Reading the TEMP and GAS guage

[dirty hippie]

Anyone know how many gallons each bar on the gas guage represents? If the gas tank is about 10 gallons, then the halfway mark represents 5 gallons, which means 1/4 (about 4 bars total) is 2.5 gallons?

When I start the car, the temp guage automatically shows 2 bars. After 2-3 minutes it jumps to 4 bars, and then around 5 minutes it gets to 6 bars and stays there. Can someone confirm if this is a normal pattern?

[delsol7]

I'm not sure about gas tank but the temp sounds about right.

[02insight]

The gas gauge isnt really linear. You may notice that it will take a long time and more miles to get to the halfway mark, after which it starts to go down faster.

usually if am averaging a 65mpg tank, I will get around 375 miles before the halfway mark, then around 275 the rest of the way down to no bars

you can usually calculate approximately how many miles you have left on a tank of gas by looking at one of the trip meters. If you reset it everytime you fill up, you should be able to multiply the average mpg by 10 to get total miles you can get on a tank and subtract that number from the miles traveled already.

[red1dr]

Originally Posted by 02insight

you can usually calculate approximately how many miles you have left on a tank of gas by looking at one of the trip meters. If you reset it everytime you fill up, you should be able to multiply the average mpg by 10 to get total miles you can get on a tank and subtract that number from the miles traveled already.

This is a really nice way to handle it. And because the tank is 10.6 gallons, it gives you a 0.6 gallon reserve, which will get you somewhere between roughly 30 and 60 miles.

[MN Driver]

I usually get roughly 1.5 gallons before the tank loses its first bar out of the 20 bars of the gas gauge. The gas light itself comes on at different bar levels and I once parked the car and the next time I drove it the light turned on after 20 miles of driving, but when the final bar on the gas gauge goes out you've gone through 10 gallons or so and have about a 1/2 gallon left. Your mileage may vary though as a rough hit to the curb or even a light rear-end crash has been known to cause a failure of the sender, it probably can cause inaccuracies if it doesn't fail. I've noticed mine will occassionally register 5 bars or so low after a key-off engine stop but come back when I shut it off and turn it back on again.

The temp gauge and my ScanGauge correlate to 4 bars at 140 and 6 bars somewhere in the 160's farenheit. Most of the time I see it going to 6 bars at nearly 170 degrees F but sometimes it ticks over early in the low 160s. Either way, I usually see lean burn within a minute if the temperature is comfy or hot out after 6 bars so up and if its freezing out, after about 2-3 minutes. Usually lean burn shows up in the mid 170s for me but there seem to be other factors to it such as the first oxygen sensor being ready and other closed loop requirements being met.

The first time I started the car when I was test driving it before I bought it, I saw the 2 bars and it had me thinking it was broken because it was snowing outside at the time but when I saw it jump to 4 bars I knew it was normal.