Low Fuel Indicator

On my 03 Ion,it seems the low fuel chimes on earlier than it
should,can it malfuntion that much?.Maybe needs a factory re set?.

 

Might want to post what is 'early'.

hth,

tom @ www.NoCostAds.com

 

well,i'm going to post when should it go off?.less than a gallon in
the tank?.

 

There is no way the fuel gage can read that little amount of fuel nor
can your car stay running on that amount. Are you trying to destroy your
fuel pump as quickly as possible? The best and safest time to fill you
gas tank is when it reaches a quarter of a tank, not at an eighth of a
tank. No such thing as an early indicator from what I've seen. I'm
guessing yours goes off after a quarter tank has been reached.

 

Mine goes off much later that 1/8th of a tank in my ION3.

 

According to my manual...

"When the low fuel message is displayed, you may have less than 1.5 gallons
of fuel left."

 

Looks like "may" might be the factor here. I personally don't like
letting my tank get down too low, 1/4 tank I refill. But this is a
personal choice.

later,

tom @ www.CarFleaMarket.com

 

Oh I agree.. I hate to let it get too low too, just stating what the manual
says.

 

My L200 has less than a gallon when the chime goes off. And yes, it will
run on until there is no gas. OH, and BTW, low fuel has NOTHING to do with
fuel pump life. The fuel pumps are a simple gearotor style pump and will
run practically forever even without ANY gas in them. They are cooled by
the gas running THROUGH them, not by the gas AROUND them. I've heard these
lines of thinking before and there's just nothing to them. I've seen
electric in tank pumps last 20,000 miles and I've seen them last 300,000
miles. As a matter of fact we have 2 trucks (out of the 33) where I work
that both have 300,000 + miles and they both have the original fuel pumps.
We never gas the trucks until they are empty. I personally have never
filled ANY car of my own until it was empty and I've NEVER had a fuel pump
failure.

 

Think what you want, but there are good reasons not to run the fuel too low
(outside the obvious of the higher possibility of running out of fuel),
including premature in tank fuel pump failure (which you do not agree with)
and vapor condensation during cooler winter months.

Bob

 

I wonder if Steve ever cut bad pumps open before? (use tubing cutter)
I've taken more than a few apart and they either wear out early from to
much friction (lack of gas for lube) or they build up so much heat that
the springs for the brushes loose their temper and no longer push on the
brushes.
I replaced a pump on one guys car who had about 180k miles on his it,
his fuel lines were rotting so I had the go ahead to replace those and
the pump while I was there. He has a habit of filling up at a 1/4 of a
tank, not at 1/8th of a tank. Anyway I cut that pump open and with the
amount of wear that pump had it could of gone another 180k. The last
thing you want is to get stuck on the road with a dead pump only to dish
out 500 or more bucks to replace it. Gas is always cheaper than running
on fumes.

 

According to the owners manual for my SL1 the low fuel warning light comes
on when there is only 5 litres (~1.25 gallons) in the tank. Of course with
cornering and acceleration/braking the sensor would think there was less gas
in there. Depending on how you drive the light could be coming on a lot
earlier than it would for someone that doesn't drive the same. Either way if
it's coming on you should probably fill up (unless it's coming on when the
gauge is reading half a tank).