of fuel.
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Had a panicky call from SWMBO a few weeks ago, stuck in a one-way system on the south coast as the Volvo had, and I quote, 'suddenly cut out'. A few exploratory questions revealed she'd allowed herself to run out of diesel.
Our local Volvo dealership advised that the car would have to be transported to allow the car to be 'pumped out' whatever that means. Fortunately the RAC man rather fruitily dismissed that as 'bullucks' and towed her to the nearest service station, filled it up whereupon it started and ran with no problems.
I can only guess Volvo were rubbing their hands together for a quick bit of easy cash!
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a lot of modern cars will ruin the scavenge pump in the tank if you run them dry and some can be eyewatering in price a pain in the buttock to get to and some even need coding by the dealer
you have been warned a happorth of tar and all that
the days when you can stick a gallon in from an old can are going fast
i will not run any modern car that low on fuel as i said earlier,use the quarter mark as your empty and then if you ever get in a situation of not finding any fuel then you still have the quarter tank left
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Our wonderful old Beetle had no petrol gauge but a useful lever on the floor by the clutch opened the reserve tank and gave you another gallon. Our son plays petrol lottery and has just been informed the mum's mobile petrol station is as of now, out of service - it was costing me a fortune in diesel rescuing him. Several months ago I filled the tank for him and told him to use the quarter mark as refill time - it didn't work.
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My Nissan really scares the whatsit out of you if you run low (i.e. to the warning light) as not only does the light come on, the N-Form system also chimes and shows a big petrol pump on screen - my wife nearly shot me when that happened - still had probably 8 litres spare.
Go with the quarter refill option - I know too many people who will run their car below red !
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My old Beetle had a reserve tap on the floor but it was an LHD import registered BYE 131H. At least on RHD versions you could gun the engine with the right foot while you flipped the lever with the left. Mine just died.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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why dont they fit a reserve tap like on motorbikes i know the dealers answer would be " but they will run that dry aswell"
The dealers are right, the public in general aren't very disciplined, take Powerkey electricity meters for example, they come with an emergency credit which lots of people live in permanently, then they feel that they are hard done by when the meter throws a hissy fit and cuts them off pending payment of the money owed in full, which of course they don't have...
Blue
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I've taught myself over the years to treat 1/4 of a tank as nearly empty.<<
Quite right Ravenger! As a sometime dog breeder I have learnt yhis lesson as well. One never knows when an emergency might crop up.
Living out in the wilds I`m at least six miles from the nearest petrol station. I also hate the thought of muck getting into the fuel lines.
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>>Since then we had done 50 miles.
Does that 'we' mean that you had been playing last-across with Nicole TVM, and that she alone was not to blame?
I think we should be told.
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I think we should be told.
It was the royal "we" lud, there is but one, and only one miscreant at work here.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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>> It was the royal "we"
So, it was you alone TVM (the royal 'we' invariably meaning 'I').
My apologies to Nicole, clearly completely innocent, and a rap over the knuckles for you for trying to put the blame on her.
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But where is her sense in running the car so low? Stick a £10 in so needle goes to first quarter and tell her in future to use this line as her empty mark.
Precisely! I have very little sympathy for drivers who insist on running their car with little or no fuel left in the tank. I wouldn't dream of letting my gauge get any lower than 1/4 full before refuelling, after what is the sense in seeing how far you can go before the warning light may or may not come on - quite stupid in my opinion.
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