How Many Miles When Petrol Guage Light Comes On ?

[yorkshirelass]

I have a Vauxhall Agila Design 1.2 Last week I had to do a long , unexpected journey and on the way home through the countryside , the yellow petrol warning light came on. I got home OK and filled up in town the next day. How many miles would I have left once the warning light comes on ?

[jubieanna]

I have a Ford Focus and its 50 miles left when the light comes on

[CrapAtCryptics]

the average is 40-60 miles - if you have an Agila - wasnt that a tune

[Buenchico]

I've copied and posted my own answer from a thread which appeared on AB only last month:

"When I started 'trade plating' (delivering vehicles around the country), I didn't initially have a fuel card, so I had to put fuel into vehicles at my own expense and then claim it back. As I'd been unemployed prior to that, I had barely enough money to buy food so (obviously) I wasn't going to put fuel into a vehicle's tank unless I really, really had to!

I soon learned that there was no problem driving a vehicle for at least 30 miles after the fuel gauge showed 'Empty' and the warning light had come on. Other drivers told me that they'd often got away with driving more than 50 miles with the warning light on.

Manufacturers know that their vehicles will be driven in, say, the highlands of Scotland (where it can be dozens of miles to the nearest filling station) or in far remoter areas, so they have to ensure that the fuel warning lights on their vehicles come on well before the tank is actually anywhere near to empty."

[yorkshirelass]

Thanks to everyone who answered my question; they were all correct I think
and I was glad to find out that I don't need to panic once the light come on. At least I shall be more observant in the future and make sure i have a full tank before setting off on a long trip. Thanks again.

[janzman]

Iv'e had a good look at the manual and I cant find any figure for that however the overall capacity of the tank is nominally 41 litres.. So if you run the car down again to when the light comes on then immediately fill right up to maximum with say 36 litres youll know your reserve is approx 5 litres.

[KARL]

I have "run on empty" many times and on one occasion I on purpose actually ran the vehicle until the engine stopped. The distance from the light coming on and running out of fuel on that occasion was either roughly 50km or 30 miles (much the same). On other occasions I have still had fuel left when I reached that distance or a little more.

I have to admit that I do not feel comfortable after covering 30km or 20 miles unless I know I have a fuel station coming up very soon (or 5 litres in a container with me). I generally expect to run out soon after 50km or 30 miles. If you expect to be in that position then the best thing is take along spare fuel and deliberately run the tank dry as a test - especially if you are going to be using the same vehicle for years. Remember that quite a bit depends on what type of driving is involved. For example, fuel consumption is lower on a steady 50 miles/hour (80km/h) drive along the horizontal in calm weather than it is in traffic within an urban area.

[RATTER15]

I drove our Grande Picasso for nearly 70 miles on the fuel light once. I really didn't think I was going to make it to the next garage, late one night in Wales when all the garages were closed.

[waterboatman]

I never let the tank get below a quarter.

[yorkshirelass]

Thanks again everyone.

[ummmm]

Vauxhall told me 30 miles.

There was a petrol station down the road from me and I still used to run out of petrol.

"stop swearing dad, just bring a jerry can" :-)