FTO AUSTRALIA

how'd u go with your calculations with Optimax RXBOY?

btw, BP Ultimate is a bitch to find (althoug i have now found one conveniently close to where i usually hang out in Melb) plus the rip-off petrol prices dished out these days is a joke, and no discount coupons to compensate @ BP either.... i've heard good things about BP Ultimate, but generally i hear more about their lack of availability, which doesn't really help when i live out in the sticks!

how'd u go with your calculations with Optimax RXBOY?

I won't be able to work it out until I fill up again (need to know how many litres it has used up). That probably won't be for another 1.5 weeks since I only fill up once a fortnight.

I also need to redo the calculations, because my ULP estimate was based on the old Melbourne price of ULP (before my car broke down) of approx 85c/L. Now the average price of ULP is approx 95c/L.

SO there is definatley a yellow light that comes up when you are close to running out of juice? I have never seen it on mine and i thought there may not be one, as i thought i have run it low a few times

Yea the orange light comes on and off when you are getting empty, but I have never got empty enough for it to stay on...
does it stay on when really empty?
Are you guys getting the extension of the woolies system to include BP and other independants over there or is that just WA?

as far as i'm aware of, there is no discount vouchers for BP here in Vic (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) but there are countless independents who offer discounted petrol if you shop at IGA/Foodworks etc...

btw, my fuel light only comes on/off intermittantly once i rack up 500kms... from there i have about 50-80kms max to play with before i run dry... nudged close to 58litres once - phew!!

That's pretty good economy GPXXX. My fuel light starts turning off/on after I've done about 320km, but that was on Synergy 8000.

This must certainly be because u drive lots on highways and freeways whereas I make a lot of tiny trips. Am I right?

well put it this way - 300kms are just freeway driving, the rest are just suburban driving, so yeh i guess you're right...

...oh yeah and that's with the occassional squirt here n' there, hehehe...!

edit: oh, and also because it's manual...

i havnt really counted how much k's i get outta optimax

it just depends on how u drive really.....

if the light is turning on and off... i think that means that the tank is nearly empty... the petrol in your car is probably swishing around the tank, causing the light to go on and off!

I can only rely on this light turning off/on now cos my fuel gauge has been screwed since I installed the new dials. It goes from full to 3/4 and then doesn't go any lower (but goes back up to full whenever I fill up). Probably some kind of obstruction there.

rxboy wrote:I can only rely on this light turning off/on now cos my fuel gauge has been screwed since I installed the new dials. It goes from full to 3/4 and then doesn't go any lower (but goes back up to full whenever I fill up). Probably some kind of obstruction there.

mine seems to take forever to get to half tank, then from there it just dives all the way past 3/4 (halfway towards 'E'), then it seems to take its time to reach 500kms from there when the fuel warning light comes up LOL...

Yeah I have found a similar thing.
The extremes of the gauge moves really slowly, but it moves really quickly around the middle.

ie from F to 3/4 full is slow.
from 3/4 full to half to 1/4 full moves quickly
from 1/4 full to E moves slowly.

is that what you mean?

M@

errr... sorta! LOL...
without confusing myself (and others) here goes my scenario:

ie: from F to 1/2 is slow
from 1/2 to just a little over 1/4 moves quickly
from 1/4 to E moves slowly...

...does it make any sense??

mine is the same as yours GPXXX

When mine was working it went something like this:

From FULL to 3/4 FULL - very slowly
From 3/4 FULL to EMPTY - very fast

It took 1 week of driving to get to 3/4 FULL
and 1 week of equivalent driving to get from 3/4 FULL till EMPTY

a better way of looking at it...
mine does 250k on the first half and 150 k on the second half....
hey rxboy, try taking the gauge apart when the fuel light comes on and resetting it to empty. Does the gauge ever go back to empty?

Rxboy, did you or the person that installed the dials pull out the needles from the gauges? If that was the case, then the reading on the gauges will not be completely accurate.

I had the same problem when my dials were done, fuel and temperature gauges were not accurate. Fuel gauge would also go to full when full but get stuck at the 3/4 mark. So those 2 gauges actually had to be replaced (not at my cost though).

I get about 450-480KM before the light comes on. The closest I've come to the end is 5L left. But I think the engine compensates (in terms of revs) as you go low on fuel.

The light definately stays on as it gets to a extremely low level. But it does go on and off intermmitently for a period before that....as a warning perhaps. Mine's a 97 GPX on Shell Optimax.

No, my fuel gauge never goes back to empty. It just sits on 3/4 full until I fill her up again, at which point it goes back up to full.

I installed all the gauges myself. They were the KMC ones which can just slip on under the needles, so I didn't have to remove them. Every needle has a zero resting point other than the one on the fuel gauge. So touching any of them just caused them to drop back and rest on zero. The fuel gauge needle however, was showing a bit more than 3/4 full when I slipped the new dial on. I accidently nudged it a bit but moved it back to its original spot.

I think I'll try what Elmo said and manually move it to zero once I see the fuel warning light come on.

Just worked out the fuel efficiency for Shell Optimax and found out that there is no significant difference when compared to Mobil Synergy 8000 for me.

Fuel efficiency:
Optimax 14.1L per 100km or 7.1km/L
Synergy8000 14.3L per 100km or 7.0km/L

That equates to approx 15 cents/km travelled based on a price of 105.4c/L of Optimax (I filled up at a bad time). Filling up at cheaper times and getting the 4c discount could reduce Optimax price to about 92c/L (efficiency of 13c/km).