I am starting to become upset with how inaccurate the fuel gauge is in my 2010 F-150 XLT Crewcab. The distance to E calculator jumps big time, going from 300km. to E, then in the morning when I start the truck it will be at 450 km. to E. Yesterday, I had 270 km. to E., driving normally. I stopped for a brief moment and had the truck off. When I restarted the truck, I was now down to 40 km. to E, and had the low fuel warning going off??

I have had a few other vehicles with this option and they kept extremely accurate measurement of my fuel consumption and what I had left. My 05 Pathfinder did start behaving like the Ford one time and had the Fuel sensor replaced under warranty....Fixed the problem!

So my question is, I am getting an oil change soon. Should I get them to check out my fuel sensor as well. The discrepancies I am getting are just to large to be blamed on the computer recalculating or being stopped on an incline........
Troy

 

I never look at the distance to empty display - I use the gas gauge.

But it's obvious this bothers you, so yes you should.

I'm pretty sure the low fuel warning isn't based on the message center display. If you're on a flat surface and you're getting a low fuel warning, this tells me that your sensor is not operating properly.

 

Well Guys, On my 1st tank of gas I ran the (until empty) gauge down to 12 miles to empty! I think it is very acuarate. Fuel gauge looked correct also. Turns out I had 1.25 gallons left when I refueled. May have a little safety margin built in, but none the less very close.

 

I know when the low fuel light comes on in the Mustang Ive got about 1.5 gallons left, so what is the reserve for the F150?

 

The reserve is quite a bit I think. I have the 36 gal. fuel tank and my gauge read E and the distance to empty was about 20 miles. Ended up only putting 30 gal. of fuel in the tank.

 

You should really try out the system before heading to the dealer. Let the readout get to the very low single digits before filling up. Ideally, it should read 1 km to E before you fill up. If you make it the gas station, the reading to E works well. If you didn't make it to the gas station, well....you won't let that happen again.

Honestly, I don't use the distance to E guage. It did pop up once and it gave me a 20 mile heads up notice. The fuel guage is what I use.

 

I'm pretty sure the miles to empty has a direct correlation to the avg mpg. If the truck idles alot and the mpg is saying 12.1 the computer will base its miles to empty number off of you averaging 12.1 while in reality you could be cruising down the highway getting 17-18mpg. Mine is becoming more accurate with the more miles I am putting on. I now have 7750miles and for the last 2 tanks the mpg readout and the actual were within .5 where as when new I would see a 2-3mpg difference.

 

Well, being that I have 15000 km. on it, I feel confident that I have tried the system out!

Would love to be able to run it to E, to check the accuracy, but I live in a rural community one half hour out of any town and can't risk the chance of running out of fuel.

I think the point I was trying to make is that I paid $45,000 for this truck and I expect things like this to be somewhat accurate. Having it bounce around in such large increments is rather mind boggling. To have it go from 200 plus km. left down to less then fifty is somewhat worrisome?

Oh, when it did it yesterday I went to the gas station and got $100 worth of fuel. It filled the truck......If I was in fact down to 40 km. or about 29 miles, it should have taken upwards of $130 worth of fuel to fill??

 

Fill a 5gal can, throw it in the bed and run it dry. Ford gives you the funnel under the backseat for a reason.

 

I have the same problem with my 09 SCrew. Inconsistent mileage to E. The gas gauge reads incorrectly also. It seems the sensor for the gauge and computer are linked? Called Ford and all they told me was that gas sloshes around in the tank. Brilliant!