According to the manual the V40 has a 16 gal capacity gas tank. When the panel fuel light comes on there should be 1.5 gal of fuel left(pg 20 manual). The trip computer as set bears no real relationship to what is in the tank that is displayed at either end of the cycle. It seems to be useless. A real disappointment as my previous car, a Ford Explorer had one that was accurate and useful! The trip computer is supposed to warn you when you have less than enough fuel for another 10 miles of travel or less than 1.9gal (pg.29 manual). Problem is that neither system seems to bear any relationship to each other or to what my fuel tank capacity is supposed to be. When I fill up with the fuel panel warning lite I am full at 12.25 -12.5 gal, when I wait for the computer to give me the 10 mile warning I am full at 13 gal. Does anyone know what the actual viable capacity of the tank is? In either case I seem to have a large amt. of dead space in my tank.

Carol........yes it is confusing(what the manual states)but I can tell you confidently that when the light goes on, the gas tank has slightly more than 3.5 gallons left(approx!) Unlike alot of brick owners who drive for speed/performance/acceleration...I drive for max fuel economy...I also like to see how far I can go on a full tank, which means; what is my maximum range before I chicken out and stop for gas! If you were to drive at a conservative speed of 50-55mph, you can go another 15-20+ miles(depending on how flat the road is/and generally how gentle or lightfooted you are on the gas) before the gas tank light is replaced by the word "FUEL"...comes on! At this point you will have approx. 2.8 to 3.1 gal+. left...I know because I do it all the time, in fact, I often go 40-50 additional miles....with the needle burried in the red and have never taken more than 14.9 of the 15.8 capacity! Am I nuts....maybe so, but I'd like to think I'm a safe nut!!!! It beats going 75-80 and getting ticketed and in accidents! I make 10- 15 trips a year from Burlington,VT to Boston and back..448-450 miles on under 12 gal. My best milage for this trip is 37.8 mpg...with a lot of real "economical driving"! But thats another post......Bill/Milage Nut!

With my S40 I consistantly get around 28.5mpg driving city/highway. On the highway I drive between 60-80mph. In the city, stop and go up to 40mph. When the light comes on and I fill the tank right away, it only takes 12 gallons approx. of the 16 gallon capacity Therefore, when I want to keep driving I make a mental note or reset the trip and make sure I don't go to far over 100 miles when the fuel light comes on.

I look at it this way, there is approx. 4 gallons in the tank when the fuel light comes on, I round down my fuel milage to about 25 mpg, giving 100 mile before I start to worry about. I have been in situations were I had to go another 16 miles before I found a service station, but that is why I round down the mileage.

It might be worth while to fill your tank as soon as the fuel light comes one and find out how many gallons it takes to fill the tank. Then find out your gas mileage and go from there. It might take away the stress of how far you can go....

Kylw...Do you have a '00 or'01? I wish I had the '01 because it appears with the transmission/and other changes there is the very real capability for a fair increase in milage!!! Plus I really like the benefit of the side-curtains if the need ever presented itself!....Oh well! As far as the stress factor...it doesn't bother me, I make sure that when I am real low, I am very near a gas station! I never put myself in this situation on the highway or in any kind of rush hour traffic. Bill

Bill,

I have a 2000 S40. I keep it in economy mode during my daily commute to work. As for the 2001 models, I would have like to have the side-curtains as well. However, I do not like all the interior changes made such as the window controls were moved from the center console to the door, and some small things like that. Although, I think the center console is too low in the 2000 models. Oh well, can't have it all.

--Kyle

Thanks for all the responses. My V40 is a 2001 and I like it but....As I mentioned previously I hate trips to the gas station. Prior to buying it I calculated the range it could travel at a conservative mpg. It doesn't come close. Big disappointment!

Carol,

It's funny you should bring this up, we had a big discussion about this a few weeks ago on here. I covered this on my website www.classiccats.cc(see projects then s40 conversion, the info. along with pictures is in the performance testing section) Our cars dont use a conventional "floater" type sensor to tell us how much fuel is in our cars. Instead it has an "estimator" type sensor (dont ask me about this this is what I was told) which like you said is pretty much useless for people who like to drive down to the last drop. According to Volvo the reason for the 12.5 gallon capacity is due to the shape of the tank. While this is an ok theory since i've seen the way the tank is shaped (see the pictures on my site) I still refuse to believe that somehow there are almost 4 gallons worth of dead space. My conclusion was if your filling up with 12.5 gallons then you only have a 12.5 gallon tank, and dont depend on a computer to tell you when you should have to stop for fuel.

Carlos

It's not that I like to drive to last drop. I like to know how much I've got! If the car actually has only 12.5 gal available it has a pretty poor driving range. I am getting nowhere near the advertised gas milage. My Toyota Camry does better and goes farther on a tank.

Carol,

I didn't mean to sound rude with the "drive to the last drop" thing. I've done that before as well. How long ago did you get your car? The first three weeks of driving my S40 around fuel mileage sucked, literally. Your engine needs to break in, My fuel economy has improved drastically. You also have to remember that this car has a turbo and these kinds of cars hate traffic. So if you're in alot of stop and go traffic fuel economy goes to crap. My suggestion on the fuel gauge is just read it the way it should be read, try not to wait for the light to warn you.

Carlos

Carlos,

I think my real concern, and perhaps Carol's as well, is that since the tank has an odd shape, are the 3-4gallons not being counted accuratly by the fuel level indicators usable? They're not in some odd pockets from which the fuel pump can't get to them?

If they're usuable then the fuel warning is actually working as promised and warning you that you are low on fuel and you're advised to fill up after it lights up. A 3-4 gallon warning is actually quite generous, especially if they are all usuable since the pump would then be able to suck it up more easily under any conditions (hilly terrain as an example).

What do you think?

Alberto

I posted a reply here yesterday (or thought I had) but in essence what I said was that Volvo has always been conservative with the gas gauge. When you hit the red zone of the gauge (at least in all my previous Volvos don't have a 40 series yet hopefully by the end of the summer) there is usually a quarter of the tank left they used to call this the "reserve". On the older cars you could generally run the car below the markings on the guage without running out of fuel (though you don't really want to be there now do you?:) ) I would have thought that Volvo has contiued this traditrion, but according to Carol's message the warning light is supposed to come on when there are only 1.9 gallons left in the tank, unless there is a misprint in the manual it would appear that they have changed pratice, though that doesn't necessarily mean that the gauge is less pessimistic. My practice with my Volvos is to fill them up again fairly soon after they hit the red zone (though I have gone farther when I had to) that is typically the 1/4 tank level (despite looking like the 1/8 tank level on the gauge). Hope this helps a bit (or at least doesn't muddy that water anymore:))

Alberto,

I'm not sure where the extra 3-4 gallons is if there are any at all. Because our cars you a special type of sensor to "estimate" how much fuel we have left i'm not sure how accurate we can expect them to be. I'd expect it to be highly accurate since this is cutting edge technology from Volvo, umm Right?? LOL! I do not know why Volvo did this, hell i'm still trying to figure out why they chose to go with three different strut towers and thirteen different spring combinations, who came up with that?

My only thought is this, i've done my best to drain the tank (basically just wait til the light comes and then hit the nearest station) and still when I fill up my max has been 12.6 gallons (I even had fuel spewing out once!!) If that is all I can fit into it then that is all I will ever be able to use thus making my tank a 12.6 gallon tank.

I still find it hard to believe that 3 to 4 gallons are just sitting around in some strange pockets of this strange tank they put in here. The only way I think I would ever use 16 gallons is if I was stranded in the wasteland and had to drive until there just was no more fuel in the car, and by that time i'd be SOL cause hey, it's the wasteland! LOL!!!

Carlos: dazed and confused BUT

I still love my 2001 Volvo S40 "Volvo for life"

Oh and the most miles i've been able to get out of a tank is about 315 +/- 5 miles which puts my fuel economy at about 25.2miles to the gallon. (This is in mixed highway/city use)