Club 80-90 Forums

My Mrs just drove from Oxford to Preston (180 miles) in our '91 T25 (2.1i). She put £30 in the tank and ran out of petrol on the M6 a few miles before Preston (luckily I had put a full jerry can in this morning).

The engine seems to be in very good knick, not smoky or oily- smooth and easy starts etc. Does this sound normal for mileage?

£30 is around 6 gallons, that works out at just short of 30mpg, yes there is something wrong with, its doing far too much mileage per gallon, these do on average 24-26 mpg, you are very lucky

sounds about right,
£30 is just over 6 gallons these days
25-30 miles per gallon you are going to get between 160 and 190 miles

Higher spec vans have a fuel gauge-maybe you could retrofit one to yours?
seriously though,always a good idea to carry some spare fuel,being stranded ,especially a lone female isn't a good idea

steve8090 wrote:£30 is around 6 gallons, that works out at just short of 30mpg, yes there is something wrong with, its doing far too much mileage per gallon, these do on average 24-26 mpg, you are very lucky

Lol, that's what I was hoping you'd say. I'll let her know

working fuel gauge and occasionally looking at it is a good idea..
17 around town 26 on a run is about it...

prob used a little more than 6 gallons....if you had run out, you went through the reserve as well.....how empty was it before you put the £30 in??

Emma

This is the point really. We've never been sure about the accuracy of the petrol gauge. We've owned plenty of VWs (also currently have a 71 westy and a 91 Jetta) and the T25 is the only one where the guage just doesn't seem to be that accurate.

It seems to take £20 just to get it out of the red. Does that sound right? It's an SA microbus, how big IS the tank?

Mine only takes about 55l from the red to a pump cutting out. Eather theres a 15l reserve or the tank won't fill properly. Usally gets over 400miles before its "empty" again though , often more, the joys of diesel!

I think SA busses are around 80-85 litres, so you could get a shock filling one of them! £20 is say about 20l or 1/4 of the tank so that could well be normal as most vehicles have regions on the gfuage that seem to last for ages and other bits that run out quick - the top 1/8th of my tank goes almost instantly. I drive 2 old landys with seemingly identical fuel systems, one guzzles 2/3 of its tank in 50 miles and then keeps going for ages on the rest (though its a thursty petrol so I don't trust it! The other does over 100miles on a full tank and then it progressively drops down to empty - its just their own carictor and it varys between vehicles) At least you now know where "tank dry" is on the guage, don't let it get that far. Normally they are 60/70l for 2wd/syncro (which in my opinion is still a shock when you realise a tank full cost £10 more than it did when you bought the van 8 months ago .)

How much does it take to fill it??
Could be its got the 80L SA tank on it.. then the reserve would be bigger..

well if £20 only just gets it out of the red from empty, then thats 18L... prob about right..

Suppose the real lesson is that when it hits the red you ought to put some in within the next 30-40 miles...

It dont make any difference if you put 20 quid in 3 times a week or 60 quid in once a week.. just more inconvenience and potential to run out of fuel at the wrong time..

A woman was killed on the motorway a few years ago.. her husband wasnt shocked that it had finally happened as she used to run out of fuel at least 2 times a week.. only ever putting a fiver in here and there...
She ran out of fuel on a busy winters eve round near Heathrow 5-6 lanes of 60mph traffic (so I am told) traffic went everywhere and a truck only 2 or 3 vehicles behind couldnt avoid her ran into her.. Police investigation said it was an unavoidable accident from the truck drivers aspect and she had been running out of fuel on borrowed time....

I was a bit paranoid about running out of petrol as the gauge seemed very vague.
Next time i had a full 60l of fuel in the tank (mine is the standard 60l tank) i watched the fuel gauge carefully and ran it way down into the red. Infact , when it was dangerously low I forgot about it for a few miles!
Managed to make it to the pump but still only got 50l in it!!!
Have carried on watching it go well in the red and never seem to get more that 50-55 litres back in.
Kind of suggests that the fuel gauge has a very large reserve!

My fuel gauge only goes up to about half way no matter how much I put in. Very depressing really. And then when it starts to drop you can almost see it moving. It's like a race to see if I can get home before it goes into the red...

Anyway, to the point. Is it tricky to replace the sender? Does the tank have to come off? Theres' lots of tubes and breather tanks and stuff isn't there....

My van does about 150 miles on the 'top' half of the guage and about 45 on the 'bottom' half.
The guage is worn out but I dont want to drop the tank to change it.
I think the previous owner used to put 20 liters in then run it nearly dry then 20 liters again. this would wear the lower section of the sender out.

As above 18 miles per gallon around town. 27 on a motorway run.

had a run to the north yorks coast and back at the weekend, all on petrol, as the LPG tank is out at the mo, 470km (291 miles) used 11 gall. or 50 ltrs, so i worked it out as about 26 mile to the gallon, which from what people have written above seems about right for a 2.1
i sooooo need the gas rigging up again!

Don't forget to factor in the recent rise in fuel costs when doing quick brain maths!!

Mrs Hutch's daily driver (1.9tdi golf) now uses £5 per day on communing fuel which was about £3.50 a bit ago!

Whilst not wanting to hijack this thread, I do have a related question. What about a 1.6Td hightop? Haven't had to fill it up yet though will have to today and would like to know tank capacity, if there is a reserve, and probable MPG and miles per tank too.

Like many of you, it went for ages without the fuel indicator moving, then began to drop. Either it has a massive tank or .... I need to get used to how it registers capacity.