Ran out of petrol - BMW Forum

fivecups · 07-01-2004, 05:54 AM

I bought a 2 year old 316. The OBC function which indicates how many miles of petrol I have left seems to stick at 35 miles such that I have run out of petrol whilst driving.

Is this a common problem? Is it easily fixable?

The car is under warranty so I'll drop it down to them if it is fixable.

Thanks for the advice.

Mr White G · 07-01-2004, 07:01 AM

I'm sure it's just a minor sensor replacement, but use your better judgement to keep juice in the tank.

It's not the greatest idea to run your tank bone dry anyway.

CiscoKid · 07-01-2004, 08:56 AM

THE OBC takes the average mpg and calculates it with the gallons left in the tank. where is the fuel needle when it says 35 miles left?

kuma · 07-01-2004, 12:01 PM

From what I have been told by the dealer, this is basically just a guess to give you an idea of how far you can go. I had the same problem with my wagon so I just started to ignore it and when the tank starts to get empty I get gas. The problem I had at the beginning was that the right side fuel sinsor was bad so the fuel gauge would not go all the way to empty, but instead stopped at an 1/8 of a tank. Made life real interesting for awhile....

CiscoKid · 07-01-2004, 12:06 PM

i go by how many miles i ahve driven, and i roughly get the same amount of distance

fivecups · 07-01-2004, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CiscoKid@Jul 1 2004, 09:36 AM
THE OBC takes the average mpg and calculates it with the gallons left in the tank. where is the fuel needle when it says 35 miles left?

Fuel needle was as far towards empty as it could be. I presume the fuel sensor is malfunctioning then because by calculation the miles remaining should have been zero given that I had run out of petrol!

Thanks for the advice. I'll try and keep her filled up above the orange light limit. I hope it is a sensor problem otherwise it is a fairly misleading instrument to have in a BMW.

kuma · 07-04-2004, 04:26 PM

If the gauge was on empty then it is not a fuel sinsor. As I said before, the "how many miles left" function is just a guess. I agree with you that it is misleading. If BMW is going to put something on their car then they should make sure that it reads true. This is also true with the MPG fuction of the computer. Mine reads 1 1/2 to 2 miles over what my actual milage is no matter what I do. I took it to the dealer and they said that it was with in limits and that there is nothing they can/will do about it. I have just stopped using the "how many miles I have left" function and when I am looking at the MPG I just take two off it. You would think that for the price that we pay for these cars they would make everything work right. What is the since in having all of these cool options if you can not count on them to read correctly?