Fuel tank capacity?

[discojools]

The other day I filled my tank on my D4 and it took only 69 litres even though the distance to empty was only 58ks. Now the tank holds 82 or 85 litres (can't remember which) which means there is at least 12 litres in the tank which should give me a range of at least 100k at 12ltrs/100k.With my D3 if I had this sort of distance to empty I could usually get 75litres in the tank. Once it took 79 litres. So is the D4 tank smaller or is the gauge reading differently to my D3?

[sniegy]

Hi Discojools,
82 Litres useable & 86 Litres capacity which incororates the pump/senders.
Just remember with all these vehicles that when you finish filling you can still trickle about another 10 Litres in, it's common on all Diesel Disco's.

Cheers;)

[DiscoWeb]

The other day I filled my tank on my D4 and it took only 69 litres even though the distance to empty was only 58ks. Now the tank holds 82 or 85 litres (can't remember which) which means there is at least 12 litres in the tank which should give me a range of at least 100k at 12ltrs/100k.With my D3 if I had this sort of distance to empty I could usually get 75litres in the tank. Once it took 79 litres. So is the D4 tank smaller or is the gauge reading differently to my D3?

discojools,

I had the same on the weekend, down to 32 km range but could only get 70 ltr in. Did continue much past the first auto shutoff but was surprised that there was a still something like 12 - 14 ltr of capacity left.

Still will not ignore the low fuel warning but not as concerned as I might have been.

George

[discojools]

Sniegy,
I'll try trickling then! Didn't have to with the D3

Jools.

[discojools]

Just one more thing.. If I do run out of fuel does the car self prime?

Jools

[mowog]

I put 124l in the other day....

[discojools]

eh?

[Graeme]

I put over 150L into the standard tank one day recently....






Sorry, I couldn't resist, but its a shame I can't get nearly as far on a tankfull as I could on my TD5 D2.

[mowog]

eh?

Ok sorry 80L in the Aux Tank the rest in the main.

[Duck's Guts]

Just one more thing.. If I do run out of fuel does the car self prime?

I'm interested in the answer to this too.

Managed to get another 25kms (country roads) before refuelling AFTER the trip puter said zero remaining, and still only put in 73 litres.

[Blknight.aus]

like all fourwheel drive the fuel tanks capacity is..

"not quite enough"

[sniegy]

Guys,
The vehicle does NOT self prime:eek:
But we have worked put that if you turn the ignition on & let runs for 5sec, then off, then on 5sec, then off, then on5sec etc. for approx 10 cycles the vehicle may actually prime itself.

But..

If you remove the engine accoustic cover & at the rear of the V in the block you will see a schraeder valve with a cap (tyre valve), this is the fuel bleed system. Push in valve & turn ignition on & when you have just fuel & no air bubbles then all should be ok. Preferably a 2 person job.

Cheers.

[gghaggis]

I can confirm that Sneigy's first method works, as long as you haven't continued to drive well after the first one or two "surges" from the car!
:blush:


Cheers,

Gordon

[discojools]

Thanks for that info re bleeding.. Is it in the FAQs? Probably should be.

Discojools.

[PaulGOz]

I have noticed that the dash readouts seem very cautious in the D4. I have only got a maximum of 69L in the tank readng 60 something to go. At these readouts the gauge is showing almost nothing as well which plays with my mind and makes me refuel.

In other vehicles I have owned I have pushed it to zero and some and got into a regular habit of this and once put 55L in a 53K tank. The gauges in that car were dead on as I went about 2kms over the zero reading and ended up going for a walk!

The other thing to consider is that the tanks over time do fill up with crap/sediment and if we run the tanks to minimum then we end up picking all this up which most mechanics do not recommend. Then there is the 40 degree incline yoy try to traverse and I imagine you would need a few litres in the car to make sure you continue picking up fuel during the climb.

[discojools]

Just for interest on the last refill I let the fuel light come and distance to empty said 32k.. The car would only take 71ltrs leaving meaning that there was 13ltrs in the tank. Even at 13l/100k that would give me a distance to empty of 100k. Definitely different to my D3 which was alot more accurate.



Discojools

[brad72]

Guys,
The vehicle does NOT self prime:eek:
But we have worked put that if you turn the ignition on & let runs for 5sec, then off, then on 5sec, then off, then on5sec etc. for approx 10 cycles the vehicle may actually prime itself.

But..

If you remove the engine accoustic cover & at the rear of the V in the block you will see a schraeder valve with a cap (tyre valve), this is the fuel bleed system. Push in valve & turn ignition on & when you have just fuel & no air bubbles then all should be ok. Preferably a 2 person job.

Cheers.

This is what it looks like, on the 2.7 at least. Haven't seen the 3.0l

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/7240/20100430175830.jpg

[Jesse B]

Very interested to read this thread - in fact, had been contemplating starting one on exactly this topic for a couple of days! This scenario has been bugging me for months. As with others, I have run my D4 down to about 30 km remaining on numerous occasions and then filled - to find that it won't take more than 67 - 70 litres! Even wobbling the car, waiting and adding more barely gets it over 70 liters - which leaves me thinking "well, where the heck is the remaining 13 litres or so??"

The other aspect that backs up this line of questioning is the "distance to empty" reading I get after I've "filled up" (but is it really full?) - usually comes up with between 630 and 660 km, which does not equate to 80 litres at somewhere between 10 and 11 litres per hundred! It's way under - at 10.5/100 that equates to just under 70 litres, so there's something weird going on here too. Given the need to squeeze maximum distance outta the beast in remote areas it seems that there's a good 100 km of extra range "lost" somewhere in all of this. Will be delighted if someone can clearly sort out what the issue is here.

[Graeme]

Today I refilled to the brim again (liquid, not froth) with 67.8L after 670 kms, showing 9.0 L/100 kms (actual 10.1) and distance to empty 98 kms (9-10L). It doesn't add-up unless "empty" means when the low-fuel light appears with 5-8L left, although I doubt it would have gone another 100 kms before the light appeared. The gauge showed about 1/4 full but I still had over 250 kms to get home and didn't want to get too low.

[101RRS]

I regularly put 80 litres in with the light on and about 60km to go. So I take it that empty means empty. If this is the case I wish half full on the gauge actually meant half full. With mixed driving I get 500km on the first half and about 300km on the second half - I guess the gauge is only accurate when full and empty - no good for a $100K plus car.

Garry

[Disco4SE]

A MD of a couple of well known LR dealerships in Melbourne told me that he has acheived almost 150Klm until completely running out of fuel, once the light comes on.
I have been educated not to wait until the light comes on before filling as you are more likely to pick up sediment from the bottom of the fuel tank.
Despite good fuel filters etc now a days, I still stick with my method.
Cheers, Craig

[Jesse B]

Fair enough too, Craig - but having 13 - 15 litres effectively unavailable is more than I'd consider necessary to avoid any sludge at the bottom. It's another 100 - 150 km of possible range, and so many times I've been in the same situation Graeme mentioned - forced to fill up "early" due to the doubt around how much fuel is actually left. It's enough of a pain to be working around an 80 litre tank (dare I compare this with many Toy-trucks and 150 litres ++?) without having to surrender to sub-70 litre capacity!

Garry - interested that you regularly put 80 litres in your RRS: I wonder if there is some difference between the RR and the D4? Or do you do the jiggle-slow trickle-jiggle-slow trickle thing to squeeze the last 10 litres in?

[101RRS]

I have been educated not to wait until the light comes on before filling as you are more likely to pick up sediment from the bottom of the fuel tank.
Despite good fuel filters etc now a days, I still stick with my method.
Cheers, Craig

Why would you pick up any sediment only when fuel is low - the pickup is near the lowest point in the tank so if there is any sediment you will be sucking it in anyway - irrespective of the fuel level - an old wives tale for car fuel tanks.

Different is filling from drums etc where you might be able to raise the pickup point.

Garry

[101RRS]

Garry - interested that you regularly put 80 litres in your RRS: I wonder if there is some difference between the RR and the D4? Or do you do the jiggle-slow trickle-jiggle-slow trickle thing to squeeze the last 10 litres in?

Around town I drive down to the light then fill at the next opportunity. Yesterday the light came on at 750km with 80km left. I drove the 15km home and still have 80km left (was on 80kph dual lane). I will fill tomorrow and expect to put in about 78 - 80 litres.

The tank is the same as the D3 and I fill to the click and then a little more until it starts to spit back but not until I can see the fuel coming back up.

When I fill I will let you know the stats.

Garry

[Jesse B]

Thanks Garry - that is the same fill method I use, other than I push it a bit further, until I can see fuel bubbling up the spout. So - something is a bit weird here. I'm going to go fill up today, and do Sniegy's thing of trickle filling after the click and see what I can squeeze in.

[discojools]

Tried trickle filling my D4 (35k dist to empty, yellow light and took 71 lts) but only got a couple of trickles after the click..On the other hand drove my 08 RRS with 88ks to empty and yellow light on and managed to get 75 litres into it today when I filled up.. I think the tank on RRS is slightly smaller than D3/D4. So I would say that LR have changed something.. Asked my dealer service manager bout it and he new nothing.. He said he would ask LR for me but I don't expect to hear from him. But you never know.

[Jesse B]

Went to the pump with 135 km to go - figured at worst this should equate to say 15 litres (at around 11 l/100km), which meant I should be able to put around 68 litres in. Pump clicked off at 59.2 litres - about what I'd expected, given the distance I'd traveled and my likely consumption. Tried trickling more in, stopping, bumping and wobbling car - trickled until it was literally right up the spout to the neck - 61.8 litres.

Which means I should have had 22 litres left (84 - 62), which means at my average real consumption of a tick over 11/100 km I should have had at least 200 km range still available. Given that there appears little to be gained by the trickle feed (other than a spill down the side) I am now reckoning there is at around 100 km beyond the 0 to go mark - something similar to what Craig reported being told by his local dealers. Question is - am I brave enough to put it to the test? It would be great to know just what the reality of this is...:eek:

[Graeme]

Why would you pick up any sediment only when fuel is low - the pickup is near the lowest point in the tank so if there is any sediment you will be sucking it in anyway - irrespective of the fuel level - an old wives tale for car fuel tanks.
Because the concentration of rubbish increases as the volume of fuel gets smaller and the rubbish is confined to the well where it might not be if there was more fuel.

[gghaggis]

Ran my RRS down to '0km' range today and did around 5 extra km before filling. Took 79.8 ltrs of diesel.

If filling, I tend to slow down to around half pressure when around 20 ltrs to go, just to reduce foaming. Then trickle the last couple of ltrs in.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Duck's Guts]

From these posts I get the impression that the D4 fuel level gauge & distance to empty is inaccurate & extremely conservative.
This contrasts to the RRS which is accurate.
So, are there any physical differences in the two fuel tanks/fuel fillers?
If not, then the accuracy difference must be software related...

[101RRS]

Filled today - actual stats.

Gauge - light is on, needle is 2mm above the empty line just touching the top of the 0.

Distance is 733km, 50km to go, trip says average was 9.7 km.

Tank took 79 litres giving actual consumption as 10.7. I filled to being able to see the foam in the filler pipe but not filled to the top.

So this would indicate that when the needle actually gets to the empty mark the tank is is actually empty.

[rmp]

All vehicles I've ever trickle-filled can take a lot more fuel. I think the record was a Kia Sportage which accepted another 15l beyond the first click. The trick is patience, especially with diesel which foams easily. It takes a while, and some necks are worse than others.

The reason I trickle fill is when conducting fuel consumption tests. It is the only way to be sure each fill is to the same point. The cars can be filled to be point at which you can actually see a little pool of diesel. This is the only way to be accurate. I have never yet found a car with an accurate fuel-consumption meter, which are best used for relative values not absolutes. The in-car meters can be up to 3l/100km out either way.

I also trickle-fill for very long distances between servos, eg for a Simpson crossing. One thing I learned about offroad and outback travel is that nobody ever finished a trip and said "jeez I'm really sorry I took the time to refuel properly at every chance I got". On the other hand....;-)

HOWEVER...if you do trickle then you must immediatley drive the car so it uses a few litres, otherwise you run the risk of expansion which will not be pleasant and can even force caps off. About 5l use would be fine, say 100km. The risk is reduced if you fill up when the day is hot and then leave the car in cooler conditions (eg overnight), but I always drive the car immediately if I've trickled it.

Someone asked if this is in the FAQ. It is not. If you find something like this that should be add it to the FAQ post and it will be incorporated into the FAQ itself. The mods are not there to trawl posts and update the FAQ, anyone can (and should) do that.

[gghaggis]

I'd further note that in both my D3's and the RRS, the 'distance to go' value has been rather inaccurate, and the light comes on at different values depending on what your prior consumption figures are (and also just plain inaccuracies!).

As you approach '0', it converges on a somewhat more realistic value, and at '0' itself, all cars should still have 8 ltrs or so left (not all of that is usable - I think the car always retains 4 or 5 ltrs in the tank).

Cheers,

Gordon

[Jesse B]

I'm with Ducks Guts on this one - seems the RRS is accepting close to 80 litres when showing close to 0 km to go and pretty much empty on the gauge, whereas the D4s who are reporting here all seem to be only loading around 70 litres under the same circumstances. I'm betting it's a software issue - set unnecessarily conservative (especially as the RRS seems to be closer to reality) - and I'm also betting there's no way the friendly local LR dealer will want to / be able to fix it. But I do plan to go talk to them and see what they say.