B6 S4 fuel gauge

[marctwo]

How crap is that??!!

Setting off to drive MrsTwo and the two JrTwos from London to Coventry on Saturday, DIS says 25 miles range and gauage not yet in the red, on my way to the petrol station. Car starts shaking and hesitating. Engine warning light comes on, I pull into Tesco car park and wait for the AA. I am convinced it's a coil pack. AA guy gets there, checks the coil packs, checks fuses, plugs in laptop. Missfire cylinder 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. When was the last time you filled up? Oh. Cue me running to petrol station in thunder shower and coming back to find that I had run out of petrol.

What ever happened to having a reserve? In future I shall be filling up when it gets to anything below 50 miles on the DIS.

[marctwo]

When I started it that morning the fuel warning came on. This was the first time it did so and you would expect it to do this well in advance of running out. On my old S3, I could run it to zero and it would still work fine.

I did read somewhere that the tank size was smaller on the later S4s. After running out I put 5L in from the can and another 50L from the pump so this would tally. Also, I often seem to find that the pump cuts out when trying to fill up, even if their is plenty more to go. It seems you need to be very careful about the angle you put the nozzle in. Does anyone else notice this?

[marctwo]

Mabe my fuel sensor/gauge needs recalibrating if such a thing can be done?

[marctwo]

EC2 said:

Had my range down to 10 miles quite a few times with no issues. Had you been driving gently and then really sped up for the last few miles? If so then the DIS would have been confused.

I'd been on the motorway for most of the journey and then the last few miles in town. The thing is, even ignoring the DIS, the gauge was not showing empty, maybe aroud 10%?

[marctwo]

TonyHetherington said:

What woul help is knowing if it will do it again. Next time youget near put a gallon can in boot

And hope I am not in lane 3 of the M25 when it runs out!

[marctwo]

mel said:

Believe me you get enough warning it's about to go when it coughs and splutters (oh the voice of experience)

I had about 5 minutes of intermittent engine warning light / imbalance vibration / no power. After that, and a couple of starts and revs from the AA guy, it was totally dead and would not start.

Other symptoms included air con fans always running at minimum (which I also had when my battery died) and a whining sound when I first started it up.

Once I put petrol in it everything was back to normal.

[marctwo]

mel said:

I suspect there's something else, I can only base this on the experience of running one out of fuel but it basically coughed spluttered stopped, started again did a few hundred yards coughed spluttered stopped, no lights, no imbalance, no loss of power, just a normal running out of petrol feeling. (but I will say that the air con was off because I knew I was running on vapour and I was driving like a nun trying to get every last drop out of it)

I know what you are saying, but once I filled it up, everything was fine. Also, I just had AVS2 and there was no mention of any issues so fingers crossed.