I ran out of gas driving because my gauge seems to be broken. Today at 300 miles and almost half tank I filled up 5gals to top it off. To be exact with the math I was getting 54 mpg in an 02 civic ex with aem cold air intake dc headers and dc cat back. All highway at 65 mph. Any clue how this happened or if there's something wrong with my car?

 

Weird, Last Friday I pumped 14.2 Gal with 1/8th remaining in the tank, seems impossible considering the fact that our cars have a 13.2 Gal capacity. I called Mass Weights & measures and Shell customer support thinking the stations pumps were out of whack. Anyway, I'm at slightly less than 1/2 a tank right now and I am at 300 miles on the trip od. Something is strange for sure. I typically get about 32 mpg out of it.

 

Could be an inaccurate fuel gauge. There was a TSB for it a while back.


Inaccurate Fuel Gauge Reading 3-4-2005 (05-002)

 

so the only fix for this is to purchase a newer model gauge cluster? cuz my 01 has been doing this for the longest....i just go by miles on the tank and buy gas when i'm around 350 miles on the tank

 

Hmm.. the TSB is only for 2003 and 2004 models with the Visteon clusters. Hadn't read it before posting it.

Regardless, you really shouldn't be getting 54 mpg. I average just under 38.

Some people have claimed to be getting between 40 - 50 miles per gallon in previous threads.

Also, there was one guy who claimed to have fit nearly 16 gallons of fuel into his car. 14.2 is easier to believe.

I don't know that it has to be a newer model cluster, but the TSB calls for a replacement.

 

I just had 3 or 4 components in the EVAP system replaced. Apparently the EVAP canister was FULL of gas because the purge flow solenoid? was stuck open? Anyway that sucked. Liquid fuel def does not belong in that system but I am guessing that it could provide enough volume to carry the mystery excess/extra fuel for some. My CEL came on though.

 

Wait another tank or two and average out the results. If you fill up after a long drive, then the fuel will be hot and you won't be able to put in as much gasoline as you normally would be able to. To get the most accurate fuel reading, you have to fill up your gas tank on a cold engine and usually before the engine has fully warmed up.

 

... what?

 

Hot fuel expands and wants to evaporate, and since the fuel pump (gas station) is designed to cut off when the pressure inside the tank spikes, you'll prematurely stop filling your fuel tank leaving you to believe you burned less fuel than you actually did. The fuel in the tank gets warmed by the engine as you're driving since the fuel in the tank circulates through the fuel lines to the engine and back to the gas tank. Hot fuel=more expansion

 

Hmm, yeah, I dunno. Wouldn't removing the gas cap relieve that pressure?

Generally speaking, when the pump stops, it's because my tank is full. (or at least close to it)

Once in a great while it will stop pumping prematurely, but I can tell how close I am to topping it off by comparing the number of gallons pumped to what my gauge was reading prior to refueling, and I continue to refuel.

1/8th of a tank + four gallons of gas ≠ a full tank. When I'm topping off, the pump usually stops a few times while I'm rounding out the cost. I imagine this is how many people do it.

 

Well unless you're topping off the gas tank until fuel is at the fuel nozzle, there isn't really a way to know for sure. I've seen on cars where after a long drive, it will stop short of a few gallons and in order to get a completely full tank, I have to top it off extremely slowly through a time consuming process. But on a cold car, I can get pretty close to a completely full tank and topping off only yields like at most a gallon more and can be done very easily and quickly since there isn't too much fuel vapor. However, it's also not a good idea to top off the gas tank because you can poison the charcoal canister with actual fuel instead of just fuel vapor.

 

54.1mpg is too good to be true