Will the engine stop when "range" drops to zero?
 

I have a faulty fuel level sensor, and the "range" keep dropping to a single digit. There is plenty of gas in the fuel tank.
I wonder whether I would have problem starting the engine or the engine will stop running amid a journey when the "Range" drops to zero?
any relevant info is appreciated.

No.

The range is a computer calculation based on driving habits and has no barring, IMO, on the actual fuel lines/pump/injectors/timing/etc.....

I have driven 20 miles pass the range before and nothing happen, but you may not be that lucky :)

The "range" shows "8km", I continue to drive it just now, the counter reduces to 7,6,5...1, eventually to "----", no problem at all.
I stop the X for an hour for shopping, restart the car, guess what?! The fuel warning light is off, "range" shows "648km"!! Everything seems to be back to normal.

Wierd....

I have found the Range indicator to be very accurate and when it drops to zero or nothing you're pretty much down to less than a gallon of fuel or maybe running on what's left on the fuel lines.

Why would you even want to take that chance? I would just fill up at the earliest opportunity :)

Play Fuel Light Bingo. You'll realize that the gas gauge and computer range estimate don't accurately reflect actual level of fuel. (Just try not to lose this game)

I've driven a few miles on "------" before, but it's not a habbit... On my old 5 Series sedan, when it said "0", it meant it! I ran out of gas one time in that car, and made sure I never got down that low ever again.

-- Kelly

Some of you are mis-reading his post. There is something wrong with his gauge, he is not intentionally doing this. Read post #4.

I've lost 3 times this year!!!!

I must have a bad sending unit. My gauge will get to just below 1/4-tank and then stop, never turning on the light. Wife forgot about this while on a trip and ended up walking the expressway (luckily she stalled right under a bridge that had gas stations). The last stall I had was last week when I had forgotten that I had been idling quite a bit since the last fill-up, so my mileage did not accurately reflect how much gas I had used (had been filling up around 350 miles to be safe).

Wish someone could tell me if the fix is a DIY - most people seemed to have taken this one in to BMW to get fixed.

Losing this game is not fun for sure.


I do not think the range meter is completely accurate based on what I presume it reads (fuel trim of some kind) and how it reads it (front 02 sensors), but it is probably fairly close. Proving it wrong when you are low on fuel is a venture in above mentioned bingo.

Doesn't the X5 have a built in reserve, or is that included in the range calculation?

sound like you got a bad floater, its not reading your gas level correctly.

I believe it hits reserve after being on "0" for about 20 miles, it displays ---, and then you can still go about another 20 miles w/o it stuttering

Fuel level sender
 

Sounds like you need a new fuel level sender. There are two under the back seat and I suspect one measures the fuel level for the gauge in the instrument cluster and the other is high accuracy for the computer that calculates the distance to empty. I haven't removed the ones in my X, but in other Bimmers the senders use two thin wires and a float to measure fuel level. If the float can't make a clean connection to the wires because of dirt or oxidation, the computer will continually misinterpret the amount of fuel you have left in your tank. I have the same problem with my "distance to empty" calculation on my 300zx turbo as well and I know the fuel level sender is the problem.

Regardless, the engine doesn't stop if the distance to empty reads zero (at least not on my X or my Z), so keep on driving until you can or want to fix the sender.

By the way, I did have both senders changed under warranty in my X around 100,000 kms. The problem I had was that the gauge in my instrument cluster would never show more than 3/4 full even when I crammed 90 liters of fuel in the tank. I think the wires towards the top of the sender must have been dirty so that when the float went to the top, the gauge couldn't "see" that it was there.

On a slightly related note, Top Gear (a motoring program in the UK) did a test to see if it was possible to drive from Edinburgh to London on a single tank of fuel. Now, as a noob I may be about to make a ghastly etiquette gaffe, but the car they used was an Audi A8 and not an X5...I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention an Audi on a BMW forum!

The point is that the car's computer was registering the tank as empty (after the reserve), and the range was zero...and yet it still kept running...and running...and running. If you'd like to take 20 minutes or so out of your day, you can watch the 'experiment' here:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7AKJAu3D30
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67JGU...related&search=

I know it's a diesel motor as opposed to petrol, but it's pretty interesting nevertheless.

Alex

PS apologies if this has been posted before...

Most here know what Top Gear is. My "fuel light bingo" is one of Clarkson's favorite games. He also ran down a Jag XJ past the red zone in the fuel gauge and the camera showed "Range: 0 miles".