Reserve Fuel - Tank Capacity - What's Your Top Off Record

Sorry if this was covered, but tank volume Spec for the 2009-2014 TDI
Golf, JSW is 14.5 gallons. On a long trip I have topped off with 14.6
gallons. What is your record? Do we have reserve fuel after zero on fuel
level gauge? I typically top with 13.5 to 14.0, but a few times I was
hunting for diesel and on a trip....

Another way to say it, when low fuel light is on, fuel level needle is ZERO
and trip computer says range zero or please refill now.........................
HOW MUCH FUEL REMAINS (RESERVE)?

No lectures on running low on fuel... we know it is bad to run dry.

There are people who have reported going 40 - 50 miles after the MFD read zero miles left. However, I would never want to be the guy testing this out. Mileage varies a lot depending on conditions. The most important thing (to me) is that I would not want to run a CR engine out of fuel. I would not want my HPFP to be starved of fuel (try to function as a air pump). I am not certain how quickly the ECU would (could) shut down the engine if you ran out of fuel at speed on the highway. If your engine is turning, your HPFP is spinning - fuel or not.

Have Fun!

Don

The tank is probably 14.5 gallons(+ or -), but the fill hose holds a good bit.

Donald

JSWTDI09 said:

There are people who have reported going 40 - 50 miles after the MFD read zero miles left. However, I would never want to be the guy testing this out. Mileage varies a lot depending on conditions. The most important thing (to me) is that I would not want to run a CR engine out of fuel. I would not want my HPFP to be starved of fuel (try to function as a air pump). I am not certain how quickly the ECU would (could) shut down the engine if you ran out of fuel at speed on the highway. If your engine is turning, your HPFP is spinning - fuel or not.

Have Fun!

Don

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Not to be snarky, but the ecu doesn't need to shut anything down once the car runs out of fuel. After all, fuel is what fuels the engine. No fuel, no run. I do get the point that running out is bad. The most I've filled is 14.4 gallons. I never bother to fill the filler neck either.

15.49 gallons is the most I've filled up with at the pump (filled to the very top of the filler neck; almost spilling out). 705.2 miles (best tank) with ~20 on 0dte.

I have run out of fuel before (less than 3 miles from my normal station of course!) and had to refuel with a jerry can so I could get to the station and as such can't confirm exactly how much fuel was put in (~15.6gal). Yes I primed the system with vcds and no, no metal shavings in the filter afterward. Still running great after another 40k miles!

turbobrick240 said:

Not to be snarky, but the ecu doesn't need to shut anything down once the car runs out of fuel. After all, fuel is what fuels the engine. No fuel, no run. I do get the point that running out is bad. The most I've filled is 14.4 gallons. I never bother to fill the filler neck either.

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This is why I specified a failure at highway speed. If the car is still in gear and the car is traveling at 60+ mph, the coasting of the car will keep the engine (and the pump) turning until the car stops rolling or until you shift into neutral and let the engine die. I would suspect that this is where/when much of the damage could occur. If my car suddenly died on the highway, my first instinct would not be to immediately shift into neutral while still traveling at 75 mph. I'm no Bosch engineer and I have never heard of an HPFP failure that was blamed on running out of fuel, so I am not an expert. However, I also have no intention of ever running out of fuel - just to be safe.

Canary5.0 said:

I have run out of fuel before (less than 3 miles from my normal station of course!) and had to refuel with a jerry can so I could get to the station and as such can't confirm exactly how much fuel was put in (~15.6gal). Yes I primed the system with vcds and no, no metal shavings in the filter afterward. Still running great after another 40k miles!

Click to expand...

That is good to know. Thanks for sharing this.

Have Fun!

Don

I suspect that when the fuel injectors run out of fuel at speed, there is still a certain amount of fuel in the hpfp providing some lubrication. I don't have any intention of testing this theory out either. I did come incredibly close to running out near the grand canyon once though.

Reading the poll and replies.... it sounds like the tank can hold more than 14.5 Gal. How much depends on how little fuel you had in it before filling up and how willing to spill fuel out the filler neck.


- Several people on the poll report having filled to posted +14.5 gal several +14.8 gal

- One person reports going 40-50 miles after zero on MFD.... (40-50 miles is about a gallon, important data point indepenatant of how much tank holds; this is a fuel indicating issue. I am sure way over filling or topping can throw the displacyed MFD fuel range off.)

- One person reports filing tank with 15.49 Gal....

No doubt folks that are stuffing extra fuel in the tank by "topping off", tripping the fuel cutoff several times, filling the neck until you see it.
My procedure it after pump trips, add about 0.20 gal from the first cut off. When I do this I don't see fuel in the neck.
Typically I never run below 7/8th indicated and never fill more than 13.5 to 14.0 gal.

Forgot to say that when I did run out that one time, I was on 0 dte for ~45 miles before it cut out/glow plug light came on and I coasted to the shoulder.

I remember in the owners manual somewhere it saying that when the fuel light first comes on you have 2 gallons remaining. From my experiences, I think when you hit zero you have around a gallon left. Thoughts?

I have tempted fate by running further when the gauge hit E. Several fills to 14.8+.

Have yet to run out but I usually need to take a bathroom break well before the car needs to stop!

I do fill the neck until I can see the fuel.

I checked my fuelly data....15.08 gallons is my best. Usually, I fill up about 13-13.5 gal.

Paul.

I normally refuel with approx 15.4 gallons. A couple tanks ago I was down to 0 range, but had a stretch of highway with exits every few miles, and lots of inexpensive diesel (south carolina) So i drove almost 50 miles after MFD=0 miles. Refueled with 15.994 gallons, 852 miles driven. 2014 JSW

....with the HPFP issue in mind, I use fuel from high turnover Chevron stations exclusively. When coupled with my trepidations about any roadway stoppage, there is no way in hell I would push the envelope.

I just don't get it.


No offense tho'



ez

ezshift5 said:

....with the HPFP issue in mind, I use fuel from high turnover Chevron stations exclusively. When coupled with my trepidations about any roadway stoppage, there is no way in hell I would push the envelope.

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+1 - Me too. I don't usually use Chevron, but I agree completely about HPFP safety part. I cannot answer the poll above because I have NEVER had to put more than 14.4 gallons into my tank, and I wait for the foam to go down and fill it all the way. I would never risk my car in an attempt to set a useless record. Luckily, I have never found myself in an emergency situation where I was forced to push this envelope.

Have Fun!

Don

I topped off to the filler and did 15.5 before. 30 miles after it said 0 miles left. Couldn't find anywhere open with diesel at midnight. Kept driving and scared my hpfp was gonna be toast. Glad someone did 15.9 so I know I wasn't bone dry that one night. I always keep a gallon in the trunk just incase

My top ten fills
14.845
14.814
14.749
14.733
14.699
14.675
14.619
14.614
14.578
14.537

I fill into the neck. I typically get fuel before the empty light is on or very soon after, but every now and then I have to drive a ways to get fuel. I think the lowest I ever got to was 10 miles as the estimated amount left in the tank.

JSWTDI09 said:

+1 - Me too. I don't usually use Chevron, but I agree completely about HPFP safety part. I cannot answer the poll above because I have NEVER had to put more than 14.4 gallons into my tank, and I wait for the foam to go down and fill it all the way. I would never risk my car in an attempt to set a useless record. Luckily, I have never found myself in an emergency situation where I was forced to push this envelope.

Have Fun!

Don

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Appreciate your words, Don........(and still recall your sage info when my nifty new JSW was delivered with a 180 degree out-of-phase compass).

best, ez.............

Reading this thread makes me sweat bullets, lol . Most I've put in was 14.2xx gallons, with about 20miles left on the computer. Lowest remaining computer reading was probably 5 or 10 miles.
After I got home from fueling 14.2, I made myself a drink..... Somewhat reassuring to see such large amounts being put in, however.

dmarsingill said:

The tank is probably 14.5 gallons(+ or -), but the fill hose holds a good bit.
Donald

Click to expand...

Donald reading the other members post I think it is 14.5+++ no minus. I
think it is fair to say "full" tank to fuel starvation is at least 15 gal to 15.5
Gal.... in some cases people have stuffed 15.9 gal into the tank.... there
may be some variation and agree topping is a big factor (filler neck).
However normal filling seems to give us at least 30-40 "Reserve" after "zero".
Watching some range videos by "hypermile" drivers they literally take 30
minutes to fill the tank, and burp it, bounce on the bumper....

I feel comfortable taking mine down to zero, and I will try and TOP it, see
what I get.

One thing I have read is the in tank pump is cooled by the fuel so it may
not be good for the electric pump to run low fuel. However we all get
caught low some times....

When I was growing up, my father could never let his tank get below ¼ full, I didn't inherit that gene. I think the edges need to be explored, and since some don't like to see how far we can take the JSW, I'm glad to report what I find. My last 10 tank average is 15.4661 gallons, 776.25 miles, and 50.2 mpg.

I've run every tank in my car down to well into the "empty" point on the gauge; and general less than 40 "miles to empty". I have had numerous tanks where I ran 25-40 or more miles beyond the "0 miles to empty" point as well. I have ~124,000 miles or so on it, so that's a lot of tanks. If heat were a factor my in-tank pump would have been toast by now.

As for max fill; I always fill the tank "to the brim" literally; I fill it up all the way up the filler neck and to the metal lip the fuel cap screws into... I believe my highest fill to date was 15.2 gallons.

I have had plenty of 14.5-14.8 fill ups, with a few at 15.2-15.4 gallons. Trip meter thing showed I had 5 miles to go. Most my fill ups are about 14.4 gallons with about 30-40 miles left. I always top off and fill it up to the mouth. It still drains slowly after filling it up to the mouth, but that's full enough for me.

Never let mine go below a 1/4 tank.

I don't think I've ever put more than about 53 litres in. I'd have to check fuel receipts. The most I ever squeezed out of a tank was 1194 km and I think the MFD was showing 10 km to empty. I was trying to stretch it but did not want to go down to zero. Fortunately I was on an autoroute with an exit at about every 7-8 km most of which had fuel.

Having changed my HPFP, I no longer try to find out how low I can take it. I now fill up whenever it's convenient any time after about 800 km which is usually well before the low fuel light comes on, to about 1000 km (900 in winter) at which point I usually have 70 or 80 km to empty in my average driving mix.

I always fill right to the brim, which gets me roughly an extra 2.5 litres or 50 km of driving. On my older TDIs (99.5 Jetta, '04 Jetta wagon and '05 Passat) you could "vent" and squeeze roughly 8 extra litres in after the first pump auto-shutoff. On an ALH TDI driven carefully, that was good for just short of an extra 200 km per tank! Even on my '04 wagon with the slightly less efficient PD motor, I was able to get a record 1308 km out of one tank (817 miles)! If my memory is right, I stuffed in something like 62 or 63 litres into a tank with a nominal capacity of 55 litres. Removing the vent capability costs about 100+ km per fill, and now the Mk VIIs have a nominal capacity of only 50 litres, chopping off a further 50 km or so.

15.187 - see fuelly

turbobrick240 said:

I suspect that when the fuel injectors run out of fuel at speed, there is still a certain amount of fuel in the hpfp providing some lubrication. I don't have any intention of testing this theory out either. I did come incredibly close to running out near the grand canyon once though.

Click to expand...

Agreed, also consider in addition to residual lubrication the stress on the pump should be theoretically be reduced since it is not compressing diesel fuel. Not sure how long the residual film sticks around....

There is definitely a different feel for how these newer cars behave WRT some of the older ones. When my 02 ALH had the fuel light come on, I was good for about another 100 miles, but I would usually fill after about 50 - whenever I got around to it. As others have noted, the fuel gauge drops rapidly when at the lower end, and that mirrors my experience. The only thing I can add is that I went to the dealer to get one of those "adapters" - that you use when the station has the wrong size nozzle that wouldn't open the misfueling guard. I ran across this a few weeks ago - the light had come on, and I pull into a BP station, and the stupid pump nozzle wouldn't go in. I finally gave up and went up the road to a different station where it went in right away. But if you are out in the middle of nowhere and you are depending on getting fuel at a particular station, you wouldn't want to find out that they have the wrong sized nozzle.

A little thread drift (my own thread). BTW I bought fuel today..... $1.99 a GALLON.... Yes!
$2.19 + 0.20 customer discount. Love their discount program. Love the low fuel prices.

The adapter funnel I can +1. With the old guard I once fueled up with a
large truck nozzle but going real slow and holding it in position. It was a
PIA. The funnel is a must have... cheap, throw it in the back, never need
it like a spare tire....(you hope).