Am I the only one who has an 8 with a "funny" gas gauge?

From full tank to half a tank takes about 130 miles and I can almost watch it drop. These miles are 95% highway, cruising at 74.

Once the tank reaches half, I get another 160 or so miles before the low fuel light goes on. The ride is the same and so is my driving style.

Any ideas????

 

I noticed it from the first tank full. I've just gotten used to it.

 

I had same on my 99' Camry.

 

Same here. I've consistently been getting these results over the last year or so:

Mixed Driving (50% hwy / 50% city)

By 1/4 Mark = 50 miles
By 1/2 Mark = 120 miles
By 3/4 Mark = 180 miles
Low Gas Light = 220 miles
Fill Up at = 240 miles

When I fill up at around 240 miles, my 8 takes between 13.5 - 14 gallons. Essentially, no matter how I drive, I will always get between 220 - 240 miles per tank before I fill up; unless I do all hwy driving, in which case I get between 260 - 275.

Worst mpg nowadays = 16 mpg
Best mpw nowadays = 18 mpg

There seems to be many members who both get better mileage and get worse mileage than I do, so given that my mpg seems average - regardless of how skewed my gauges are - I'm not complaining. I've learned to not rely on my gas gauge for anything more than a ballpark estimate.

 

i have the same sort of thing..the needle moves fast down to the half a tank mark and then takes double the trime to get to the 1/4 tank mark.

 

Couldn't agree more. My 8 does exactly the same thing. I thought I was the only one with a funny gauge.

 

my rx-8's the exact same - i first really noticed it when i went on a 1000 mile road trip - with pure highway driving i found myself reaching up to 320 miles on a full tank of gas without the a/c, and with the a/c on i got about 260 on a tank. as far as the city goes, my numbers look the same as everyone else's as far as millage -
at 3/4 of a tank i ussually have 50-60 miles
at 1/2 a tank i ussually have 100-120 miles
at 1/4 a tank i ussually have 160-200 miles
by the fuel light i ussually have about 220-240 miles
you ussually have about 30-50 more miles to go by the time the fuel light goes on before your tank is dry

millage is also very dependent on these cars by the amount of ethanol that the station puts in the fuel - the more ethanol, the worst milage. i noticed the best millage ussing shell fuels. conoco seems to be a 50/50 thing, so i ussually just use shell - i get the best performance and millage with it.

 

Has to do with the shape of the tank... it's narrower at the top.

 

I've noticed this also. I've gotten use to it though. It just seems strange because all my cars I have ever owned were the opposite. The 1st 1/2 of the tank moves slow and then speeds up after the 1/2 marker. No big deal.

 

3/4 =45
1/2 =150
light =270

I noticed this over the weekend

 

You'd think they'd be able to compensate for this somewhat in the gauge readout.

 

That's kinda what i figured, cause I was doing a quickie calculation on how many miles i got figuring that 1/4 tank was 4 gallons and it was coming out to like 10...but it got better as I got towards the bottom of the tank

 

Mine's the same. Typically cars drop slower in the first half than in the last half because they don't want you to notice the gauge dropping on a test drive - not on the RX-8 though.

 

don't tell me Mazda worked the rotary shape into the gas tank too!

 

OMG you gotta be kidding me

as what omnicron mentioned, it's due to the shape of the gas tank. anyway fuel gauges are highly inaccurate due to the nature of its design

You can find out more here
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-gauge.htm

 

Well maybe, but this isn't the first car I've owned where the gas guage is non-linear. No big deal.

 

Amen to that. After all, the gas gauge is not, nor does it need to be, a precision device.

My 2000 4Runner (other car) has 4.5 gals remaining in the tank when the light comes on. Toyota finally admitted that it was a problem and issued a service bulletin on it, but I opted to live with it rather than having them remove the tank to replace the sensor. Sometimes it's better to live with a situation than to "fix" it and introduce other problems.

 

Man I wish my milage was as good as yours. City driving (mixed)

1/4 - 33 Miles
1/2 - 60-70 miles
3/4 - 120-130 miles

Im averaging 11.8 - 12.2 MPG

 

when im in the city and in traffic
3/4 35
1/2 90
1/4 130
fuel light 165

but if i reset the ecu, disconnect the battery, and happen to not get stuck in traffic a miracle happens

3/4 65
1/2 150
1/4 250
fuel light 295

i think stop and go completely messes up the ECUs learning process

i noticed once even i had driven 30 miles and it was a notch over 3/4 and i refilled it (before a trip) it took 4 gallons!? this gas tank is very strange because that indicated i got 7.5mpg on the first quarter of the tank, the rest of that trip was 23.5mpg... m'eh i got a wierd rx8 i think. but i learned her quirk and am saving money at the pump lol.

 

it's the shape of the tank . have you ever noticed that on most vehicles it takes $10 to get to a 1/2 of tank but cost you $20 more to fill it up.you can drive father from full to1/2 than from 1/2 to empty. all tanks are not shaped the same way.