This is not a new issue; I've looked all over the threads, saw a lot of discussion but no answers.

My owners manual says I have a 17 gallon tank and a three gallon reserve. Believing this, I monitored my mpg and miles travelled and... ran out of gas. I put in one gallon from a can and went directly to a station to refill and couldn't get more than 16 more gallons in.

So, my questions are:

Is the pump getting shut off before it's really filled up?
Is the "reserve" a separate tank somewhere? Is the reserve actually empty or is it not being used?

Bottom line: I'd really like to get more than 17 gallons out of my reported 20 gallon capacity and have not been able to do so.

 

i had a similar problem, for me it turned out my gas gauge was malfunctioning. i was getting the full 20 gallons of gas in but my gauge was not reading this.

im not sure what the part is but it is the part that measures how much gas you have, its located in the gas tank, and relays it back to your gauge.

a full tank in my car read as a half tank on my gauge. you can either replace the parts or use ur trip odometer to measure how much gas you have left.

 

Unless the guage triggers a preemptive fuel shut off to the engine -- which I highly doubt -- I don't really care what it reads. If I reset the trip and fuel mileage readings after a refill, I can calculate how much gas I've got. That is, of course, if I actually know how much gas I've got when I "fill up".

Anymore thoughts, anybody?

 

What year is your Z? I have an '03 and don't recall anything about a "reserve" although I have not had to refer to my manual in quite some time, As you have noted there are a bunch of different problems with both the gauge and actually filling the tank - I know when my DTE dispaly goes to --- I still can't squeeze 16 gallons in. Regardless, all 350's have 20 gallon tanks, and there is no special "reserve" tank.

 

Another Seinfeld Episode. Here is an idea..stop letting it go down to E. That should work out for you.

 

Common problem. Check applicable service bulletin for your model year.

 

Agreed - common problem. We had the same issue on our 04. The suck light would be on forever, then it'd only take 17 gallons. I had our local shop, Z Car Garage, make some adjustments to the float so that it was more accurate. Now the warning level is nearly exact, so when it says ---- she better go get gas asap. I took this pic just for this reason. You also need to continue filling it after it auto-stops.

 

Where do I find "applicable service bulletin"?

Thanks.

 

 

Assuming that based on your post count this isn't only your 3rd trip on the Internet, I'm guessing you have heard of Google?

 

susbrcicbed