E39 M5 - Range 31mls last night, this morning, 1!?

[Altrezia]

Weirdly, I parked up last night (on a slight incline) with about 1/8th of a tank (petrol light on), perhaps a bit less, with a range of 31 miles and left the car over night - as usual.

Got in this morning, and it now had no petrol, and 1 miles range (which pretty quickly dropped to '---').

Is this normal? No petrol smells, and no marks on the floor..

Cheers
a

[julian64]

Is this an attempt at a blonde moment?

[mat205125]

Engine starting from cold will do significantly less mpg than an engine that has been running and is warmed through.

Not sure if the miles remaining gauge is actually that clever, however BMWs (and most cars I've owned) will always show less in the morning than when they were parked up at night.

[HeavySoul]

mat205125 said:

Not sure if the miles remaining gauge is actually that clever, however BMWs (and most cars I've owned) will always show less in the morning than when they were parked up at night.

Mine is very consistent at doing this very thing. It will show a fair wedge above the red line when I park up at night and then the petrol light will come on first thing.

[Altrezia]

julian64 said:

Is this an attempt at a blonde moment?

nope - but perhaps it's an unintentional one I have never noticed this on any of my previous cars..

[Trellis]

you're all forgetting the fact that the great 5 litre monster sucks up a gallon of fuel every morning when you turn the key!! no faulty sensors/readings, just a huge thirsty lump running cold drinking great cupfuls of the stuff!

[AM-BM]

Is your driveway on a slope?
If I go up/ down a long hill then my range can go from 10-15 miles left to zero!

[MarkwG]

AFAIK BMW trip computer on the later (post 83ish) models use fuel flow/use to calcluate the range, whereas the gauge is a float sensor, albeit a fairly sophistictated one. provided you're gentle you can squeeze some extra miles!

[Neil.D]

As above, with the choke on first thing, at the rate it is consuming fuel you would only have a 1 mile range.
As you drive gently along the numbers slowly creep up. The fuel light may even go out - for a short time.