[Keith]

I guess in some countries where there are deserts to drive through / over / around it's important to keep a full tank as garages are not so abundant but here in crowded UK, even after thousands of smaller indy garages have shut, it's easy to find a fill-up place 24 / 7.

So I never stick more than 35 litres in, no point lugging another 30 litres or so around for the ride, man that stuff is heavy & costs money to carry around lol!

30 litres at a Specific Gravity 0.82 - 0.95 means an extra 24 - 28 kgs, man I've had bigger bowel movements than that!!  

Honestly though, I haven't really noticed the difference in fuel consumption from a full tank to a nearly empty tank.

Fair play to you but I'd bet over a year it makes a difference you just dont see it on a weekly basis. I also think the specific gravity measure is a bit simple... every time you brake & slow down demands more from your brake pads, then it costs you more to get it going again.

Then again I am only 210lbs lol! 

[FatBoy]

Then again I am only 210lbs lol! 

Bragger!!

Fair point about the braking, etc.  But as you mentioned in an earlier post, we here in the land of sunshine, snakes, spiders and box jelly fish, need to travel about 500km just to get the mail from the mail box!!  And stuffed if I am getting out with all of those nasties around!! 

[Doggie 1]

Filling to the first click and filling to totally full can mean the difference between 850 kms & 1000 kms, so I just prefer to do it that way. I usually get a week or thereabouts between fills.
I always drive straight away after filling as I do a lot of kms.
I went to a different service station today to refuel and refuelled shortly after the light came on and it took a fraction under 60 litres.
Dave

[Phil №❶]

I wonder if we all have the same tank capacity, there seems to be enough variation to query this. 

[Keith]

Then again I am only 210lbs lol! 

Bragger!!

Fair point about the braking, etc.  But as you mentioned in an earlier post, we here in the land of sunshine, snakes, spiders and box jelly fish, need to travel about 500km just to get the mail from the mail box!!  And stuffed if I am getting out with all of those nasties around!! 

"Bragger" lol... I lost 84lb for those bragging rights 10 years ago & kept it off!  Theres more fuel saving to add to the 30 litres of petrol I dont put in 

I can appreciate the difficulties you guys have getting around in Oz, not many people in countries like the UK give it a moments thought I bet! I bet water & food is in many Ozzy boots (Trunks?) when the Outback form part of the daily commute?

[Phil №❶]

It can happen in London too. I hired a camper van over there once. Van had SFA fuel in it so I thought I'd pick some up in town somewhere. Took me a while to realise thay don't waste real estate on servos in the big city. Headed out towards Windsor Castle & found a 24hr servo. Imagine the traffic chaos if I'd run out in the middle of London. I'd have looked like a right Ozzie git. 

[FatBoy]

He he.  I live in the city and only a five minute walk to the nearest Supermarket (and bottleshop, baker, newsagent, cafe).  Most Australians do live close to a major centre (or even a town with all the facilities).  Although I did have a mate at Uni who had to learn to drive at 11, so he could go to school!!  His driveway was 11km long and his mother couldn't afford the time to drive him down each morning to meet the bus.

We do however, have long distances between major centres (on most roads it is about 1 hour on the road).

[Phil №❶]

For all our overseas members, fuel is readily available anywhere in Oz, provided you're traveling on a highway. If you deviate from the main roads to go sight seeing, then you'd better have enough to get to the next major town. GPS has made that a lot easier that it used to be. 

[Keith]

I wish I'd gone to Oz when I originally planned to, meeting a new girlfriend & her having a big family in the UK kyboshed that sadly. I also looked at NZ to be fair (I know that wont go down too well with the Aussies lol) but that didnt work out as I married that same girlfriend..... Still here I am for better or worse, too old now to make the change... 

[Keith]

I wonder if we all have the same tank capacity, there seems to be enough variation to query this. 

Food for thought but I'd imagine having just one tank size would contribute massively to purchasing leverage / economies of scale... unless anyone knows different?

[Phil №❶]

It seems strange that some members consistently put 58 lts in after the fuel light has been on and others can & do put in excess of 60 lts just as regularly. The only variables I can think of are Diesel / Petrol, Hatch / CW or the build date. There is a fair amount of variation between equipment levels inside, so varying the tank installed wouldn't be beyond the factory either. 

[Keith]

It seems strange that some members consistently put 58 lts in after the fuel light has been on and others can & do put in excess of 60 lts just as regularly. The only variables I can think of are Diesel / Petrol, Hatch / CW or the build date. There is a fair amount of variation between equipment levels inside, so varying the tank installed wouldn't be beyond the factory either. 

Yep I gettit, or maybe the on board computer is responding to different driving styles / habitats (hilly versus flat-ish)

I should explain, when I first got my i30, the low fuel light came on at around 40 miles left in the tank, now after my 15 months of ownership, it comes on when I hit 57 miles left in the tank.

[Phil №❶]

Most people get their litre in from their fuel docket as I do. I divide price  by cost / ltr to get the real figure.

BTW

You mention regrets for not coming to OZ. We have a forecast min of 12 Deg tonight, 27 Deg tomorrow. Compared to your temps it must really be sinking in. But we never have a White Xmas though. 

[Keith]

Most people get their litre in from their fuel docket as I do. I divide price  by cost / ltr to get the real figure.

BTW

You mention regrets for not coming to OZ. We have a forecast min of 12 Deg tonight, 27 Deg tomorrow. Compared to your temps it must really be sinking in. But we never have a White Xmas though. 

15 degree swing heh? At least those temps are +ve temps, we can get -10 deg here in a night & +15 degrees in the following day! Not often to be fair & it is Winter here & Summer for you guys, but yup I did the brim to brim thing but that didnt contradict what the computer was saying by any appreciable amount, I suspect a dealership should know if there are different fuel tank capacities shouldnt they? I guess an estate might have a different tank to a hatchback?

[FatBoy]

You mention regrets for not coming to OZ. We have a forecast min of 12 Deg tonight, 27 Deg tomorrow. Compared to your temps it must really be sinking in. But we never have a White Xmas though. 

I've had a White Christmas in Australia!  Southern Tasmania is such a lovely place (I'm not being sarcastic either Dazz).

[Dazzler]

You mention regrets for not coming to OZ. We have a forecast min of 12 Deg tonight, 27 Deg tomorrow. Compared to your temps it must really be sinking in. But we never have a White Xmas though. 

I've had a White Christmas in Australia!  Southern Tasmania is such a lovely place (I'm not being sarcastic either Dazz).

No offence taken Slim.. 

On the fuel tank size, I would bet good  money all tanks are the same size but I can't explain the variations in fills 

[Lakes]

59.7 L this morning, probably spilled 50ml ;-)

81km after fuel light came on getting 5.5l/100km

81k with fuel light on, was that in the city or country? when i was forced to do 100k with fuel light on i was out in the bush taking it easy to conserve fuel. still only saw 58L to the very top. but  a few here get 60L in, but i've never ran out or miss fueled yet so i'll stick to no more than 40k with fuel light on unless i'm forced to go further.
how many K did you get from that tank ?
Hey i just thought i would mention this, two weeks back on a trip out west, i did a direct comparition between my Garmin GPS & the trip meter on the i30 & the i30 meter was reading less k traveled than the Garmin GPS. so if the Garmin is accurate? this means that my fuel economy calculations would be wrong. has anyone else checked this? it was noticible something like 10k less after 800k

[Dazzler]

Hey John, I reckon the GPS would definitely be more accurate than the Speedo as most cars speedo under read the speed by atleast 5% (although the MY11 speedo may be closer to the mark than earlier models from my experience with  a Qld rental i30)

So this would also affect distance travelled and in the case you mentioned mean that actual economy would be even better by a tiny amount 

[Lakes]

Dazz i think variation could be related to how you drive & how much fuel you use per L, like if you only averaged 6L/100k & another member averaged 4.9L/100k & you both went 1,100k before refilling. or say you both went 60k after fuel light came on.
But i suspect some servo's play with the expention correction & if i got 60+ Litres into my tank @ a servo i don't normally fill at, after owning two CRDi i30 in 4 years covering 100,000k+ total & to date never getting more than 58L to full & on average every fill that was filled after light came on has been around 57L or close to that. but if it only happened once would not be worth the trouble i suppose, if it started happening to me regular i would do my own flue measurement check. i think to be accurate you would need a glass vane with measurements, a thermo to test temps of fuel & air temp.

on another note, i've had a few white Christmas's in USA & i had a white christmas ( a very light fall ) in NSW southern Alps one year.

[Lakes]

Hey John, I reckon the GPS would definitely be more accurate than the Speedo as most cars speedo under read the speed by atleast 5% (although the MY11 speedo may be closer to the mark than earlier models from my experience with  a Qld rental i30)

So this would also affect distance travelled and in the case you mentioned mean that actual economy would be even better by a tiny amount 

Dazz, yes very strange, as my first i30 the speedo was always fast in comparition to the same Garmin GPS speed reading, but the two ( Garmin & i30 Trip meter ) both read out same distance travelled. But with the new car the speedo is almost spot on to the GPS but this is first time i turned off both Garmin's distance travelled & the i30 trip meter so at start of the trip they both read 0000000. & the i30 trip meter was definately slower or should i say reading out less k traveled. if i buy a new GPS i'll use the two GPS's at once & the i30 trip meter. it does not overly worry me but this would effect my manual economy calculations.

[Doggie 1]

In W.A. our Vehicle Standards Regulations allow for speedos (the car type, not the beach type  ) to be out by up to 10% and still be legal.
It makes no difference if you get pinged for speeding though as it doesn't alter the fact that you were speeding, but it just means that your vehicle is not "defective."
So there are obviously variations between different vehicles.

[mjt57]

Hey John, I reckon the GPS would definitely be more accurate than the Speedo as most cars speedo under read the speed by atleast 5% (although the MY11 speedo may be closer to the mark than earlier models from my experience with  a Qld rental i30)

My speedo is fairly close:
GPS 60 km/h-Car 59 km/h
GPS 110 km/h-Car 108 km/h
GPS 112 km/h-Car 110 km/h

The car ones are "guesstimates". As it doesn't have individiual km/h graduations, it's hard to tell, particularly if scrutinising the speedo closely is likely to see you hit something...

As for variations in fills I'd put this down to the bowsers, how they're sensitive to blowback (the pressure which cuts them off), the individual and how he positions the nozzle and of course, the bowser's calibration would probably explain the variation, I reckon. Hard to see how the physical configuration of each car's fuel system will be different.

[Paolo5]

My record fillup is 60.41 litres. I have put in over 59 litres half a dozen times in 35,000km of travel.

I stand there and wait until the diesel is right up to the filler's brim. My record of travel on this particular tank was 1203km.

[rustynutz]

You mention regrets for not coming to OZ. We have a forecast min of 12 Deg tonight, 27 Deg tomorrow. Compared to your temps it must really be sinking in. But we never have a White Xmas though. 

I've had a White Christmas in Australia!  Southern Tasmania is such a lovely place (I'm not being sarcastic either Dazz).

We had a white Xmas a few years ago.........

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-shivers-at-christmas/story-e6frf7kx-1111112738809
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/victorias-white-christmas/2006/12/25/1166895228377.html

[Keith]

Haha OMG lovin that snow & those Aussie boats! 

But hail doesnt count, very different phenomena!

[rustynutz]

But hail doesnt count, very different phenomena!

Still white..... 

[Keith]

But hail doesnt count, very different phenomena!

Still white..... 

So is frost 

[rustynutz]

But hail doesnt count, very different phenomena!

Still white..... 

So is frost 

You're right.....  

[Keith]

But hail doesnt count, very different phenomena!

Still white..... 

So is frost 

You're right.....  

Usually am TBH... tried making a snow man out of Frost or Hail? 

[rustynutz]

Actually, I have....

But all this is irrelevant as it was still a White Christmas, was it not?.