Limited range

[macky17]

Bespoke told me, when I collected the m400, not to let the fuel gauge to fall much below 1/4 full and not to completely brim the tank. The difference between the two is less than 7 gallons. I get about 19/20 mpg (not exactly economy runs admittedly) so that's an effective range of rather less than 140 miles. Annoying. Do I need to be so careful with the fuel levels?

[Blu3R]

In the simplest terms, yes.

In detail, the fuel is delivered to the pump from the driver's side of the bottom of the tank and the tank has no internal baffling. Therefore if you lean left into a right hand bend the remaining fuel will dive left and starve the pump. I've pootled around town with my gauge reading zero before while looking for petrol but it's not advisable. I always fill till it clicks and round up to the nearest 50p. Any more and you risk getting wet feet.

[macky17]

Thanks mate. Ok so I can brim the tank at least. That may buy me an extra 10 miles

[AMG Merc]

Brimming is fine just don't have your foot under the car in front of the rear wheel. In relatively normal driving you should see 200 miles per tank as a minimum. I bank c. 220. You'll get more but, as you've been told, don't let it empty completely.

[sjc]

I'm pretty sure I heard the later card were set up to still have 1/4 tank left when the gauge read zero?

[macky17]

sjc said:

I'm pretty sure I heard the later card were set up to still have 1/4 tank left when the gauge read zero?

Is this true? What's the capacity in theory?

[andygtt]

The tank contains 63l of fuel (or there abouts).... When you gauge reads zero you will have around 10l of fuel still in the tank depending on how they set the fuel sensor up).

The issue is that you can't use all that fuel as the last 10l is not able to be sucked out of the tank... Plus if you go below 1/4 tank and push it round some corners you stand a very real risk of fuel starvation and thus serious damage to you engine... This has happened early on and led to the factory issuing a letter to owners recommending they don't go below 1/4tank and if they do their warranty would not be valid ( was this track only?, can't recall). So heed bespokes warning.

When my car was stock gt03 I could get a max of 48l of fuel in and often managed 300miles, but I took no heed of the fuel level warning... I can use all of my 63l of fuel in my tank safely now as I modified it heavily, trouble is I modified the engine as well so only see 250miles if I'm really lucky lol

[GTO600]

The advice was don't run below 1/4 tank when on track due to fuel starvation as others have said, this does not apply for road use however the gauge isn't very accurate so so running down to minimum isn't advisable. As for filling up just fill until it the pump nozzle clicks but don't overfill as it will leak out of the overflow.

[2.5bluenob]

My car is only build no. 36 and also has quite a lot of fuel in it when the gauge shows empty.
I just drove to 900 miles to Poland and tried to get every last drop of fuel out before stopping to fill up (four petrol stops in one day is enough for me lol). for normal road use i think there is no issue with getting below 1/4 tank.

[macky17]

Thanks for the info. So, were the later cars' gauges modified to show empty when 1/4 full? Mine's a '55 and I can only get about 7 gallons (32 litres) in between 1/4 tank indicated and fuel click off so it would suggest it's true.

[andygtt]

Yours must be as you have at least another 20litres of fuel left in the tank before you run out.