Well, I've calculated out for each tank, based on a 17.0 gallon capacity, miles at chime, miles at fillup, gallons filled, and tank MPG. The equation is below
((17-(Gallons Filled-((Miles @ Fill - Miles @ Chime)/Tank MPG))) * Tank MPG) = Miles To Empty @ Chime
The number of miles to empty goes up as the miles at the chime go up (due to increased MPG), but even on my tanks where the mileage was in the upper 40's there was a minimum of 114.7 miles to empty when the light came on at 690 miles and the tank returned 47.3 MPG. My highest is 166.97 miles when the light came on at 840 miles and the tank returned a 59.2 MPG.
I should have gotten more on my 61.1 MPG tank, but...
I drove to work (17 miles) and arrived with 1001 miles on the trip odometer - no problems. Based on my above calculations I should have been to make it to 1050 miles at least (was hoping for 1100 maybe
). The car sits for ~8 hours, and go and start it up, but all it does is crank over. After ~10 seconds of cranking it fired up an idled ok. I drive off and notice that it has very little power, almost shuts off when I let up on the throttle to shift, minor stumbling, etc. It finally dies ~ 1 mile from work. I put in a measured 0.75 gallons of fuel, get it restarted, reset my trip odometer and drive to the gas station. I fill up the tank as usual (vented clear to the top) and then put an additional 0.75 gallons in my spare container for a grand total of 16.38 gallons
. I was assuming I would be much closer to 17 gallons. All fuel volume measurements taken from the same station, same pump, same nozzle facing the same direction and on the same day.
What I'm wondering/suspecting, that the injection pump transfer pump lost it's prime while setting for the day (I've had previoius air entrainment problems that were never resolved - long story), but had enough fuel to get me a mile before it wouldn't run any more. If I had not let the car set for the day, I would have probably been able to use more of the fuel in the tank. I have a hard time believing that my particular fuel tank is 0.6 gallons smaller than what others have posted, but maybe.
Guess I've drifted a bit off topic here, but still kind of applies. Any thoughts?