Low Petrol Light My 2003 Copen has the low warning light, it comes on when the gauge shown almost empty!
I'm hoping mine has then! Unless Ian, yours was a special edition that came with a fuel warning light!
It's a hobby of mine. As I said earlier I took my car down to the fumes, the needle was actually below the empty line. If it does have a warning light it leaves the warning bl***y late.
Could the gauge be out? Like I said I brimmed it with 6 gallons and was close to half way between 1/4 and E. So E may have been about 6½ gallons. That leaves at least 2 gallons in the tank at empty, does it not? Unless there are 2 types of sender units and some were put in British/European cars?
My LHD 1.3 doesn't have a low fuel light; I've been twice stranded on the road with no fuel at all, both times with my wife with me and with the top down, so I'd have to leave the wife in the car beside the road getting curious glances, while I walked to a nearby gas station, dig in their bin for a clean PET bottle, and buy some fuel! And for me, the tank gets empty pretty quick after the needle hits the E mark. And it gets pretty quick between 1/4 to E too.
I looked closely at the dial this morning and cannot see an indication of a place there is a light. When you turn ignition on only one for oil and airbag are illuminated.
I've noticed on my 1.3 once the needle reaches 1/4 that it then gets down to empty pretty quickly. On the plus side though it takes a long time to get from full to 1/4.
A long time! mine goes down as you look at it. It seems to move quicker than the speedo. The fuel economy is looking rubbish. Reviews I had read said it was an economical car to run but not sure what they were comparing it to, a Veyron? I bought the car partly on fuel economy compared to my last car. If it doesn't improve and turns out to be worse than my old Ford and false advertising, you might be seeing a for sale sign in its window. My old Ford I was getting just over the combined. The copen is just getting over the urban! Same route.
Just did a search on Spritmonitor which I use and will be adding copen figures when I get a few. search for 1.3 copen minimum 3000 km: 37.7 min 44.1 avg 55.2 max mpg same search for my Ford: 28.7 min 36.0 avg 48.1 max mpg so those figures seem like what I was expecting/wanting. whats going wrong with mine?
I hardly ever go over 5000 rpm, change about 3000 to 4000 rpm depending on gear. I might be up on this tank of fuel but done 30 miles on motorway.
I do alot of motorway miles in my little copen. I can get 320 miles from 1 tank of regular unleaded. This works out to about 48mpg (not too bad)
I previously said that I get around 320 miles on a tank of petrol. I realised that this should read 320 miles on 30 litres = around 48mpg. When the needle reads E I always put in another 30 litres of fuel. Given that the tank holds 40 litres, I should have another 10 litres before the tank is dry. By my reckoning that means that I should be able to go another 106 miles before the copen splutters to a halt (based on motorway driving at 70mph)! Not brave enough to try it though and wouldn't do the engine much good either. I have travelled 45miles recently when the needle was on empty, this was after my revelation that there should be about another 10 litres to use.
Don't let the tank go below 1/4! The fuel pump will suck up all the junk in the fuel tank and clog the filter. Fuel pumps are lubricated by the petrol it pumps, so constantly doing that will burn out the pump - which is a pain in the ass to replace.
Here is my take... Although the tank may be 40l, you can't use much more than 30l. This is because the inlet pipe does not extend down to the bottom of the tank. This also stops the pump picking up the crud at the bottom of the tank. With the fuel filter being built into the tank, this has got to be a good thing! So I'd say it's no problem letting the fuel go down to E, but I wouldn't go past this. Rex.
DaG, no it didn't actually take a year to realise. It took me a year to remember what I said on my last post. I was driving close to empty and coming up to a petrol station. My mind got wondering on how far I would get on the next fill up! Rex, I disagree that you can't use more than 30l. I've done it lots of times (but not used so much that it would draw up all the crud). I would not recommend running the tank dry, as so many others have also pointed out the problems it could cause. HOWEVER, my calculation is just to indicate how far you could go on a tank. Given the relatively small tank size and perceptions that when you get to 1/4 it seems to run out quicker I thought I would give some comfort that it's unlikely that you're going to get stranded. trustafox - does D stand for dreggs!! F -full, E - empty, D - dreggs
Fuel I've only ever filled to brim once and it cost £37 which I thought was good, I did around 300 miles on that. Cheap to run I'd say! Regarding a fuel light - I wouldn't let my car get that low in the first place unless of course it wasn't my car! Aren't we supposed to put super unleaded in these cars every so often? Cleans the engine/pistons?
