I filled my xD today for the first time(was filled by the dealer) and it showed 2 bars left on the guage so I figured that I would fill it up. I filled it till it clicked and filled only an extra $.35 to an even dollar amount, it used 10 gallons. With a capacity of 11.1 gallons, why did it take so much to fill it up? When does the light turn on to tell you low fuel?

 

It doesn't go on actually. When you reach the last bar on the fuel gauge, it blinks. If it blinks fast (and you can tell easily) it means you're really low on your gas. The manual says this and more.

 

REAL low? I would think that 1 gallon remaining in a tank would signal a low fuel alert. I've had other cars that would have a low fuel warning light come on with 3 gallons left.

 

Yanno, I don't remember exactly. When I first had the xD I pushed it to the limit with the gas because I could feel it wasn't accelerating well anymore lol! So I've promised myself to always fill up at the last 2 fuel bars.

 

I know when my last bar starts to flash there is less than 1 gallon. It's probably a good idea to get fuel just as the 2nd to last bar is lit up.

 

Hmm. I thought there were 8 bars on the fuel gauge with each then indicating 1/8 of the tank (~1.38 gal). With just the last bar lit, but not blinking, one should be able to drive 10-30 more miles before becoming a pedestrian.

Or course, being careful means at two bars left you should be checking gas buddy for a cheap station, and by a single bar you should be driving to that station (except during hurricane season when you should fill at half or 3/4).

 

awesome! save from my 300zx, I've yet to see a car with an accurate fuel gauge - most cars just say "e" with 2-5 gallons left... it's safer for those people who push it too far, but I like relatively accurate readings.

 

When you reach the last fuel bar it will start blinking. At first it will blink slow, but when you've past a certain amount (not sure, probably in manual) it blinks faster.

 

While there are 8 bars on the fuel gauge, the bars do not correspond to 1/8th of the entire tank, 11.1 gallons. not sure why this is, but I think most fuel gauges whether or not they are digital operate similarly.

the first bar will remain lit through the first 30-70 miles of driving, depending on your consumption (city or highway). After that the bars tick off much faster. As stated in this thread if you get down to one bar, there is more than likely only a gallon left.

If you look at the miles to empty reading on the multi-trip display, which is sort of a numerical way to tell how much fuel is left, it will correspond to the last bar blinking with between 5 and 15 miles left.

I recently had an issue where I negected to fill up in time and both the bar was flashing and the miles to empty was zero. I estimated that I went perhaps 5 or 6 miles more after the miles remaining was zero. When I filled up, the car took almost 10.5 gallons of gas. Not good for the car I am sure and I won't be doing that again, but that's at least an idea of how the fuel gauge works when the fuel is low.

 

it starts blinking when you have 12 miles of driving left

 

Try not to let it blink to often. The fuel pump has to work a lot harder when the tank is very low on fuel. Expensive repair usually if the pump is in the tank.

 

Mine started blinking today with 17 miles left. It was on the last bar before it started blinking...

 

I filled it up this time when the 3rd light just went off leaving 2 lights, 2.1 gallons left.

 

Sorry for reopening a 6 month old post but I heard a rumor that, for any car, you will damage the fuel pump everytime the car operates with the tank half full. This is because the fuel pump has no cooling device so it needs to be submerged in gasoline (a natural coolant), otherwise it will suffer overheating problems in the long run.
Any suggestions would be appreciated thanks.

 

Obviously, harm could be done, but again obviously the designers of the fuel pump set-up wouldn't have designed it as it is if it was an imminent threat to the fuel pump. It's fine, just don't run it to empty all the time...

 

^^ Quite true. This is the same reason your MPG is the best around 55-60mph. The designers try to anticipate what usage the vehicle will succumb to and make sure the car is tuned to handle those situations the best. Obviously, most people don't fill up their tank when it hits 50%, so it would be bad design to position the pump as you described.

However, it IS recommended that you fill up at 50% if possible to avoid the sediment in your tank from being pulled into the engine. Generally there is some sediment that settles to the bottom of the tank from the gas you put in the car, so to keep the fuel system clean, you want to keep the gas topped off as much as you can.

 

Wow. Lots of misinformation here. The fuel pump will work just fine until just before the tank is empty. The only thing you dont want is the pump to be sucking air. Regarding the sediment, that is untrue as well. The sediment does what sediment does... settles at the bottom. The fuel pickup is at the bottom of the tank so it would be sucking the sediment all the time. If you have stuff floating in your tank, well that is another issue but I dont know of many things that would float in your tank.

For the record, my last fuel bar started blinking yesterday when I was coming home from work. Went 30 more miles and the car took 10.6 gallons.

 

Thanks for posting that, HitIt. I was sitting here thinking, "None of this is true!" Thank God I listen to Car Talk. I've learned a lot from Click and Clack.

 

...and unless the car has been sitting for a long period of time, any sediment small enough to go through the screen on the pump is going to get stirred up from normal driving anyway.

the only harm thats going to happen from running low on fuel is going to be sucking in air, or as stated above, anything that may be floating in your tank. it would be difficult for anything to even 'float' over to the pump because of the baffles inside.

 

Hi, I'm curious if the xD has a display that shows how many miles are remaining on your tank o f gas (in number of miles).

Thanks