pryonic Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I bought a brand new 2013 Ford Fiesta Titanium 1.0 litre EcoBoost a few months ago - and I chose this model as I'm looking for a decent tradeoff between power and petrol consumption. I'm in general very happy with my new car- and when driving sensibly(!) with a mixture of city and highway travel I can average around 45.5mpg which I'm relatively happy with. This rises to around 50mpg when doing long purely motorway journeys. However, I've noticed an odd characteristic involving the "Miles Remaining" function of the trip computer. This seems to work ok when the car is full of fuel, basing the remaining miles on the average MPG and my driving style. However, around 50 miles remaining the dashboard fuel warning light illuminates reminding me to fuel up - so far so good - but after this lights up the remaining miles rapidly drops from 50 to 0 in the space of about 18 miles. Surely this cannot be correct? The remaining miles starts off when I refuel at around 400 miles to 0 (depending on my average MPG) but I can barely get 360 miles out of this before miles to 0 reaches 0. Is this just a "feature" of this model of car and engine? Do other owners of this model experience it and get the same average MPGs or is it something I should get the dealer to look at? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmizz93 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I've noticed this in my mk6, it'll take around 25 miles after the first orange light to be displayed to then display around 5miles left.. Have a feeling it may be quite common.To be honest though, I'd rather that then playing Russian roulette with my fuel tank and breaking down in the middle of nowhere! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karl46 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 50 miles to empty equates to around 4 ltrs of fuel, Time to refill, you shouldn't run the tank so empty that you may drag contaminants into the filters. Just treat it as a guide and not a hard and fast mesurement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D13 HPD 95 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 im faily sure this has been tested before, when the trip says your emtpy some cars can acctually have around another 50miles left yes you shouldnt let it get that low due to crap in the tank which will get dragged through the filter blocking that and if it gets through to the injectors could block them too, but i know top gear did it, and a jag went for another 119miles after the trip said 0 when they done a test from france to blackpool, so as its been said its a guide not dead true, i know when my petrol light comes on i can turn the car off and on again and i have more petrol than before so the light doesnt come on. at the end of the day its just a float switch so basic instruments controling a simple needle, the best thing if you want a realibe fuel read out is to add an ultrsonic transducer/receiver and use that rather than a float, fair more accuarte not that had to mount and still will feed the fuel gauge with the volts/mA to drive the scale, or just fill up at 1/8 line Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZS_John Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Like some of the others pointed out. You shouldn't really be letting it run on empty as it's not very good for the engine. Another thing I try to do is not mix fuels, so ie don't get BP ultimate then go to Vpower as I think I heard mixing fuel is bad also, maybe that's just something I've made up in my head but I don't no haha :) I would recommend using the slightly better fuel ie BP Ultimate as I have noticed a massive performance gain and also it does seem to give me 5-10 miles extra but obviously that depends on driving style etc. It may cost a bit more but if you look after your car it will look after you in many ways :D Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattDRX Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Srs? Read that back, dragged into the filter? The filter is then doing it job and no harm done. Ask your Ford garage how many fuel filters they have had to change in the past year. I bet you can count on one hand. Contaminants also sit on the bottom of the tank so irrelevant. Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I always run mine to the 0 mark :p I hate people getting 10 quids worth of fuel. Just get a full tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyntdci Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 dragged into the filter? The filter is then doing it job and no harm done. Ask your Ford garage how many fuel filters they have had to change in the past year. I bet you can count on one hand. Contaminants also sit on the bottom of the tank so irrelevant.. a clogged filter is bad for the car, running issues/performance/mpg the list goes on.... a car runs at it most efficient with a clean filter and good quality diesel/petrol when you run the car low the fuel pump picks up anything that gets in its way, yet another reason not to take the car low.... i never run below quater......... well maybe 80 miles..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattDRX Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 As said contaminants sit on the bottom of the tank, fuel level is irrelevant. Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hi Contaminants in the fuel tank ?????? Fuel is filtered before it enters the car from the filling station pump. There is a filter from the tank to the injectors, There should be no contaminants in the tank in this day and age The fuel is mixed up as you drive along and stop and pull away anyway Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary.J Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Yes there are contaminants in the tanks. Does anyone check the nozzle is perfectly clean when they insert it into the filler neck? If you have an open filler neck, wind can blow small particles into the tank. Bacterial contamination from the water in fuel can also lead to particles in the tank that can clog the filters. Don't think any tank or fuel is perfectly clean, that's why they put filters into a system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hi In a diesel tank on a car that is hardly used yes there may be a bacterial issue A petrol tank will not have any bacterial problems Diesel has water in it hence why the fuel filters need draining at services Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattDRX Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 As said, ask a dealer garage that does Ford servicing how many fuel filters they change. I changed one on my old mk3 astra gsi that had done 130k never been done before, split it open and nothing actually stood out as being dirty, the outside was rotten to !Removed! but the inside was quite clean. I'd find other things to be concerned about with the cars than fuel filters. Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyntdci Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 fuel filters on a derv (what i have) are clased as a service part and ment to be done every 35-40k.... as im a service freak i change mine once a year, just to maintain the running of the car and the fuel delivery to its optimum.... who ever owns a derv i'd always suggest to get it changed at least once every 2 years, if not more.... service and maintenance is a number 1 with a car..... you look after it, it will do the same in return..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTheDog Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I bought a brand new 2013 Ford Fiesta Titanium 1.0 litre EcoBoost a few months ago - and I chose this model as I'm looking for a decent tradeoff between power and petrol consumption. I'm in general very happy with my new car- and when driving sensibly(!) with a mixture of city and highway travel I can average around 45.5mpg which I'm relatively happy with. This rises to around 50mpg when doing long purely motorway journeys. However, I've noticed an odd characteristic involving the "Miles Remaining" function of the trip computer. This seems to work ok when the car is full of fuel, basing the remaining miles on the average MPG and my driving style. However, around 50 miles remaining the dashboard fuel warning light illuminates reminding me to fuel up - so far so good - but after this lights up the remaining miles rapidly drops from 50 to 0 in the space of about 18 miles. Surely this cannot be correct? The remaining miles starts off when I refuel at around 400 miles to 0 (depending on my average MPG) but I can barely get 360 miles out of this before miles to 0 reaches 0. Is this just a "feature" of this model of car and engine? Do other owners of this model experience it and get the same average MPGs or is it something I should get the dealer to look at? Since driving my car for a month now, I have noticed the same rapid decline in the remaining miles left. The low fuel chime kicks in at around 50 miles left. Today it went from an indicated 50 miles to a reading of 14miles in around 10 actual miles travelled?. I'm not too impressed with the economy so far. I have been driving like a Vicar on a Sunday afternoon on two fill ups to see what can be acheived. First run 338 miles at 37.5mpg and second run 346 miles at 40.5 mpg. Both runs mostly urban and keeping revs lower than 2k with stop start active. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyntdci Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 you do need to run the engine in to get optimum mpg..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Since driving my car for a month now, I have noticed the same rapid decline in the remaining miles left. The low fuel chime kicks in at around 50 miles left. Today it went from an indicated 50 miles to a reading of 14miles in around 10 actual miles travelled?. I'm not too impressed with the economy so far. I have been driving like a Vicar on a Sunday afternoon on two fill ups to see what can be acheived. First run 338 miles at 37.5mpg and second run 346 miles at 40.5 mpg. Both runs mostly urban and keeping revs lower than 2k with stop start active. How many miles has this car covered ? Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTheDog Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 How many miles has this car covered ? Jamie Hi JamieIt's covered 6k so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Wait until it has done at least 10-12k before trying for good mpg results Jamie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 This is from experiance because everything will have started to bed in, the car will bed in according to how you drive it, Drive it like a nun and it will bed in slower, if the car never gets revved up the the limit occasionally, Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTheDog Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Jamie This is a second hand car, so not sure how it's been driven in the past. I'm not going to be driving it like a Vicar for too much longer, just testing to see how much I could squeeze out of a tank full. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Best thing to do then is to disconnect the battery for at least half an hour so it forgets the previous persons driving habits ;-) Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattDRX Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 What does that achieve? Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlefiesta Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 This is a very interesting conversation, i have just got my fiesta on saturday and dont know when the warning light comes on for fuel it came on today on the motorway and just hoped i could get back home, it does seem to come up at a odd time though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 What does that achieve? Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app Hiya What it achieves is, it clears the cars ecu thus allowing the car to re learn the new drivers traits Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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