Petrol

[ladyofastolat]

Well over half the times my petrol warning light comes on, it comes on just as I'm turning into our Close, or so it seems to me. Theories:

Possibility 1. It doesn't actually do so at all. It's done so 2 or 3 times, which is enough to draw my attention and make me think it always does it. I fail to notice all the millions of times it comes on at other times. However, it's months since I first started remarking on this phenomenon, and I've paid particular attention ever since then, and I can confirm that it does indeed come on at this point at least half the times it comes on. Possibility ruled out.

Possibility 2. It's much more likely to come on when I'm near home. Due to living on an island, all my journeys are fairly short ones: round trips of 10 to 30 miles. If when setting out, I notice that the gauge is getting low and the warning light is likely to come on early in my journey, I will probably stop for petrol en route. If I don't, it's because I've judged that I've got more than enough to get me home and out again the next day. By my own actions, I'm therefore making it less likely that the light comes on when I'm miles away from home. I think this is a factor, yes, but doesn't explain why it always come on as I'm turning into our Close, not when I'm half a mile away or a mile away, or just as I'm leaving the next day.

Possibility 3. There's a speed bump just before I turn into our Close, admittedly a fairly pathetic one. Something about the combination of a speed bump followed by a ninety degree turn sloshes the petrol around and confuses the sensor into thinking the tank is emptier than it is. There could well be something in this, although it's hard to believe that the pathetically flat speed bump and the glacially slow turn - for there are always parked cars in the entrance to the Close - could cause much sloshing.

Possibility 4. My car is sentient, although of limited intelligence. It knows where it lives, but it doesn't recognise the approach. Only when it's turning into the Close does it think, "Oh! Oh! I'm nearly home!" Like Pavlov's dogs, this thought causes it to salivate in anticipation of a nice cup of tea and some warming toast, and it shouts, "Oh, I AM hungry!"

Yup. Possibility 4 is the only explanation that works, really.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Does the light go off again when you take the car out again the next morning? That would imply possibility 3.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to suspect a combination of (2) and (3). The fuel level is more likely to be low, and it sloshes just enough. Obviously, the way to test this is to find another road with an identical speed bump adjacent to a very similar bend, and then arrange to live there for a while so that you can compare. (Note that the road may or may not need to bend in the same direction, depending on how the sensors in your fuel tank are arranged.)

[torkell]

Possibility 2 for me - my journeys are almost universally either 5 miles or 50 (each way), and for the latter I'll make sure I've got plenty of fuel before setting out.

On possibility 3: I recall allegramente joking many years ago that the solution to the low fuel light was to go round and round a roundabout, causing the fuel to slosh over to the side of the tank where the sensor was!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Point 3 makes the most sense, but point 4 appeals to me the most!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Point 3 makes the most sense, but point 4 appeals to me the most!

[allegramente.livejournal.com]

My last alfa but one had a sluggish petrol indicator which didn't care for cold damp weather. In winter the dial would read zero regardless; I used to reset the trip when I filled up with petrol, and refill at 250 miles. Which worked fine except when I went through a deep puddle, when the speedometer and mile-counter-thingies would stop working. In which case I was constantly doing mental arithmetic using the rev counter and the gear I was in to calculate the speed etc (essential when approaching speed cameras on the dual carriageway)and to add up distance travelled to work out how much petrol was left.
Which was why I sold the car.

[leesa_perrie]

Possibility 4, clearly. Maybe you can train it to respond to the sight of your Preferred Fueling Place? Not sure how, though. You might have to move into Preferred Fueling Place for a while!