Petrol Guage Accuracy on a 3.2?

[TheQuietOne]

Hi,

I'm on my fifth tank since buying my NSX. I still haven't worked out the petrol guage though! It seems to say empty on the dial (no orange light I assume though) but when I fill it up it only takes about 54 litres. I read in the handbook that it has a 70 litle tank - is this true and if so how can you work out how much you have left when it reaches the bottom of the red?

Sorry to ask such a mundane question, but it is really frustrating me at the moment as I'm not sure all the time if I'm running on vapours or 15 litres of fuel!

Cheers,

Matt.

[Ronny Lucassen]

Hello

I have a 3.2 T car fir 3 weeks now I only drove from the south off france where i bought the car back to Holland. I know petrol gauges on honda cars are allways strange thinks.

Att first you think this thing is not comming dawn and att once itt falls like the devel, But i know some people with other nsx cars and the tell me that you can drive untill the empty lamp goes on without any problem.

SO why don't we try this on our cars??

greatings ronny

[TheQuietOne]

Hello,

You could be right. I didn't think it had a fuel light though, and I didn't want to find out the hard way!

I can imagine it was a nice drive back from picking up your car! A good run to get to know it properly.

It is just the thought of the damage running out of petrol will do if you risk it!

Cheers,

Matt.

[SimonB]

I went through this "trust barrier" when I got mine.

There _is_ a light. I think there are about 9litres left when it comes on - so maybe 50 miles if you're very very lucky.

[tommy]

yer there is a fuel light, it comes on, acording to my hand book, at 11lts=2.4 gal. i dont know about older cars but mine is next to the flashing green key light for the immobilizer system

[MattS]

Interesting. The guage in my car certainly isn't linear either: The first 'half' of the tank lasts a lot longer than the second half according to the guage!

[mcibuk]

It could be that the "sender" unit isn't working correctly. I had my dealer check out my gauge due to light never coming on - the snder is broken which will cost around £100 to fix. One of thes edays i'll sort it out!

[markc]

This may well be a "feature" of the 3.2's (if not all NSX's?), as my 3.2 exhibits similar characteristics.

Fuel gauge operates normally for the first 2/3rd's then quickly decends into the red.
I've pushed it further with each tankfull by driving around with a spare fuel can in the boot. I hate refuelling early and yes I know about dirt at the bottom of the tank potentially being sucked up.
Last attempt saw the gauge clean through the red section and well into the "0" marking. The warning light was on for at least 50 miles.

Still only got 67 ltrs in!!

[tommy]

i dont think it realy matters how full or empty the tank is, any dirt will settle to the bottom of the tank anyway when the car is parked, so it would still get picked up.

[NSXGB]

Interesting. The guage in my car certainly isn't linear either: The first 'half' of the tank lasts a lot longer than the second half according to the guage!

This is surely down to the shape of the tank?

They definately do have a low petrol light but it only comes on when you're at the bottom of the red.

[TheQuietOne]

I just took a leap of faith following all your comments and let the guage work its way down into the 0 - and hew presto the light started fading in and out! I still only managed to squeeze 64 litres in, but that is about right for me!

I managed 385 miles of varied driving, as this is my daily drive, and it gets a couple of good motorway runs a week to eeek out the mpg so not too bad!

Thanks to everyone for their comments...

[710]

X626BLB
385 miles!! Wow, I wish I got that. If I keep my foot out of it, I can get 600km from 60 litres (375miles), but that almost never happens. More like 500km (312 miles).
Oh well, better to have fun and burn the petrol up now while it’s still cheap…
Tommy, I think you’re right. But I think there is a lot less dirt in there than some of you think.
Peter (a thinker today)(the exception)

[sportyking]

I was just about to post about my fuel gauge and then suddenly thought to check old posts. It's obviously a deliberate ploy by Honda to build in some European character (faults you can live with). My S2000 was bad but with the NSX I am still losing the battle of nerves to get the light on, and I only normally go to a Petrol Station when the car is hoovering the bottom of the tank. Must resist. So far on the red with 260 miles of very spirited winter driving and a fair bit of round town work so no complaints in that department.

[simonprelude]

A can of fuel in the boot helps with the trust issue for the start.

The light does come on and I have driven circa 50 miles with the fuel light on.

I get anywhere from 200-300 miles from about 50 litres which is the usual fill up.


I was just about to post about my fuel gauge and then suddenly thought to check old posts. It's obviously a deliberate ploy by Honda to build in some European character (faults you can live with). My S2000 was bad but with the NSX I am still losing the battle of nerves to get the light on, and I only normally go to a Petrol Station when the car is hoovering the bottom of the tank. Must resist. So far on the red with 260 miles of very spirited winter driving and a fair bit of round town work so no complaints in that department.

[britlude]

I've had my '92 auto since september, and I still haven't been brave enough to go far enough past the red for the petrol light to come on.... and i have checked the bulb is ok!!!!

[duncan]

Whether or not you trust your fuel gauge, my understanding (from prime) is that the low level warning light is separate to the gauge and works by a sensor going "cold" when it becomes exposed to air as the fuel level recedes. i.e its on or not on at a fixed depth rather than a combination of varying resistance in the sender, varing initial voltage in the system and the characteristics of the gauge.

[TheQuietOne]

Thanks for the interesting facts...certainly would make sense, as I can't see why they would design a guage that is so inaccurate and then tie in the warining system to it, if that was so the light on mine would be on with about 120 miles still to go!

My advice is trust the light not the guage!

[britlude]

Hurrah, managed to leave it long enough for the light to go on!!! went way past the red, to the point I was wondering if it actually worked at all!