On the road again (homeward bound)

[plonq]

In spite of my concerns at the Ohio end of the trip, the car seems to be holding up -- though I'm reserving the end of this post to voice a grievance I have with this car.

The gas gauge was on the red line as we were leaving atara's parents, and we debated whether we would have enough gas to make it to one of the stations by the turnpike. The debate was quickly answered when the "fuel low" light came on a mile down the road. It's a good thing it came on when it did, because that was the last station before the next town. O.o

If there is one word that can describe the long drive from Ohio to Winnipeg, it is long; it's about 1300 miles by the route we take. Fortunately we were fairly fresh when we hit the road this morning and we manage to put close to 900 of those behind us. If we get a decently early start tomorrow it might still be light by the time we get home (but I'm not counting on it). I must go now - I feel a coma coming on.

Oh wait - the car rant. I don't know how common a feature this is in cars, but the gas gauge in my car is not linear. I have always noticed that the lower it gets, the faster it goes down. We stopped for gas earlier today when the needle had just hit the 1/2 point, and the car took just under 10 gallons to fill. It's a 13 gallon tank, do the math. When the needle gets to the halfway mark, my tank is almost 5/6 drained. It's no wonder I sometimes have trouble figuring out how much farther I can go as the needle drops. =/

Comments

[vichan.livejournal.com]

Every car I've ever driven has been the same way. My theory (most likely incorrect, but it sounds good enough) is that when the gas is lower, it's working harder to get the fuel it needs, and therefore sucks it up faster. :)

Like I said - probably wrong. But good luck trying to find a car that doesn't do that. :)

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

My theory is that most gas tanks are narrower on the bottom, and the gauge only measures the level of gas in the tank. Therefore, most cars seem to stay on full forever, the it plummets past a half tank. More fuel is held in the upper half.

[marmelmm.livejournal.com]

Pretty much any car I've ever driven has had a funky gauge. Generally, the low fuel light, if any, is more accurate than the gauge.

Quicky explanation: A fuel gauge sender (at least on the Mercedes; presumably, other makes are similar) uses a float linked to a variable resistor (in the Mercedes' case, a strip of nichrome wire). This can corrode and deteriorate over time, giving variable results.

The low fuel light, OTOH, is a separate contact which is closed when the float reaches a certain level. As it's a simpler mechanism, it's more accurate and dependable.

HTH!

[atara.livejournal.com]

I just wish that the low fuel light floater thing was a bit more of a warning. In Plonq's car, when the low fuel light comes in, you are ZOMGoutofgasgetsomeNOW! Like, you have less than a mile of gas left. That's just silly.

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

When I was working at the golf course many years ago, we had some carts (mainly maintenance and beer carts) that ran on gas (the others ran on batteries). To fill the tank, simply flip the seat and stick the nozzle directly into the fully visible tank.

Now, I don't know if car tanks are the same as golf cart tanks, but these tanks were triangular in shape. Large at the top, and tappers down to a small size at the bottom. This leads me to believe that the gas meter simply takes a vertical reading (ie. straight down) without taking into account the actual volume. Thus, the first couple inches would represent half the tank, and the bottom couple inches would represent 1/10th of a tank.

[dingotush.livejournal.com]

Every car I've had has done that, until the most recent one. Car makers finally seem to have figured that electronics are cheap, and the trip computer compensates for the shape of the tank and can tell you how far you can go with the fuel you have left. Combine this with a GPS that can tell you how far it is to the next petrol station, and life is a lot easier.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Many cars are like that, I HATE it >.<