Ok so the "idiot light" for being almost out of gas comes on when you have about 55-50 miles left. how far have you guys let that reading get to before you actually stop to get gas? I know this reading isn't completely accurate and is determinded by current style. The first time i let get down to 12 miles left. Another time, it got down to 1 or two then blamked out cause there was no reading. freaked me out. I hit the first station i could find!

jon

 

i dont know. i never let it get to the point where my low fuel light comes on. dont want all that **** in my gas tank.

 

I've checked my digital speedo, tire pressure and outside temp gauges and they are all dead on accurate and consistent. Too many variables for the fuel gauge, distance to empty readout.

JMS in TX

 

my speedo shows 1.5 mph too fast, according to my GPS. GPS verifies dead-on in my other car, so I'm going with the 2 against 1 decision and saying the Z is a little off.

 

My gas light comes on and says I have 35 miles left.. = 2 gallons. When I fill up I only fit in about 16 gallons. I think my light is off by 2 gallons since the z has a 20 gallon tank.

Also my temp gauge seems to always read about the same temp with little fluctuation between when I turn it on and drive it for a while. I guess because the aluminum block heats up quickly? Things that make you go "hmm".

 

My tank has only once gone below halfway mark. I like too keep it as high as I can so the injectors don't get strained.... the Z gets driven pretty hard.

 

It's mostly the fuel pump that gets hammered with low fuel assuming the 2 filters are doing their job. But even with low fuel, the fuel pump sits in a little cavity so that fuel cannot be sloshed out.

Gas tanks on cars when fuel injection and in-tank pumps were new had problems with being run low since they didn't have that little cavity and the pump was prone to sucking air, becoming unlubricated (from no fuel), and dieing.

Not saying it's good to run your car to the last drop, but I wanted to point out that the injectors are not what will get burned up from running low on gas. The motor will die before the injectors can run for very long with no fuel

 

I drive about 380-410 miles between fill-ups.

Usually, I go down to 15-20 miles left on the DTE gauge, but occasionally it will read -- by the time I fill up. However, I think even then I only put in 18 gallons. The light usually comes on at 350 miles or so.

However, just this morning I noticed that my gauge was at 1/4 Tank with only 200 miles. Now I am at 280 miles or so and just under 1/4 Tank. Not sure what is going on with the gauge, but I will probably get gas at work tomorrow and see if something seems fishy.

-D'oh!

 

i noticed my speedo gauge in the dash and the digital gauge in the center differ about 2 mph. when driving say 70 mph the gauge in the dash will read just below 70..like 68 (or what looks to be 68). And if i remember correctly, the hand held GPS that i borrowed read different from those two too.

Usually on fill-up the DTE reading jumps to 425-435 miles...i never get that out of a tank but have gotten a little over 400 though. And even when close to empty as i care to try, i've never put more than 18 gallons back in to fill up.

 

Looks like some of you guys are getting great gas milage. I'm in the 300-350 miles range on a full tank
The dte comes on at about 35 - 40 miles left and I usually fill it up right away. Haven't check the speedo gauge against my GPS yet.

 

I've never been in a car that had a speedo "dead on". They all read high.

There was a good article in Car and Driver a couple years ago about how much and why car speedos always read high.

Rest of my gauges are quite accurate from what I can tell. Even the low fuel thing is accurate. If you look at the fuel gauge you will notice that the bottom "quarter" is shorter than the other quarters. That's your low fuel reserve. Where the bottom of the lowest quarter should really end is where you really run out of gas.

 

Well my guess would be that you do 380-410 with all highway miles (or driving everywhere in 6th gear). I can stretch 400 miles out if I try driving 99% highway miles myself.

But 280~300 sounds like normal for lots of in-town driving.

 

Yeah, I thought about that as well, but my driving patterns haven't changed. I also thought that maybe I forgot to reset the ODO when i last got gas.

Soooo....On the way to work this morning I had the ---- come up on the DTE at only 290 miles. I drove most of the way to work, but finally chickened out and stopped to fill up at 320 miles. I filled up and the tank only took 14.3 gallons or so. I went into the car and turned the key, and the gas gauge stopped at about 7/8th of a tank (usually goes past full). I went out and tried to pump more gas, but it shut off again after about .2 gallons. So, I think I was able to fill the tank, even though my gauge doesn't come close to showing a full one. My mileage seems to be correct but the gauge seems to be wrong.

I think that my gas gauge all of a sudden went out of calibration somehow. I'll give it a tank or two and see what happens. Maybe it will fix itself. Hehe.

-D'oh!

 

Hmm... yeah doesn't sound right.

You might take it with a full tank of gas to the dealer and ask them about it.