Stuck fuel guage???

[m1ckDELTA]

Leaving Ojai, I had a little under half a tank and only about 70 miles to go. I was about 35 miles from home when I looked at my fuel guage to see it was about to go into the red. Needless to say it was a dicey ride the rest of the way but I made it to a gas station before running dry.

Or did I?

The gas station was one if those rurual no-name places so I only put in enough petrol to get me to higher end fuel, a little over a gallon. As soon as I turned on the ignition, the fuel guage jumped to a little over half.

Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[tom_d]

Hehe, I think your owners manual speaks somewhat to this, but yeah, the level indicator isn't like a graduated measure marked on a container. It's more like a human interface device which communicates to you that you might want to stop and get some fuel soon unless you want to do some walking. Being a motorcycle, especially one that has just switched over from having a standard petcock, it's normal expectation for a motorcycle to run until it begins to sputter then switch to the reserve. Things are different now, but not really all that long, so the bike still communicates being out sooner than expected and has a reserved amount. Check out the manual and see if you can align what it does and what to expect, I'm pretty sure it is behaving as designed.

 

[davidteachey]

Leaving Ojai, I had a little under half a tank and only about 70 miles to go. I was about 35 miles from home when I looked at my fuel guage to see it was about to go into the red. Needless to say it was a dicey ride the rest of the way but I made it to a gas station before running dry.

Or did I?

The gas station was one if those rurual no-name places so I only put in enough petrol to get me to so higher end fuel, a little over a gallon. As soon as I turned on the ignition, the fuel guage jumped to a little over half.

Has anyone else experienced this?

My '22 is guilty of that, but gauge proved to be a bit a bit pessimistic. Upon refueling, I was not as near to 'empty' as I feared. But I'm not comfortable testing those limits. Try cornering, or coming off the center-stand, then the gauge is very confused.

 

[MikeM]

Yesterday I was purposely running her out of fuel to see at what mileage I would have to switch to reserve. I had to switch at almost 200 miles even. This was about half way into the red and the flashing F have been on for 35-40 miles. This morning when I topped off I still had a gallon left which is technically a 1/4 tank. The fuel gauge is just as accurate as most motorcycle fuel gauges (its not). I've always used my tripmeter as my fuel gauge and still do.

 

[Eatmore Mudd]

Fuel gages measure the height of the fuel in the tank not the amount.

 

[Roy Gavin]

I try to remember to set the trip at each fill and don't take it past 300 km/180 miles if I have the choice.
Fuel gauge mostly gives a similar reading at that point, but not always!
Mine stopped reading at all, the new gauge gave a noticably different, but more consistent, reading.
We are lucky that we still have ethanol free petrol availible and some oil company owned stations so it is possible to get something the bike likes, and gives good mileage,
In this state I stay away from the Supermarket owned/ operated stations and those with a 24 hr convenience store, as their junk can increase consumption around 10% sometimes.
Ok on cars with a knock sensor , but not bikes without one.

 

[nmroadrunner]

Fuel gages measure the height of the fuel in the tank not the amount.

Mine measures how many miles my bladder can hold out

 

[m1ckDELTA]

Hehe, I think your owners manual speaks somewhat to this, but yeah, the level indicator isn't like a graduated measure marked on a container. It's more like a human interface device which communicates to you that you might want to stop and get some fuel soon unless you want to do some walking. Being a motorcycle, especially one that has just switched over from having a standard petcock, it's normal expectation for a motorcycle to run until it begins to sputter then switch to the reserve. Things are different now, but not really all that long, so the bike still communicates being out sooner than expected and has a reserved amount. Check out the manual and see if you can align what it does and what to expect, I'm pretty sure it is behaving as designed.

I've never had to use "The Force" to determine how much petrol is in my motorbike's tank but duly noted and henceforth I shall, Obi Wan. Thanks.

 

[m1ckDELTA]

Fuel gages measure the height of the fuel in the tank not the amount.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[m1ckDELTA]

Try cornering, or coming off the center-stand, then the gauge is very confused.

I find that normal on every bike I've owned and am accustomed to it. This was drastically different.

 

[m1ckDELTA]

Yesterday I was purposely running her out of fuel to see at what mileage I would have to switch to reserve. I had to switch at almost 200 miles even. This was about half way into the red and the flashing F have been on for 35-40 miles. This morning when I topped off I still had a gallon left which is technically a 1/4 tank. The fuel gauge is just as accurate as most motorcycle fuel gauges (its not). I've always used my tripmeter as my fuel gauge and still do.

I've grown accustomed to using the trip meter on my '07 Sporty as a fuel gauge. I'll simply so the same for the Himalayan. Unfortunately, just like the gear position display, the fuel gauge becomes wasted space.

 

[m1ckDELTA]

I try to remember to set the trip at each fill and don't take it past 300 km/180 miles if I have the choice.
Fuel gauge mostly gives a similar reading at that point, but not always!
Mine stopped reading at all, the new gauge gave a noticably different, but more consistent, reading.
We are lucky that we still have ethanol free petrol availible and some oil company owned stations so it is possible to get something the bike likes, and gives good mileage,
In this state I stay away from the Supermarket owned/ operated stations and those with a 24 hr convenience store, as their junk can increase consumption around 10% sometimes.
Ok on cars with a knock sensor , but not bikes without one.

Unfortunately for California consumers all gas here has ethanol up to 15% which insures a robust new car market and service industry, while at the same time it saves oil companies up to 15% less real product, thereby maximizing profits. All of this is under he aegis of "progressive environmental policy", which, if it were true, I would be a big fan of.

 

[Paleface]

I have a 2022 Himalayan and when the flashing low fuel indicator comes on I have only been able to add 2.6-2.7 gallons to top it off. This is all the time. seams that It is way off for a 4+ gallon Tank?

 

[Laserman]

I have a 2022 Himalayan and when the flashing low fuel indicator comes on I have only been able to add 2.6-2.7 gallons to top it off. This is all the time. seams that It is way off for a 4+ gallon Tank?

Nah, it's perfectly normal from my experience with my '22. The "Trip F"/low fuel is sposed to trigger when approx 5L of fuel remains. 5L is 1.3 gallons, so you're filling it back up to 4 gallons, or roughly 15L, which is the average capacity. Roughly a half liter (or bout half a quart) is considered "reserved" or "dead stock" for the fuel system.

The farthest I have traveled on a tank is 230-something miles, and my bike still didn't take 3 gallons to fill lol. It was close tho.

 

[Paleface]

Nah, it's perfectly normal from my experience with my '22. The "Trip F"/low fuel is sposed to trigger when approx 5L of fuel remains. 5L is 1.3 gallons, so you're filling it back up to 4 gallons, or roughly 15L, which is the average capacity. Roughly a half liter (or bout half a quart) is considered "reserved" or "dead stock" for the fuel system.

The farthest I have traveled on a tank is 230-something miles, and my bike still didn't take 3 gallons to fill lol. It was close tho.

Thanks for the reply, I thought something was wrong. Glad to know the distance you were able to travel for my reference.

 

[MikeM]

The gas station was one if those rurual no-name places so I only put in enough petrol to get me to higher end fuel, a little over a gallon. As soon as I turned on the ignition, the fuel guage jumped to a little over half.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Yesterday morning I jumped on the Himalayan and headed to work. Quick glance at the fuel gauge and showed just under 3/4 tank, that's plenty to make it to work (60 miles). Shame on me I didn't check the odometer. 10 miles from work got that bog and sinking feeling of being out of fuel, reached down and flipped the petcock to Res and glanced at the gauge, it was in the red. ODO was 171 miles, yep just like normal. So in the early morning it seems my gauge was a little optimistic showing me 3/4 of a tank when it was actually less than half. Rode another 5 miles on reserve and filled the tank, 2.7 gallons like normal.

 

[Laserman]

When fuel gets to a certain level, the gauge will dance around quite a bit depending on lean angle. I've seen Trip F trigger and then revert and then trigger again on low-speed rides. From my experience, one can ride Trip F at least 75 miles. I've gone that far and still had a bit over a gallon remaining. My commute is 45-50 miles a day, so I typically refuel around the 150 mile mark/every 3 days, but can extend that to 4 without worry. My Trip F starts to trigger around 150 miles.

Being the kind of person that prefers to drive old stuff, I'm not one to rely on fuel gauges anyway - I always refer to distance traveled. A working fuel gauge is kind of a luxury to me!