According to the owners manual, p62 ....

"When the indicator comes on, there iss about 1.7US gal (6.3 l) of fuel remaining in the tank before the needle reaches E. There is a small reserve of fuel remaining in the tank when the needle does reach E."

So --- based on your own M/G experience, you can estimate how far you can go before you run dry.

Link to the owners manual on line...

http://www.ahm-ownerlink.com/assets/...a/2007_Fit.pdf

 

Interesting topic. I think I can add an interesting story.

I now have 32,000 miles on my Fit. For the entire 1st year, I would get gas around when the light came on. It would usually take somewhere around 9.5 to 9.8 gallons, and I usually got between 295 and 315 miles to the tank. I was happy with the mileage considering that I was using my Element as my daily driver, and that I am a leadfoot.

About two weeks ago, I decided to try to top off my tank. And when I say top off, I mean TOP OFF! When it clicked off around 9.9 gallons, I took my time, and patiently would put a little more in, wait for it to settle and then continued the process. At the end of the fillup, I had an astonishing 12.1 gallons...over two more than I have ever had on a fill up!

I am not one to drive around with the light on for too long and I never really took the time to look up the size of the tank.

However, suffice to say that my first tank after the experiment yielded 387.6 miles from the tank. And yes, the light was on, but it had only been on for about 10 miles. I decided to continue the game and took an extra 3 minutes or so to get the tank totally full.

I am guessing that it all has to do with the tank placement. Since the tank is under the front seat, that means two things. One, that the fuel has a lot of places to back up in the fill line, or get hung up with air bubbles. Two, the filler line must hold quite a bit of gas itself.

Last weekend I drove to Toronto and wanted to put my experiment to good use. I used my new way to fill up before leaving home, knowing that I am about 385 miles to the border @ Buffalo. I wanted to fill the tank at the border because I wanted to avoid filling up in Canada, where they really do have the right to bitch about gas prices. My experiment worked! Tank one got me just east of Buffalo, and I filled up a little early because I didn't want to have to exit downtown and try to find gas. Tank 2 took me to Toronto (110 miles maybe) where I did about 100 more miles of running around and then back to Buffalo. I made it to about 50 miles east of Buffalo before having to fill up again. When I got home, I still had about 90 miles left to go on that tank.

Of course, my new fill up technique has nothing to do with better mileage. However, I always felt the Fit had good (borderline-great) mileage, but I thought the range kinda sucked.

It does have a couple of drawbacks. It can take a LONG time to get it totally topped off. Also, the stations that have those vapor recovery systems make it hard because you kind of have to watch the fill hole to know exactly what is going on. That being said, I haven't spilled a drop yet.

I hope someone finds my long post useful.

Of course, I didn't take the time to search to see if someone had figured this out already.

 

I too was enjoying the added time and distance between fill-ups by topping-off, and it is the only sure way to check your MPG accurately. However, it came to my attention that we are ruining our charcoal canisters when we overfill the tanks on our Fits. My advice: go back to the old method; stop when the pump shuts off and save yourself some problems later.

Also, stop in Wegman's when you're around Buffalo or Rochester and tell the pharmacy manager, Kathleen, that I send her a huge hug from Alabama.

Joe

 

I have yet to see my low gas light come on. I usually just fill up the tank when it gets close to the empty mark. I wonder if I would get better overall gas mileage if I waited until the light came on before filling up, rather than jumping the gun.

 

When you fill the tank has no bearing on how much gasoline the car uses to operate.

 

Right, I understand that. However, if I'm not including the last remainder of the tank, and the time/distance it takes me to use that gas, doesn't that have the potential to affect my overall average?

 

No. Assume that the car gets a constant 38 mpg, it will use a gallon every 38 miles irregardless. You could top up every 38 miles with a gallon or 380 miles with ten, and everything in between.

 

right, except... uh... the car DOESN'T get a constant 38 mpg. It fluctuates depending on driving conditions....

 

Exactly, but the capcity will have no bearing on this, see?

Replace above with average.....

 

i made it to disneyland and back on the gas light, bout 30 miles round trip, in traffic half the time

 

Actually, in theory....I think I see where you are coming from. But this is a tank to tank difference with little overall impact in lifetime FE.

Assume I do a slew of city driving, and do this for, 256 miles.

And I top up 8 gallons. 256 / 8 = 32 mpg (my absolute worst in 26K of Fit driving).

If I top up at this point, then I am getting 32.

Now, let's assume I DO NOT fill up, but I then get out in the country after the 256 of city driving, and I top up at 336 miles (total), and return 10 gallons to the tank.

336 / 10 = 33.6 mpg total for the tank.

Now, what did the country drive gain us in FE?

(336 - 256) / 2 = 40 mpg (what I get with constant interstate / highway driving).

So, the 32 mpg in the city is still the same, and the 40 mpg in the country is still the same, irregardless to when the tank is filled up, even tho the return on the tank at 8 gallons may appear to be worse than the 10 gallon fillup.

 

I believe that because it is so difficult to get consistant fills in these cars, abd the tanks is only about 10 gallons, a variance of +/- 1/2 gallon can cause your sinlge tank MPG to calculate out with a 10% variance. By doing the math over 10 tanks, the measuring variance drops to 1%. In the AT mileage thread you can see that I overfilled one tank resulting in that tank calculating out to 30mpg and filled regularly the next time with a calculated MPG of 37. If you take 1 gallon from the high mpg tank and add it to the low, they both come out to 33.5 mpg, almost exactly the average that I've gottten over 10 tanks.

In another example: you drive 280 miles on a "full" tank. You go to your favorite station and you pump 8.5 gallons by the second click off. You do the math and end up with 33mpg. You drive another 280 miles, go to the same station and pump, but this day the pump is running a little faster, The pump meter is accurate at any flow rate, but with the faster fill, a couple of air pockets get trapped, and you only get 8 gallons by the second click off. Your mpg calculates to 35, yayyy. You drive another 280 miles but since your tank wasn't quite as full when you started, you drive farther into the tank. Back to the same station and pump, running like it was on the first day, and it takes 9 gallons to fill the tank exactly to where it was the first time. Your mpg has dropped to 31, is something wrong? No, your car has delivered 33 mpg the whole time, the normal fill variances are making your numbers jump all over the place.

The Fit has a very long fill tube which appears to make these variances typical. My 914 has a cap on the top of the tank, you look down the opening and see gas, those fills are more consistant, though a slight slope to the gas station floor can trap air at the other end of the tank and cause a short fill.

The point of this post was to share my opinion that you shouldn't get too excited about high mpg on a single tank, nor should you get bummed if it goes the other way. Keep track over time and you will be able to figure out the mileage that your Fit is actually delivering.

Eric

 

Why a Scangauge would be best.

Also, when doing Mobilgas Economy Runs and the like, they always metered the amount of fuel in the cars (exact gallon amount) Vs. "Topping Up".

 

Ahh, I'm starting to get the picture guys... I never considered variances in the gas level.

So here's another question... do you guys always top off your tank to the second click off? I used to in every other car I've driven, but with the fit I just go with the first clickoff... the manual being like "don't top off your tank!" and all.

 

Inthe begining I would top off, alot. But after reading about the carbon canister. I go to the send click. Maybe I should just go to the first click now.
Check this out: Don't Top Off Your Tank

 

All right so on my last fill up,i only filled 9.09 gallons.About 280 miles later the light turns on,filled it up and only filled up 8.9 gallons!

what the hell!lol

why does it come on so early?

 

uh it allows about 2 gallons before you run out, thats why

 

so when do you fill up?I mean im still getting more than 30mpg,but i just fill up less and a litte more often

 

I fill up at about 1/2 tank.

 

I fill up like at the empty mark