Fuel Tank Capacity

[GLPoomobile 958]

According to the owners handbook, the GTi fuel tank capacity is approx 50 litres or 11 gallons.

 

Does anybody know:

 

1. How much petrol usually remains in the tank when the low fuel warning light comes on solidly (I'm after actual answers and not guesses, although I appreciate that the sender is a bit innacurate)

 

2. Does the listed capacity - 50 litres - account for the entire tank, or is it 50 litres plus a bit extra in reserve for when the warning light comes on?

 

 

Just interested as I'm trying to be really anal and calculate my MPG for last weekends jaunt up to Edinburgh. Currently looks to be 38-39 mpg, which is not bad on a 1.6 box!

[WildCards 0]

I paid a visit to the petrol station last night with my 20L jerry can as the warning light in my car is flickering and the needle was looking pretty low (The car isn't road legal).

After filling her up in my garage I was surprised when the needle settled on a shade over half a tank. I assumed it was a 40L tank without knowing the proper figures.

 

So anyway, morale of the story is... i'd like to know too

Edited February 2, 2007 by WildCards

[Higgy 0]

I believe it is 50 ltr incl reserve.

 

My light seems very accurate and when I fill up soon after it stays on, I can put say 44-45 ltr in the tank.

 

Therefore 5 ltr reserve.

 

My understanding is light flickers when there is 5-8ltr in the tank, then stays on when there is under 5ltr.

 

On my 405, when the light comes on, you still have 15ltr left in the tank!!!!! reps cars!! I hate filling up its 70ltr tank

 

Higgy.

 

P.S. On a full tank including a 100mile trip at about 55mph (fog!) I got just under 33mpg on my Mi with 1.6 box. Not bad considering its a weekend fun car.

Edited February 2, 2007 by Higgy

[GLPoomobile 958]

P.S. On a full tank including a 100mile trip at about 55mph (fog!) I got just under 33mpg on my Mi with 1.6 box. Not bad considering its a weekend fun car.

 

I would expect more than that at that speed and with the Mi having better management

 

EDIT: ignore me, I misunderstood what you were saying. I guess you mean you were giving it the heavy right foot a lot of the time, except the 100 mile cruise at 55mph. Not bad if you were.

Edited February 2, 2007 by GLPoomobile

[Batfink 201]

surely theres enough variation to completely make your mpg calculations inaccurate from the gauge. Surely the only way is to brim the tank, reset the counter then when you fill up to the brim, take a note of the amount of fuel you add and the milage.

[Grim.Badger 15]

It's a 50 litre tank full capacity, but you'll never be able to use the full 50 litres.

I've filled my tank from the point of the car stuttering to full and only ever manage to fit in 45 litres.

So you can discount 5 litres as unusable, then the light comes on at 6.5 litres (read it somewhere but can't remember where).

Basically I worked it out that you've got 40 litres in between a full tank and the fuel pump whining when it's stuggling to find any fuel.

[GLPoomobile 958]

surely theres enough variation to completely make your mpg calculations inaccurate from the gauge. Surely the only way is to brim the tank, reset the counter then when you fill up to the brim, take a note of the amount of fuel you add and the milage.

 

 

I'm well aware of how to take accurate MPG measurements, and agree with the above.

 

I was interested in knowing how much 'reserve' we are supposed to have as I assumed it to be roughly a gallon, enough for about 35 miles. I drove approx 20 miles on the light when I got up to the A74(M) and then managed to get to the services at Abington.

[GLPoomobile 958]

I'm well aware of how to take accurate MPG measurements, and agree with the above.

 

Humble pie time

 

Although I know how you should measure this stuff to get the most accurate answer, it doesn't help if your maths totally suck ass!!

 

Looks like I actually got just over 34mpg. Still not bad for an old 1.6 with an engine that could be better, a passenger, plus about another passenger's weight in belongings on the return trip.

[MiD 0]

I've only had a GTi for a few weeks so cannot really comment on the fuel capacity but on my STDT which I would presume has the same tank I have never managed to squeeze 40 litres into it. When diesel was nearly a £1 per gallon I think the largest fuel bill I had was about £35 which would be under 40 litres. I've always assumed the capacity was the equivalent of 8 gallons.

 

As an aside the furthest I've gone from the fuel light staring to flash to filling up was 70-80 miles, stuck on the A9 between Perth and Aviemore at 05:00 am in the morning meant I had no choice. At one point I was driving under 50 miles an hour and getting in the way of artics going up hill. Not a palce to run out of fuel on a winterd day.

[MiD 0]

Having checked a number of sites which state the fuel capacity of a 205 is 50 litres or 11 gallons I am puzzled. Having undertaken about a dozen 500 mile trips in the last year I have never been able to make the journey on one tank of fuel. I have always had to fill up somewhere around the 400 mile mark. If I had an 11 gallon tank I should be able to make it on one tank of diesel. 500 miles using 11 gallons would give me an average of 45 mpg which should be well within the possibilities for a healthy turbo diesel.

[welshpug 1,657]

Having checked a number of sites which state the fuel capacity of a 205 is 50 litres or 11 gallons I am puzzled. Having undertaken about a dozen 500 mile trips in the last year I have never been able to make the journey on one tank of fuel. I have always had to fill up somewhere around the 400 mile mark. If I had an 11 gallon tank I should be able to make it on one tank of diesel. 500 miles using 11 gallons would give me an average of 45 mpg which should be well within the possibilities for a healthy turbo diesel.

 

 

there was probably still a gallon of diesel left in the tank when you chickened out of the orange light roulette.

[Grim.Badger 15]

I could also squeeze 45 litres into my old diesel 205, from spluttering to full. The warning light comes on at 10 litres on the diesel though instead of 6.5 like the GTi (really need to find where I read this, may have been the handbook)

[Guest BrainFluid]

Looks like my next trip to Glasgow will be in the Gti on dreaded petrol. Its going to cost a bomb but I'ld like to know what mpg the car is going to get on 450mile journey. Stil it will be nice to show the world such the car

 

I find the same with my Td as you MiD. Its rare that I can get more than 35ltrs in that tank with the light on. There always seems to be around 15 litres in there.

 

A 205 Td gets 40MPG at 75mph and 60MPG at 56mph. But thats book figures (ish) Does anyone know the book figures for a 1.6 205 Gti?

Edited February 3, 2007 by BrainFluid

[Guest BrainFluid]

there was probably still a gallon of diesel left in the tank when you chickened out of the orange light roulette.

 

Ha ha funny.

[lagonda 42]

Hope these details help, but remember tank manufactured capacities may vary slightly, & if it's possible for pump heights to vary even slightly, that will make a fair difference to the amount of fuel you can actually use. My Lagonda has a 20 gallon tank & it certainly takes 20 gallons, but it won't pick up the last 2 gallons!

 

Anyway! I always fill to the brim, set trip & calculate mpg from that. Checking my records, the most I've ever squeezed in at any ONE time in my CTi is 47.59 litres. Gauge lied to me once & I ran out of petrol on the A16 near Dunkirk. Nice man called in by the gendarmes put a hugely expensive & measured 10 litres in, & I drove to the nearest petrol station, less than 5 miles, & put in 39.65 litres. So a pretty accurate guesstimate for my tank would be it holds roughly 49.5 useable litres.

I did check the warning light once, on a long journey where my average consumption came out at 31.09 mpg. The warning light started flickering at 274 miles, & was on all the time at 308 miles. On that consumption, it would seem I would only have had another 30 miles in hand before running out, assuming 49.5 useable litres. Even the whole 50 litres would only mean 34 miles. In other words there seems to be little margin if petrol stations are scarce. My understanding was with most cars, once the warning light was on permanently, you had around 50 miles to go before running out. To be fair, they probably use the same senders in all 205 tanks.

If it's any reassurance, the running out of petrol experience was, shall we say, polite! What actually happened was I found the car would drive fine, but gradually wanted to go slower & slower. On the A16 we were doing 90. Then I found it had slowed to 80, & it wouldn't accelerate. I was convinced it was the car playing up yet again, petrol gauge was reading reasonably high (but warning light was on). Eventually we were crawling in 3rd gear on the hard shoulder. This was over around 20 miles, so those are the signs to watch for if you are running seriously low. It won't be fine one moment, dead the next, it will run for some time, but with reducing power!

[Grim.Badger 15]

If it's any reassurance, the running out of petrol experience was, shall we say, polite! What actually happened was I found the car would drive fine, but gradually wanted to go slower & slower. On the A16 we were doing 90. Then I found it had slowed to 80, & it wouldn't accelerate. I was convinced it was the car playing up yet again, petrol gauge was reading reasonably high (but warning light was on). Eventually we were crawling in 3rd gear on the hard shoulder. This was over around 20 miles, so those are the signs to watch for if you are running seriously low. It won't be fine one moment, dead the next, it will run for some time, but with reducing power!

 

That's weird, I've never had that Both of my 205s (diesel and petrol) have driven fine and then started jerking or stuttering as they run out of fuel (gaps in the fuel line), but then I suppose I've never been doing 90 whilst running out of fuel

[Anthony 1,003]

In my experience from most of the 205 GTi's I've had, you'll have around 8 litres of fuel in the tank when the light starts to flicker, and about 5 litres when it comes on solidly. The light will come on before this with hills and corners thrown into the equasion though.

 

Fuel tank capacity is 50 litres plus whatever you can get in the filler neck.

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

Anone else noticed that the exhaust cuts through the fuel tank so some fuel stays away from the pump. E.g. it can be spluttering but still have fuel in it...

[GLPoomobile 958]

Yes. Which probably expains why you can be hovering around the empty mark on a gentle cruise, but as sone as you've done a few swift corners the guage will suddenly jump up by about an eigth of a tank!

Edited February 5, 2007 by GLPoomobile

[Anthony 1,003]

Anone else noticed that the exhaust cuts through the fuel tank so some fuel stays away from the pump. E.g. it can be spluttering but still have fuel in it...

I've noticed it, but can't say that it seems to cause a problem - certainly I've had the tank down to 1½ litres before with the pump whining away and yet it was still driving fine, despite the last corner I'd been round being a sharpish right (which would have put the fuel over to the opposite side of the tank to the pump) which made the engine cough and splutter for a few seconds whilst the pump picked up air....

[number2301 1 1 Cars]

Haynes says 45l plus 5l reserve which sounds about right to me.

 

As for running out of fuel, all three times I've had it happen its spluttered for a few seconds then died.

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

Well just drained the 309 tank (using the fuel pump) and then took the tank off. Got best part of a gallon out of the tank once it was removed. If driving it may swish it around to pick that up though.