Miles to Empty After Fill Up

Clearly when you got the car you drove it on the street, stopping at stop lights, and stop signs, possible idling in traffic, and taking off from stop lights and stop signs. Well everybody drives differently. So after some drive cycles the on board computers begin to record the signals being sent to the computer well these signals being sent to the computer are really showing the computer your driving habit.

An example of this is your Throttle Position Sensor voltage the computer begins to see that when you are accelerating from a dead stop (0 volts) you push the pedal far enough down to have a average reading of say 3.2 volts where as somebody else might have an average reading of 2.2 volts from a dead stop (0 volts). The higher the reading the faster you are accelerating and less MPG your are going to get.

So in conclusion the vehicle when it was at the dealer might of been started only to move it short distances every now and again so the readings being sent to the computer where telling the computer that the driving habit of the "person" in this case the dealer where not very fuel consuming so the computer would calculate that the driver could get 330 miles out of a full tank. Now after you have drove it on the street with higher speeds, more stopping, idling, and more fluctuations of the gas pedal the computer is calculating that with your driving habit you can get 240 miles out of a full tanks. These calculations are all based on your own personal driving habit and are formed from sensor readings.

jasonpell1117 said:

did you reset your odometer and other displays that the computer shows relating to gas mileage, average speed, etc? after you gased up

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No, i didn't reset anything. I have my display to always show miles to empty and odometer reading. It just seems that 240 miles to empty is low. Full tank is 16 gallons, and on the last fill up i ran it down to only 30 miles to empty and it took 14 gals and pump would not let me put any more in. I'm sure the tank was full or very near it..240 miles till empty. My 08 GT after a fill would always show 300+ miles. Driving habits should not change the value of miles to empty after a fill up.

Modshack said:

Yes they do. As noted above the calculations are done off the most recent driving behavior. Miles to empty is always going to be different based on the most recent data calculated by the computer..

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Steve, then I better plan on driving this thing like an old lady. I'm still breaking it in and really haven't driven it hard; went from 1st to 3rd maybe 6000 rpm a hand full of times. I better get used to using 5th and 6th more than i currently am. Thanks

The '11 Mustang owners manual states that the Miles To Empty number is based on the computers estimate of the average fuel economy the car has achieved over the previous 500 miles driven. Thus until you reach 500 miles or so it's a crapshoot. Once you get to 500 miles it should refine it's number at 100 mile intervals. I'm seeing slight changes in mine at each fill now with about 1400 miles on the odo.

Hope that helps.

I really have'nt paid much attention to the milage or miles to empty, I did notice a 10.5 mpg :nogrinner I filled up earlier today and I beleive it said 266 to empty.I'm one of those guys that does'nt care about gas milage with this car.It's a nice feature to have this info but I doubt I will rely on it much.

so I filled up with 91 and the car is sucking gas and i've been driving less aggressively :scratchchin The computer says 11mpg :weeps I'm waiting for my 200 miles highway trip this week-end to see how it goes. I only have 350 miles on it, so i'm hoping to reach 1000 miles soon to figure out what the real consumption is on it.