Due to a series of events yesterday I had to travel 76 miles after the fuel light came on in my 14 year old Audi A4 1.9 tdi estate. I was pulling a trailer with about 150kg in it. Can anyone beat that?
- posted
4 years ago
Due to a series of events yesterday I had to travel 76 miles after the fuel light came on in my 14 year old Audi A4 1.9 tdi estate. I was pulling a trailer with about 150kg in it. Can anyone beat that?
I think the most I ever risked was 45 miles in my A4 3.0 TDI, knowing the biggest fill-up I ever managed was about 60 litres for a book capacity of 64 litres ...
At what point does the warning light come on? The display panel of my petrol VW passat of similar age would give a warning when the distance available got down to 40 miles. It would go more than 40 miles but I never found what the limit was.
Years ago, (many years because it was when my father was alive and he died in 1960, so 1950's) cars would have a 'reserve tank'. IIRC there was actually no such tank, but the normal take-off from the tank was a little way off the bottom, with a second take-off lower down and nearer to the bottom, so in effect the lowest part of the tank was the reserve. Again IIRC there was a tap somewhere in the fuel pipe that you opened manually to allow the engine to use the 'reserve tank'. Quite how you knew when to open that tap I don't know; presumably when the car chugged to a halt!
my light come on when the computer tells me that I still have 50 miles of fuel
but when I fill up 20 miles later I am still 15-20 litres short of an empty tank
Could probably easily manage 150 mile after the light is first on (bloody useless really)
I don't drive an Audi so I suppose that eliminates me from the competition
tim
about 40 miles range, but I meant after the trip computer got to zero
My Herald 13/60 had a fuel pipe that was inserted at an angle, the normal orientation meant that the bottom part of the pipe was horizontal in the tank. Turning the fitting where the pipe entered rotated the pipe 90 deg, so that the bottom part of the pipe in the tank was now at the deepest part. Worked a treat.
Beetle? Don't think it was common on British cars, but of course it was standard on classic British motorbikes.
Rover P6 has a switched reserve
Probably. My Scudo once ran out of fuel with the computer telling me there were 50 miles left to go.
The warning light usually come on with 60 miles to go. A full fill up at that point is always 75 litres of a 80 litre tank. And that for some reason is on a van that does 30MPG?
The most I have managed to put into the 80 litre tank is 86 litres after driving several miles with the computer telling me my range was zero..
Never knew that.
No miles till you run out readout? How very crude. Thought Audi were upmarket.
Not very common at all. Common on motorbikes with no fuel gauge, though.
Not a switch - a cable operated valve.
Yep. IIRC my Triumph herald had those.
Indeed you waited till it stopped, got out, opened te boot, moved the lever and proceeded to the nearest petrol station
Was it downhill? :-)
Brian
Sounds like the setup used on many many motorcycles. ;-)
The Mrs's Yamaha XV750 had light on the dash telling her she was on 'reserve' but that was more like many many cars, where it was just a low level indicator. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
A Main / Res / Off tap was / is (also) standard on pretty well all makes of motorbike. My Honda, BMW, Kawasaki [1] and MZ all have them, as does daughters Suzuki 600 [1] and my Messerschmitt KR200 bubble car. ;-)
'Her' Yamaha XV750 [1] has a low fuel light and my Yamaha YPR250 [1] scooter has a fuel gauge (and possibly a low fuel light).
Cheers, T i m [1] I believe those also have a vacuum operated fuel tap so rather than Main / Res / Off I think it's Main / Reserve and Prime (< so you can get some fuel in to start the engine to gain some vacuum to operate the tap). ;-)
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ISTR the early Beetle had a switch on the floor. But then it didnt have a fuel gauge
And the Triumph Herald had one in the boot I think
Warning light comes on with an estimated distance of about 70 miles in my car. Actual distance depends on driving style of course. The range will drop slowly, end easily exceed the original estimate, until it gets to about 20 miles at which point it drops rapidly (Though I had a brother-in-law who claimed he got more miles to the gllon when he filled the tank and when he had to switch in the reserve on his Beetle drove like the clappers)
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