Not a matter of life and death...I'm just curious. How much gas is left in the tank when the "miles to empty" displays "FUEL"? The manual says 1.5 gallons (I think), but whenever I fill up, I can't put more than ~12 or 13gallons in the tank. If the capacity is 15.8 gallons, the math doesn't add up. I'm curious as to whether others have noticed this (or cared) and what you think the explanation is.

 

Check this link out:
http://s40concepts.net/forum/index.p...d002f0ebbbba09

 

I had a similar problem when I first bought my '01 S40. The fuellight would come on, yet I'd only be able to fit 10 gallons into the 16 gallon tank.

The stealership did some sort of software upgrade and calibration and fixed it in 30 minutes. I'll check the invoice later and report back.

Edited to add: When I had this work done in 2003, the stealership invoice referenced Tech Note 38-09 "Fuel Gauge Calibration." It was done under warranty, took 0.4 hours of labor and required no parts.

TNN 38-12 appears to be related, and references reprogramming the Drivers Information Module (instrument panel) when replacing the Fuel Level Sensor with an updated version. I haven't had this done though - the original work did the trick for me.

Personally, I'd see if the Fuel Gauge Calibration/DIM reprogramming fixed the problem before I'd pull the sender and bend it like demonstrated in the above link.

 

Agreed. If the gauge can simply be recalibrated via software then that is the way to go.

So when your gauge reads empty and you fill it up, you get close to 16 gallons now?

 

That's correct. Prior to my recalibration, it'd only take 10 gallons of gas when the gauge was on E. Now, I'm closer to 15 or 16 gallons when it's on E. I can now get close to 400 miles per tank.