Fuel warning

[Rebecca NM]

I had a surprising thing happen to me driving home on the highway Sunday. I was watching the distance left along the trip and checking my fuel level along the way. I was about 20 miles from home when all of a sudden I got an alert on my screen that I was on zero fuel. I have twice before gotten warnings of having 50 miles left fuel wise. The sudden zero fuel left message scared me. I made it to a gas station fine (although white knuckles) . Does anyone have any experience with this and if so what needs to happen?

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[davidg4781]

How much fuel was in your tank? Were you close to empty?

That distance to empty goes based on your average fuel usage. If you were really low and happened to be accelerating (using more fuel than the average) I can see where it would show that. My MPGs are low in town but if I get on the highway going to a town about 50 miles away, I usually end up with the same miles to empty when I get there.

 

[CletusVanDam]

Something to give you peace-of-mind: The HRG guy did a video on YouTube driving the BS with 0 miles left until empty. I think he went about 30 miles before it started to sputter.

 

[Mark S.]

I had a surprising thing happen to me driving home on the highway Sunday. I was watching the distance left along the trip and checking my fuel level along the way. I was about 20 miles from home when all of a sudden I got an alert on my screen that I was on zero fuel. I have twice before gotten warnings of having 50 miles left fuel wise. The sudden zero fuel left message scared me. I made it to a gas station fine (although white knuckles) . Does anyone have any experience with this and if so what needs to happen?

Can you answer a couple of questions?

1. How many miles had you driven on that tank?
2. Had you gotten any low-fuel notifications on this tank before you got the zero-fuel warning?
3. Do you remember the last miles-remaining indication you saw before you got the zero-fuel warning?

 

[Rebecca NM]

Answers to the questions above:
I was driving between 75 and 82 miles per hour on the highway from El Paso to Albuquerque.
I got no 50 miles let in the fuel tank. I had gotten this warning on two other trips before.
The last fuel remaining amount before the zero was about 90. I had less distance to go, about 40 or close. I thought I would have enough fuel left that I wouldn’t have to gas up until the next day.

 

[Rebecca NM]

Another answer to a question:
I had about 400 miles on that tank of gas.

 

[Mark S.]

Another answer to a question:
I had about 400 miles on that tank of gas.

The EPA estimates the Bronco Sport Badlands (2.0L) will achieve 26 mpg for highway driving. If you divide 400 miles by 26 mpg you get 15.4 gallons. Your gas tank is 15.5 16 gallons. Combined city/highway driving should yield approx 25 mpg, which would give you right at 400 miles for a tankful. Based on this, I would say the tank-empty warning was accurate. I can't explain why you didn't get a 50-miles remaining warning.

Correction: Fuel tank size is 16 gallons. That would leave a bit more than half a gallon, or about 15 more miles before running dry.

 

[GJarrett]

Something to give you peace-of-mind: The HRG guy did a video on YouTube driving the BS with 0 miles left until empty. I think he went about 30 miles before it started to sputter.

I've owned/still own a '99 Explorer, '08 Expedition, '17 Ecoboost Mustang, and now this '24 Bronco Sport. I "tested" the 0 mile reading on the other three Fords and all of them had about 25 or so miles left after the 0 showed on the readout. I suppose Ford programs in a little extra margin on that estimated mileage left readout into all of its vehicles.

 

[metalbender]

The big question is. Why would you let the tank get that low in the first place ? It's just as easy to keep the top half full as the bottom. I learned my lesson back in 1972 on a trip. Tank was around a quarter, stopped for the night. Get gas in the morning and be on our way. WRONG. Power outage in the morning in the town we were at. See where I'm going ??

 

[wireman]

The big question is. Why would you let the tank get that low in the first place ? It's just as easy to keep the top half full as the bottom. I learned my lesson back in 1972 on a trip. Tank was around a quarter, stopped for the night. Get gas in the morning and be on our way. WRONG. Power outage in the morning in the town we were at. See where I'm going ??

Plus it's hard on the electric fuel pump letting the level get that low.

 

[BSBB4Les]

Running your gas to that level will eventually burn the electric fuel pump up. I don't know how much a replacement of that unit costs, but I don't think that would be covered under the warranty, since there are those warnings. I myself fill up at a quarter tank religiously (seems to happen on most Sundays)!

 

[John Comer]

I had a surprising thing happen to me driving home on the highway Sunday. I was watching the distance left along the trip and checking my fuel level along the way. I was about 20 miles from home when all of a sudden I got an alert on my screen that I was on zero fuel. I have twice before gotten warnings of having 50 miles left fuel wise. The sudden zero fuel left message scared me. I made it to a gas station fine (although white knuckles) . Does anyone have any experience with this and if so what needs to happen?

 

[John Comer]

I also had a similar issue yesterday. it started with 50 miles to empty. then it started counting down very fast. Also indicated no bars in fuel gage. Stopped and restarted it went back to 1/4 full
Hope something is no going out.

 

[KidWiff]

Usually, at a 1/4 tank, i start thinking about filling up again and almost always fill up by the time the computer shows a range of about 75 miles.... saves some worry, and also running the tank down to nothing, which isn't good.

 

[DWG]

I noticed that OP has a Badlands Like me which means the same dashboard fuel gauge. The fuel gauge on the Badlands uses a series of dashes that disappear as the fuel is used. From a visual point it is not as accurate as a traditional fuel gauge as far as trying to figure out how much fuel is left. For instance at half a tank the fuel gauge shows 4 bars remaining but actually you can have anywhere from a half a tank to 3/8 of a tank remaining. With a 16 gallon tank each bar lasts about 2 gallons so with one bar left you could have as much as 2 gallons left to 0 gallons left plus any reserve if the gas gauge works that way.

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