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Why is the fuel gauge in my Vauxhall Zafira not accurate?
I recently bought a 2006 Zafira 1.6, fully serviced. It idles perfectly and runs smoothly. I filled half a tank and at the first notch on the gauge it had done 50 miles, which meant with a total of four notches it would do 200 miles. However, I only managed 125 miles in total (that was driving with the fuel light flashing - so getting it to empty as possible). The driving routine/journeys was exactly the same all the way, so how come I only managed an extra 75 miles instead of 150?
Asked on 7 December 2013 by TA, Birmingham
Answered by
Honest John
Because this is a nonsensical way to measure fuel economy. Dashboard fuel gauges are never accurate because the float sender sits in a flat fuel tank. The only way to measure reasonably accurately is brim to brim.
Real MPG enables you to register the fuel economy you are actually getting against your make and model of car, its engine and type of transmission.
Every time you enter an average consumption figure against your car, the overall average automatically adjusts to reflect it.
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