I have a brand new 2015 Fit 6 speed manual.

The Owner's guide says I have a 10.6 gallon tank. My low fuel warning light came on. the guide states it comes on when there is approx 1.59 gallons left.

so I stopped and filled it up, but it only took 7.7 gallons of gas. So are the gauges not accurate? The guide wrong? My math bad? Or am I just missing something?

I was expecting to get 300+ miles per tank of gas, not the 265 that the "trip A" showed me.

 

You have a bad case of "technology trust!"

Your tank will likely hold a bit more than published value, and the reserve amount will be a bit larger than stated. That's to prevent Honda from being sued.

Do you know how much 0.01 gallons is? It's 1.28 fluid ounces, or the contents of a shot glass. No analog fuel tank sender can measure that closely!

The only accurate fuel measurement is the pump you fill the car with. Even the odometer is a few percent low, again for legal reasons.

 

The low gas warning comes on really early IMO. I find that it comes on around 2 gallons left. The most miles I've gotten was 422 and I still only filled up 9.434 gallons of gas.

 

Don't forget too that you can never fill a gas tank completely. There has to remain a cavity of air space as gasoline is very volatile meaning wants to evaporate into a gaseous state.

The biggest problem is that it can wreck the evap system. This collects gasoline fumes from the tank and routes them to the engine for combustion. Overfilling could force raw gas to enter the system and prevent it from working right. It could also cause a condition where you have a hard time filling the tank, as the system can't properly relieve pressure from the tank and the gas pump's automatic shutoff keeps engaging.

 

Thanks for the replies. Too bad the information provided by the car is not more accurate, but still pretty happy with the car. Also getting 34.3 mpg in city (my own calculations, car reports 34.8) so pretty happy with that as well.

Not quite as good as my wife gets with her 2012 Fit but she is a more sedate driver then I am, so i am not surprised.

 

The difference is between an analogue gas gage (WAG) and a digital gage (SWAG). Wild Ass Guess and Scientific Wild Ass Guess) and Scientific is loosely applied. I'd estimate 2 gallons left after little orange gas pump shows up. When the digital range displays zero, maybe 30 miles, but YMMV.

 

How long have you had your car? Maybe it is still breaking in. And besides, there's no disadvantage in your wife being better at something, we all know the truth! Just don't tell her that.

 

It has been my experience from the past 3 Hondas I've owned that a Honda isn't really broken in until somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 miles. And it's a gradual transition.

 

What do you mean by "broken" does it work better after 5 miles? or what do you mean.

 

I have something similar happened to me. I was out of gas so I put it like 13 liters (3.7 salons) and the gauge didn't go up. So i was out of gas all the time . Then I put another 3.7 salons and it was dying that I was almost out of gas. So then I travel for an hour and when I arrived home after an hour I turn off the car. Nest day I turn on the car and It append i more than 3/4 tank. So I think the gauge is incorrect at least in my experience. Also doesn't go down one by one. It goes one and then it doesn't go down and then four spaces go down.

 

Ola, KikeDiaz, I'll try to explain in non-automotive terms.

A brand new pair of shoes tend to be stiff and a little uncomfortable but after wearing the for a while, they "break-in" and become more comfortable and you actually look forward to wearing them.

Cars are similar in that after several miles, say 5,000 (not 5), the various parts, bearings, valves, cams, gears, chains, belts work better together. The engine (and other mechanicals) have worn into a harmony that cannot be built into the engine at the factory. An assembly line of dozens of engines, built almost simultaneously, no two will be exactly alike nor run exactly alike although built from "identical" parts. After about 5,000 miles, one will run slightly better than the other, get better mileage, be more powerful. No predicting. On paper they are still alike.

Even low production, hand built cars like the Bugatti, built within tolerances unheard of in mass production cars like the Honda, perform differently after being used. No much, mind you, because when a million dollar plus Bugatti goes out the door it has been tested, honed, tweaked, and brought to a perfection us mere mortals can understand.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Definitely had the gas light come on with 3 gallons left in the tank. I had read this was a little quirk of the GKs. I would prefer to not get as empty as possible, so it is a fine reminder to fill her up.

 

Yes, there's definitely more than 1.59 gallons left in the tank when the low fuel light comes on. I keep a spreadsheet with details of every tank, including mileage when the light comes on, and I estimate there is approx 2.75 gallons left when the light comes on.

 

In the old days (pre-'80s, LOL) we would let the needle go to the RED portion of the fuel gauge before filling up. Or more----1950s VWs did not have gauges (!), they had a Reserve Tank, when the engine started to sputter you moved the changeover lever and filled up at the next gas station for 25 cents a gallon!

Just got back from a four day, 2000 mile trip in the CR-V, that car has a 15.3 gallon tank and there are 3.5 gallons left when the warning light comes on, 1.5 when the needle reaches the red zone.

 

1962 was the first year for the Beetle to have a gas gauge in the US… and it was really only a suggestion at that. I carried a 1 gallon gas can (empty!) in the boot of my '64 and had to use it once or twice!

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Did it have a trip meter? Lots of motorcycles don't have a gas gauge, just a trip meter. You'll quickly learn how far you can drive before hitting the gas station. Helps that most have a reserve you can flip to once it start to stutter.

 

Lots of motorcycles and old VWs had that reserve feature. It was just a second fuel outlet in the tank that extended up an inch or so from the bottom so the level can only drop to that of the outlet, retaining some gas. After that you switched the valve which opened up an outlet at the bottom of the tank. You had a pretty good idea, at that moment, how much gas you had remaining!

This idea doesn't work so well with modern fuel injected cars with high pressure pumps in the fuel tank!

 

Remember Steve McQueen in The Great Escape? Top of a rolling hill, looking down at a German convoy, he stood astride the "liberated" motorcycle and shook the bike side to side to guess if he had enough gas to out run them. It was an adlib that the director thought was so good he kept it in the film.

 

IIRC, he had removed the cap and was jiggling the bike to judge the level. Having done that many times myself the actions seemed pretty natural.


Of course, the motorcycle was a '62 Triumph Trophy, not exactly standard issue in the Wehrmacht.

There are some spots in the chase where you can see McQueen, hidden by goggles and a German uniform, apparently chasing himself!