59 replies to this topic

[ROD]

I'm sure my '76 Clubby came with a 7.5 gallon tank.

My old '76 GT had a 7.5 gallon Tank

[Jon_618]

Hi all,

My first post

appoligies if i'm hijacking you thread, but i'd like to ask the same question,

have a 1998 mini cooper (1275) everything is standard,

and i'm getting 100 mile to a tank,

my driving is manily around town and country lanes,

should i be getting more for my money???

many thanks

Jon

[Jammy]

Depends how much your filling up with everytime???

[Jon_618]

Depends how much your filling up with everytime???

just been to the morisons petrol garage now,

16.00 L. @101.9 p = £16.30

thats about normal with-in a few pence or so,

?

[Jammy]

Well thats about 1/2 a tank (see the FAQ section as to why you can't fill up a full tank). I would say your fuel consumption is a little on the low side, but this could be done to the engine needing a service, the ECU enriching the mixture a lot in this cold weather, short journeys with lots of acceleration and deceleration.

[ginigwunkle]

i find putting the nozzle all the way into the tank when filling up cuts it off far too early, the nozzle only needs to go in just past the tank neck....

[DTXDave]

I have an unmodified 998 in a 1990 Mini City E and I regularly do a 270 mile journey on a full tank of about 25 litres (according to the pump when filling up with the needle at the bottom of the red mark). That's motorway driving with an average speed of 65mph.

When I do short journeys I get about 200 miles on the same amount.

It used to be worse but I sorted the timing, replaced the spark plugs, cleaned the rotor arm and contacts in the distributor cap, tuned the carb idle, replaced the air filter element, fixed the blowing exhaust at the downpipe/manifold bracket, and correctly set the handbrake cable tension.

I have no idea what capacity my tank is as I never fill it to the neck because it stinks of fuel in the car if I do. So I stick the nozzle in and stop filling at the first click.

Here's the tank before I cleaned it up:



DTXDave

[Jon_618]

I have an unmodified 998 in a 1990 Mini City E and I regularly do a 270 mile journey on a full tank of about 25 litres (according to the pump when filling up with the needle at the bottom of the red mark). That's motorway driving with an average speed of 65mph.

When I do short journeys I get about 200 miles on the same amount.

It used to be worse but I sorted the timing, replaced the spark plugs, cleaned the rotor arm and contacts in the distributor cap, tuned the carb idle, replaced the air filter element, fixed the blowing exhaust at the downpipe/manifold bracket, and correctly set the handbrake cable tension.

I have no idea what capacity my tank is as I never fill it to the neck because it stinks of fuel in the car if I do. So I stick the nozzle in and stop filling at the first click.

Here's the tank before I cleaned it up:



DTXDave

Really confused now,

the 16 liters always takes the needel up to the top and i fill up when the needel touches into the red marked section,

possible i have a dodgy fule guage? so i'm only ever draining the tank half way?

how do i get to the guage bit in the tank to check it, is there an inspection hatch?

thanks for your advice,

a much apprecitive Jon

[Jammy]

Depends what you consider empty. Empty isn't the redline on the standard guage!

I think most people can get about 20-25 litres in a tank if they run it REAL low and fill it til its brimming.

[DTXDave]

Really confused now,

the 16 liters always takes the needel up to the top and i fill up when the needel touches into the red marked section,

possible i have a dodgy fule guage? so i'm only ever draining the tank half way?

how do i get to the guage bit in the tank to check it, is there an inspection hatch?

thanks for your advice,

a much apprecitive Jon

Mine never really reaches the top of the gauge because I stop filling when the pump clicks. When I fill it to the top, the car stinks of petrol for the first half hour of the journey so I top up on route now to avoid the headaches from the fumes.

I carry a fuel can and I filled it up one time and drove the car until the tank was empty just to see how many miles I could last from when it went into the red until it conked out. It did 50 and the needle traveled well below the red. I always stop and fill up when I hit the red though, but now I know what my 'reserve' tank holds.

Oh, I don't recommend doing what I did because the crud in the bottom of your tank can be sucked into your carb (I'd just cleaned up the tank in the photo so it was crud-free).

I think that if your gauge travels to the top and bottom and you can see/hear the fuel near the top of the neck when filling then the sender unit is working ok. Excessive fuel use could be a leak, tuning, or servicing issue.

Looking at your earlier post, I filled up at a garage the other day at £1.01/ltr and paid about £15 which took the gauge from a quarter tank reading (between top of red mark and the halfway white line on gauge) to just under full.

I also tend to use Shell normal unleaded fuel as my Mini doesn't do to well on supermarket fuel for some reason.

DTXDave

[Jammy]

As I said, there is an FAQ on why you can't fill up a tank with its full capacity. Would anyone like me create a link to where the FAQ section is?!

[Ethel]

If you want to work out your mpg go by the pump and calculate keep an eye on the miles between filling up. Even if you don't fill it to exactly the same level it will average out over time.

[Mini Man Dan]

As I said, there is an FAQ on why you can't fill up a tank with its full capacity. Would anyone like me create a link to where the FAQ section is?!

I know where the FAQ section is but I can't find the thread you refer to

[Dan]

Oh, I don't recommend doing what I did because the crud in the bottom of your tank can be sucked into your carb

ARRRGGHHH, NO IT CAN NOT. Sorry to shout, that comes up fairly regularly and is a myth. Floating crud can be drawn into the fuel system but sediment can't really, the tank outlet is about an inch and a half off the bottom of the tank and is filtered and there is no reason it should get stirred up down there. If you aren't filling up at supermarkets there won't be much sediment there anyway.

Oh so many issues on this thread. First, DTXDave if you can't fill the tank without vapour pouring into the car there is something wrong, check the tank vent is actually venting under the car not into the boot and make sure the tank isn't leaking at high level as obviously that could be very dangerous. A boot full of vapour and fuel with a nice big heavy duty source of fat sparks nearby is a bad thing. Yours is a 7.5 gallon tank by the way.

Jon618, I don't know of any car ever made that has a fuel gauge that you would consider to be accurate. They are all different and vague and all they ever show is the level not the volume so exactly what it will show depends on whether you are moving or parked on a hill or something. If you are only getting 16 litres in then you are only using half a tank. Just keep driving next time and push it until the needle gets a bit lower on the gauge, then fill up and see how much you get in. Keep going until you can get somewhere around 30 litres in when filling to just below the join between the neck and the body of the tank (you can see where the level is then through the filler, it should never be filled into the neck). The total capacity is around 34 litres so if you are pushing it to having only about 4 left you are still quite safe. Then just note how low it will actually go on the gauge, the red sector is only a warning on any car. Keep a full jerry can with you when you are doing this testing, just in case the gauge is actually broken but it isn't likely.

AFAIK the 7.5 gallon tank became standard accross the saloon range in 1973, before that it was used on the 1275GT and I think the Mk3 Cooper S only. From then on ALL SALOON MINIS had a 7.5 gallon tank. This is not as confusing as this thread would make it seem.

Edited by Dan, 03 January 2008 - 12:05 AM.

[Jon_618]

Oh, I don't recommend doing what I did because the crud in the bottom of your tank can be sucked into your carb

Jon618, I don't know of any car ever made that has a fuel gauge that you would consider to be accurate. They are all different and vague and all they ever show is the level not the volume so exactly what it will show depends on whether you are moving or parked on a hill or something. If you are only getting 16 litres in then you are only using half a tank. Just keep driving next time and push it until the needle gets a bit lower on the gauge, then fill up and see how much you get in. Keep going until you can get somewhere around 30 litres in when filling to just below the join between the neck and the body of the tank (you can see where the level is then through the filler, it should never be filled into the neck). The total capacity is around 34 litres so if you are pushing it to having only about 4 left you are still quite safe. Then just note how low it will actually go on the gauge, the red sector is only a warning on any car. Keep a full jerry can with you when you are doing this testing, just in case the gauge is actually broken but it isn't likely.

AFAIK the 7.5 gallon tank became standard accross the saloon range in 1973, before that it was used on the 1275GT and I think the Mk3 Cooper S only. From then on ALL SALOON MINIS had a 7.5 gallon tank. This is not as confusing as this thread would make it seem.

Dan thanks for clearing that up,
now ive got the answer its time for bed

thankyou to all who help.

oh and by the way i couldnt find the FAQ on filling up either.

Night all

Jon & Jill <--- (the mini apparently:s)