[aceman0455]

So I got into my car to go to work and noticed the mile to empty was reading around 270. The problem? well the tank was 3/4 of the way full. So i stopped at the gas station and filled the tank completely, get back in and it's reading 386 till empty. As I drove to work (about 10 miles) I noticed the MTE went up to 395 but thats it. It's been my experience that once I fill the tank I get around 450 to 500 MTE. I have no idea why all of the sudden it's reading 100 miles low? any ideas? One thing of note is I filled the tank with the car running, but that it always my habit and have never noticed a problem?

 

[au201]

You really shouldn't fill the car with it running - not that it's going to explode, but the fuel tank is supposed to be sealed when the vehicle is running, it does pressure checks. You could wreak havoc with the emissions system by filling with it running.

As for the DTE, it is based on the average mpg of your last 25 miles. If you recently did a lot of idling or stop and go driving, that can drive it down drastically. That's also why it could've gone back up after filling - you were probably driving in a way that got you better mpg.


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[obermd]

The miles to empty is based on two items - the number of gallons consumed and how far you've driven since your last fill up. When you fill the car and it detects more fuel than the previous engine shut off it switches over to using the last 50 miles driven for this calculation.

If you've been dealing a lot of snow lately your overall MPG will be significantly lower than normal. Snow and slush have high rolling resistance and increase aerodynamic drag. In addition, cold weather just adds overall drag to the car.

 

[spacedout]

Based on what I've seen the range estimate is based on the previous tanks average MPG and currently average MPG will bring it down further. Cold winter starts, Idling, lower average speed, and winter gas all lower your MPG and range estimate.

In the winter I typically loose 8MPG(pump calculated) off my summer averages and the range estimate is at times a couple hundred miles less than I would expect to see in the summer.