[kilted]

Recently I filled up my 2016 with gas and reset the trip meter and from start and from reset screens as I normally do. I noticed something was odd when I ran up almost 250 miles before the first bar dropped off the fuel gauge. The first bar always lasts longer than the rest of the bars, but when I left for work yesterday I still had 2 bars left and 302 miles ran up since I had filled up the car. That was really strange.

On my way to work it got even stranger. With two bars still showing the car started beeping at me and the low fuel warning popped up on the screen, but instead of showing that I had 1.3 gallons of fuel left as it normally does when the low fuel warning goes off it said I had .8 gallons left.

This is something I have never seen before and I was wondering if anyone had come across something similar. A search for fuel gauge issues on SCOA returned a bunch of posts about the gas tank (I had mine replaced a couple of years ago) but I didn't find anything similar to what I experienced. Could the fuel level sensor be going out on me?

 

[albertlastsmart]

Fuel pump location.............

The fuel pump is located in the bottom of the gas tank. And uses the fuel to cool the fuel pump. Running until the
warning comes on,is working the fuel pump harder than it should. I never run my car lower than 2 bars. When I had
a fuel pump replaced on my 2008 under warrenty, the bill was $1,100.....................

 

[Miss Mercedes]

The fuel tanks and the fuel gauges in the 453s were kinda faulty at launch and weren't really fully fixed until late 2017 or so. Sounds like you have a good tank, but a gauge that's on its way out.

Side note: When the warning comes on you should still have 1 gallon (450 or 451) or 1.3 (453) usable gallons left plus extra for the pump. As an example, when you hit 0.0 gallons in a 451, you should have used up 8.7 gallons. There is another 1.3 gallons in the tank, but you really shouldn't be driving on it. The same concept works in the 450 and 453. So running to the countdown should not damage your fuel pump.

 

[White Lightning]

Recently I filled up my 2016 with gas and reset the trip meter and from start and from reset screens as I normally do. I noticed something was odd when I ran up almost 250 miles before the first bar dropped off the fuel gauge.

Some other 453 owners have slow filled their tank to put in extra gas well above the stated capacity and get higher mileage between fillups. This can inadvertently happen if the service station pump dispenses gasoline at a very slow rate; the 453 allows extra gallons of gas to be added to the tank than if the pump was at normal fill speed. This probably didn't happen to you. Just adding it to the discussion.

On my way to work it got even stranger. With two bars still showing the car started beeping at me and the low fuel warning popped up on the screen, but instead of showing that I had 1.3 gallons of fuel left as it normally does when the low fuel warning goes off it said I had .8 gallons left.

I've also seen the 453 gauge drop from two bars on the screen directly to the 1.3 gallon warning, completely skipping one bar. This has happened a few times. Each time the mileage at the 1.3 gallon warning was right where it normally should've been at my usual 1.3 gallon fillup.


Here is a thread of some of my data collection observations on my 453 gas tank: https://www.smartcarofamerica.com/forums/f208/453-gauge-experiment-122529/