Gas meter

[sdpapet]

Hi, I have Sonic 2013LT. I have a question about the gas meter. It is electronic readings. Does anyone know how much volume each bar mean?

1 Gallon?

I doubt my gas meter accurate. Sometime, I drive long distance, but the gas meter doesn't change.:banana:

 

[Palmaris]

Not sure about the accuracy of the bars either. I find that it the car is running it is at a specific level, then if you turn the car off and turn it back on it seems to re-calibrate and suddenly there is one bar less.

 

[Swordsmith]

The bars represent about 1 gallon. There are ten bars and the tank holds 12.2 gallons, logically this would mean each bar is 1.22 gallons... but the fact is when the last bar turns off there is still almost 2 gallons remaining in the tank. But as if that wasn't enough, I have also seen the bar go backwards, from one bar to two, from no bars back to one bar, and even from no bars all the way up to two bars. No rhyme or reason to it, either.

Get an Ultragauge or equivalent, the gas remaining shows a precise amount even when you are completely out of bars (and there's a big difference between really out of gas and two gallons remaining, when you're getting 40 mpg, that's 80 miles!)

Or just live with the fact that the stock gauge is no more than a vague hint, and if you run out of bars you'd better go get some gas quick just in case... even though that means you are now driving a car with a virtual ten gallon tank.

 

[Maddmatts]

...There are ten bars and the tank holds 12.2 gallons...

There are 12 bars. So they'll represent ~0.8 gallons (3 Liters) each.

The readout isn't a direct measurement of fuel level. One of the computers takes the traditional fuel level sender signal and mixes it with other calculations to give a more consistent reading as the tank drains. There's also a TSB to inform owners to not brim the fuel tank to prevent errors with the gauge.

 

[The Champ]

There are 12 bars. So they'll represent ~0.8 gallons (3 Liters) each.

12 x .8 = 9.6

It's a 12.2 gallon tank...

 

[Palmaris]

But it has already been said that the top gallon and the last gallon don't show in the gauge. So I think he was accounting for that.

That's why your first bar lasts much longer than the other ones, and why the gas light doesn't come on till the last bar has almost disappeared.

 

[The Champ]

Could be what he was trying to say, but if the gauge reads half full (6 bars) - does that mean there are 6.1 gallons left or 4.8 gallons left?

I'm guessing that it's closer to 6.

 

[Maddmatts]

After yesterday's fill I'll revise my previous estimate to around 3.5L (0.9 Gal-US) per bar. I could zero it in by averaging over several more fills but I'm not OCD enough to really want to know.

It does re-enforce that the gauge doesn't represent the total rated capacity of the fuel tank. I'm not really surprised either. During a fuel-economy race on Topgear, they found that their three cars from different manufacturers all had some amount of reserve that was unreported by the gauges.

 

[TRO-512]

This question seems to be so frequently answered in different ways with just a little bit of consensus, but it still feels like trying to find the portapotty on Area 51 without a flashlight. (I couldn't resist using that joke for something)