Hm.... my fuel light has only come on once to let me know I was out, and that was just BEFORE the "E". My tank can hold about 16.6g. Or so the manual says. Anyway, I've only been to about 14-15g. Or less.

My question is, well obviously tomorrow morning I have to fill up, but from the captial City of Tallahassee, to Sneads, FL (about 30miles or 40) it lasted with no fuel light, or no warning to tell me I'm really low, get gas. Ok... right now it's sitting directly on "E". Is it empty or what? The fuel light has yet to come on. I just find that very odd.

 

My gauge has to be right on E before the light comes on. I’ve even had the needle below the E, but I’ve never put more than 56L into my 63L (16.6gal) tank. I’m pretty sure the gauge is deliberately designed that way to give you some reserve capacity. Note however that just because you can fit 63L into the tank, doesn’t mean you can get 63L out again, because the pick-up point isn’t right on the bottom of the tank.

 

I have never even dared to try to find out if the Reserve light comes on I've heard to many "blew my engine when low on gas" stories to let that happen to me as well...

 

blowing the engine when low on gas? How odd.

 

It is possible to blow the engine while low on fuel if you are stupid enough to drive under boost with the guage on "empty" and the fuel light on.

The light should come on just before the needle hits the "E". If it is not, odds are that the idiot light cluster needs to be resoldered, or the contacts in the fuel guage need to be cleaned.

 

ok what if ur gas light comes on when u put the key in but when u start the car it never works (i have ran outta gas already tring to see if it works but it never came on) (and yes i had some extra gas with me just incase) anyone knows why this happens?

the car is a s5 90 vert n/a

 

the owner's manual says that the light comes on when there's about 3 gallons or so left.

 

well, it never came on, I went and drove another 2 miles to the gas station, and it never showed. It was completely on empty. Then again, my guage is odd, it doesn't read accurate.

I filled it up (Sneads, FL is high in gas, so about ~$20 ugh) ... and it only filled up about 14.2 gallons. Wouldn't let me fill up anymore, but reading the guage, it showed it had a little bit more room left to fill. Go figure.

I am thinking about buying aftermarket guages, any good ones that READ accurate?

 

The guages are only accurate as the sender. In order to get a good reading, you would need to replace it as well. Lots of effort for little gain as far as I am concerned. But if you are really concerned about it, AutoMeter makes some nice electrical fuel guages. May or may not work with the stock sender.

If you want your gas light back, remove the instrument cluster, remove the gas guage and clean the little set of contacts with a good contact cleaner (local electronics store has it). That'll fix the light.

rx_7_driver, this will fix your light as well.

 

The low fuel light switch is on the fuel level sender. The plug is easily accessable under the rear mat on my wife's 86. It's under a small panel on the drivers side just about even with the shock towers. Disconnect the plug and ground the wire that goes to the idiot light (red & white on 86 and 87) start the car and the light should come on and stay on. The car won't run long because the fuel pump is powered by the blue wire in that plug. Be sure you dont ground the blue wire you will blow a fuse! If it doesn't come on you have a bad wire going to the light, thats assuming that the light works during the normal lamp test at start up. If it doesn't work at lamp test replace the bulb.
Dick

 

Well, that's not the only thing that is bugging me. Not only would I want the aftermarket gas guage, I would like the aftermarket temp, oil pressure, etc..guage.

Anyway, thanks for your advice all. I'll be doing that tomorrow while I flush my radiator as well as other things.

 

thanks i took it out and cleaned up everything back there, for some reason there was a lot of atf back there (yes i have an auto don't laugh to loud at me ) it realy looks like i will need a new cluster because there were even some contack points that were missing (flaked off?) i guess this could be the reason y sometimes i have to tap on the cluster to get the temp gauge working and y my oil pressure gague isn't working at all. (i also tried grounding the little wire going to the oil sender to see if i could get it to move but no luck i guess i better get my *** to the parts fourm and see if i can find one on there and see if that will fix it)

anyways thanks for the help
shawn

 

There's ~2-3gallons spare on empty.

Note if you get to ~2-3 gallons you'll notice a performance dip but it doesn't cut off.

 

Yep, I just refilled mine with the needle just below empty and only got 53L into it, so 10L (2.6gal) was left in the tank. I'd hope at least 6-7L is above the pick-up point! Why would there be a dip in performance? As long as there's no interuption in fuel flow (pick-up sucks air), you shouldn't notice a thing. Once the pick-up starts to suck air from the fuel being sloshed around it'll start to stumble, but I know from personal experience that if you're driving smoothly (like on the higway), you get no warning!

 

I''ve filled my car up before and got 16.3 gallons in it

 

it was running a bit rought when I dipped below empty, but I only put in 16 gal - so go figure

 

The one and only time I ran her out of fuel, I put 16.514 gallons into the fuel tank.

 

Bricks save h20 in toilets, not gas in tanks

Seriously, didn't they increase the fuel capacity in the 89-91 years.

 

F on my fuel gauge is actually only about 2/3 full. Havent found out about the E yet, dont really plan too.

 

Yep, S5's have a 70L (18.5gal) tank.

 

Nope, 72lt

Although for some reason the FSM (US) states 70lt

 

Where's that from?

 

From the very first review of the TII when it came to Greece. It was on "4Τροχοι" magazine (one of the best WORLDWIDE), but the data must have been pulled from the Mazda leaflets. I cannt find any European specs now (or Japanese for that matter), but I'm pretty sure I remember correctly

 

I think I'll trust the FSM.

 

I was trying to get the gas light to come on one day, Never did but when i finaly put gas in i put in 17.39 Gal in . I have a 89 GTUs