Hello to all, I just want some feedback on the case of my 1 month old first Ford truck. My problem started when the truck cranks but dont start. I remember it had about 40 miles to empty the night before. I also park in a typical inclined driveway, Anyway, I usually back the truck up the driveway so the rear is higher than the front of the truck.

As I had not much a clue about vehicles, I called roadside assistance which told me that my battery is fine. He suggested I shift it to neutral and let it roll down to level street and crank it up. He said something about fuel not being pumped or something like that.

It worked! but my computer indicates "fuel level low" 12 miles to empty. 12 miles is plenty left for me. why cant the computer tell me "FUEL LEVEL LOW" at 25 miles to empty?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? FORD, IF YOUR COMPUTER ISNT RELIABLE TO INDICATE FUEL LEVELS, PLEASE DO NOT PUT IT IN MY TRUCK.

calls to Ford service dealers confirmed that they know about this and suggest to keep fuel level at half tank always. Damn, my japanese car went to as low as 3 miles to empty and had no problem whatsoever.


Service reps keep telling me there's nothing that could be done on their end to fix this. What do you think? I THINK THIS IS LAZY ENGINEERING ON FORD'S END.

 

Welcome to the site.
I never run my tank down that low, so i cant say if its the same on my truck.
Guess I'll keep that in mind.
Yes, with all those electronic computer driven gadgets in vehicles now, you'd think it all works perfectly. Best of luck and keep some more gas in it!

 

Constantly running the fuel down that low is going to reduce your fuel pump life. It needs to be immersed in fuel to keep it cool.

 

welcome to the forums! I moved your thread to the appropriate 2009-2012 section.



I don't believe its lazy engineering, its just the nature of the beast. Your truck's gas tank is very long, narrow and not very deep. Mounted down the length of the truck, so very little fuel spread over the surface area of the tank, even when flat would have its disadvantages over a more "cubical" shaped tank

Most car's have basic boxy tanks, that are mounted across the body side to side, usually in the area of under the back seat. With a tank mounted sideways, its less likely to have issues when the vehicle is parked nose up or down a hill.

 

I thought the tank had some kind of fuel bonnet for situations such as this one. A bonnet would always provide fuel to the engine no matter how the truck is parked.

 

Don't trust the miles to empty for a good while. I've had it drop 20-30-50 miles in just a few minutes. Some people notice the reading is off, others claim it's spot on. I was told to wait 5000 miles and it should shake out. When the needle gets to 1/4, fill it, that's the safe bet.

The fuel pick up for these trucks is in the rear of the tank. When you park facing downhill all the fuel goes to the front of the tank which means you can't start it. On my old 05 the I'm pretty sure the pickup was in the front. You run out of gas going UP HILL, at least I did twice. When you run out of gas going downhill you can keep coasting to get pulled over somewhere. So the engineering is sort of smart.

 

I appreciate the replies of you all who have had experience with these trucks, I now understand a little bit more.

However, I am not totally convinced that ford owners will just accept the fact that you have to watch out for yourself when it comes to reading how the computer gauges fuel levels.

I mean, why can't they put compartments that rise 1/4 of the tank. That way, no matter where they put their fuel line, no matter how much incline, it will at least crank/start. Or send you "fuel level low" at 1/4 level. I am sure there are a lot more that can be done.

BTW, is this scenario documented in the owner's manual? or is this learn from experience? Are there any more quirks on owning a truck I should be aware of?

once again, thanks for all who gave their comments.

 

Interesting.....

 

This is hilarious
Yes learn from experience and use common sense

My Silverado does the same thing if I let it get low and back it up an incline, better to just stop and put gas in it. Your truck will be happy you did

 

this afternoon my common sense told me 88 miles to empty means 6 - 7 gallons of gas is still in the tank and the gas station is just around the corner. A trip to McDonalds and back (3 miles ) won't be that far. Guess what, at the drive thru, the gauge and the computer just decided i have 31 miles to empty. So common sense told me told head to the gas station. Guess what, while pulling up to the gas station, it switched back to 78 miles to empty. Did someone rob me of gas while at the drive thru? and somehow returned it while i drove to the gas station?

i guess this is hilarious. and the joke's on me

 

It was previously explained to you but you are ignoring it. You should not run that low on fuel. If you made a practice of keeping a minimum of 1/4 tank in there, I'm betting the problem will disappear. No more than you have in there, slope and slosh play a big factor and you are damaging the fuel pump.

 

Nah... not hilarious. And I get your frustration. Keep in mind though that the on board computer is 'estimating' your fuel economy and such. The number being displayed is NOT down to the gnat's ***. Lots of factors play in to the equation -- even then though, it's a SWAG (scientific wild-*** guess).

It's like your tires ... if one is low on air, you swing by and find a compressor to juice her' back up. That's way more visual -- with your fuel tank, you're relying on a computer that is using data to come up with a number but, it's a LOOSE number.

Everyone's point -- when you start getting down in that realm, it'd be better to make gas the first stop rather than for a Big Mac.

-RP-

 

Just put gas in the damn truck. That would solve all of your problems. As far as the calculations..... Definitely SWAG.

What's your reasoning for not keeping gas in it? Does it sit a lot?

 

For me I've accepted it's widely inaccurate and don't pay attention to it much. However, when you plop down the cash to buy one of these trucks you expect you're buying something that works, not sorta kinda works. The expectation is you don't need to jiggle the handle after flushing. If Ford can't get it to be accurate then they should drop it until it's out of beta testing.

 

When you are sitting at the drive thru, your average MPG drops .. as that drops, your miles to empty also drops. Once you start moving again, your instant MPG goes up, therefore your miles to empty increases also.

The computer in the truck doesn't know the difference between you sitting at Mickey D's drive thru just two blocks from a gas station, and you being stuck in stop and go traffic with only two gas options in the next 100 miles. It is trying to make sure you understand that at your current instant MPG, you can't go much farther.

Pretty simple concept, and done that way to keep you from being stranded miles from a fueling station.