I've had a couple of odd experiences recently with the fuel counter.

I knew i was low on petrol but the counter showed i had just under 20 miles left in the tank. I knew the petrol station was 10 miles (I was on the M5 motorway, a journey I do everyday) so decided I would be fine and carried on.

For some strange reason, the counter started reducing and within a minute or 2, the counter had gone from 20 miles down to zero. As if it was counting seconds and not miles.

It was a major panic for me as the services was still around 7/8 miles away by this point and I had no idea if the car would stop.

It stayed on zero for the rest of the journey and I made it to the services but I have no idea why the fuel counter dropped so rapidly. This is not the first time its happened either.

Is there a reserve in the tank even though it showed there was nothing in it? How far can you drive when you hit zero on the fuel counter? It made me wonder whether it is set to do that as a scare tactic!!

It's happened to me before, counted down normally until 20miles remaining then went down at the rate of 1 mile a second!

They will be a reserve in the tank and the computer isn't very accurate.

Did you fill it right up? If so the petrol tank should be 42l, I'm guessing you only got 40/41l in?

Mines has done this before as well, tho mine is a diesel i think the tank might be smaller?

Mines has done this before as well, tho mine is a diesel i think the tank might be smaller?

Correct :)

Petrol = 42l

Diesel = 40l

I think it's just an estimate of how far you can travel based on your current economy and the fuel left in the tank.

I personally don't trust the range reading on the computer, just keep an eye on ye olde fuel gauge.

There is a reserve in the tank, the diesel is not smaller, it needs more when it runs out, the tanks are the same size, just if you run out of diesel, you will need 7 ltrs to get it going again!