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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.
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.
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
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.