Windorah QLD fuel

How did you know you had 7 litres left in it??

Tank capacities are always not 100% correct due to manufacturers allowing space for vapour etc so it is quite easy to squeeze in quite a few extra litres.


Cheers Kev

How did you verify the "about 7 litres"? You may have only had 1-3 L left in the tank, and with 3-4 L in the filler, that would account for the excess fuel dispensed.

No wonder he arced up.....you were doubting his integrity, with no real proof.

Bob

In support of tazbaz, he probably has owned the vehicle for a while, like most of us have owned ours.
He will have experienced the light indicator and know from previous fills how mcu will then fill the tank.
Even if he went over that mark the distance travelled after that point, it is then reasonably determinable how much fuel will fit in the tank.

The estimated 7 L left means around 63 have been used, and therefore a fill of 71 means a difference of around 9% over the expected fill amount.
That is quite a bit.

My vehicle light came on today, From that and ALL previous fills done around the same, I know it will be about 62/63L I add until the neck is full.
You may be surprised how accurate level sensing the gauges are!
They are quite different to older vehicles. I have quite a few apart and the gauge unit and the level sensor are crisp in operation. Not perfect but very good.

So there is a method of how you can tell, besides KM's travelled.

Aren't other people observant enough to know? Such filing stations will love you.
+ 8L at $1.60 only means ONLY $12.80 more than you thought it would be for that amount of fuel. That is Ok you won't notice. All pumps are calibrated correctly aren't they?????

Had the same thing in a large central Qld town. When I told the attendant that I thought his pumps were out he asked me how many litres I thought it should have been. I told him and he only charged me for that amount. All very pleasant about it so probably new his pumps were wrong.

You used the word (capacity), it means what it (will) hold not what it (can) hold. Lucky he had fuel for you.
We live in Australia, you have the right to choose, but with only 7 litres left, you would be walking a fair distance to the next pump.
Have you ever filled a jerry can 20lts, some cans hold 24lts before it runs out the top. And not one will be full at 20 lts. Same as your fuel tank..

I find it hard to understand why so many are attacking the original poster, on his opinion on how much fuel he really had, how much he thought he had, and how much his car ca or cannot hold.
Goodness, after a few months I knew exactly what my car was like, how much I could put in after the light came on, how much it had when theneedle was right on 0, and the like.
I am sure many of you are in the same position!
Or is this just another bash or be bashed thread, like so many and becoming more common
CJ

Yr assuming yr fuel gauge/fuel tank/fuel light are scientific instruments.
....about 7 litres...

What a crock.

This site really has gone to pits, I'm glad I didn't renew my membership, not to be associated with SOME of the people who frequent here now, then again I'm a goose for having a look every now and again.
Once upon a time, poster will put a thread on a particular topic, and get positive advise/opinion/feedback, now all you get is "google it", or what you SHOULD'VE done, nothing like what EO used to be.

The topic, my personal experience with my land cruiser that I've owned for 8 years is the fuel light comes on when it requires about 78-80 liters to fill up to the neck, sub tank is around 40 liters, this is very consistent with the way I have been operating the vehicle since I have owned it, I usually drive on the main tank until the light comes on, then switch over to the sub tank, once the light comes on with the sub tank, in ideal driving conditions I THINK I have approx 80 to 100ks range, I don't know for sure, I've have never had to try, how big are my tanks? I don't know for sure but is advertised as 90/45 liters, I haven't run out completely so I have never measured accurately to verify what they hold, BUT, what I do know is how much it should take when the light comes on, If i put in 85/87 liters at some random servo in a 1 horse town then I would also question the pump calibration, If you think that the inspectors regular inspect EVERY pump at EVERY servo and EVERY pump is 100% accurate, then you must also believe in the tooth fairy, yeah yeah yeah big penalties are in place with the weights and measures discrepancies but the authorities cannot be everywhere

The servo operator probably believes his pumps are accurate and then some tourist's rocks up and complains that the pumps are out, another tourist complaining he thinks, not the first one to complain and he becomes a bit hypersensitive , to get some one out there to check will cost him so the problem remains.
I can pretty much guarantee that tazbaz experience is not unique and bagging him for not have a fuel guage that is scientifically accurate only contributes negative sentiments that EO community has now become infiltrated with, it's sad to see.
Shane

Had the same thing happen at a servo in the Gulf, now people are rattling on about what a tank will hold and what was left in it ???. I know for certain the my sub tank on the 80 will not take 61lts know matter how hard I try, even got under the vehicle thinking I must have holed the sub tank, but no, just a dodgy calibrated pump. Servo owners reply was "where else ya gonna get fuel".
Similar thing was happening on the Barkly, years ago with the servo, it happened to burn to the ground, apparently some very disgruntled truckies.
Cheers.
Tony F8.

This has come up on other forums as well. Just like it is possible to put more than 20 litres in a 20 litre jerry, it's also possible to put more than the supposed limit in your fuel tank by filling it to the neck. I've done it myself a number of times. My comment to the owner/operator is something like "Geez that's weird, I wasn't empty and I just put 75 litres in a 70 litre tank". His reaction will tell. If he seems like a crook then you don't go back. If he seems genuine (equipment can go out of alignment) then he will take it on board and check and rectify at a later date. I wouldn't expect to not pay for the fuel because as stated at the start, it's a fact that you can indeed put more fuel than listed in the tank and you really do not know accurately how much you had left. Just cop it on the chin because you can't know who is right.

Complain all you like , as another poster said 'where else you going to fuel up ' or as the owner operator of Rabbit Flat on the Tanami used to do if you complained about his fuel price , just turned the bowser off , locked it and walked away , would come back an hr or three later and ask if you would like some fuel , soon stopped tourists complaints about prices !! As for Windorah , for years and years the owner operator was actually totally blind , he would sit at the till and COUNT the exact 'clicks' the bowser made , he knew to the exact cent and litres the amount the bowser was reading , tourists[terrorists] would try and try to 'pull the wool ' over him all the time , he was never wrong ,,,,,, temperature - is a major factor of fuel delivery "quantity" ,,, this past summer where we had days on end of temps over 45c in the shade out our way it was necessary to actually put bags of ICE inside the petrol bowser on the pump motor and lines to cool things down as otherwise just trying to suck up vapour ….

We have a Kia Sorento too. It's amazing how much extra you can squeeze in when you're outback and a long way from the next petrol supplier!
We often squeeze in another 5+ litres (if I remember correctly) after it registers as full and does the first automatic click-off. 5 litres can be another 50-70km travelled, which is very important in the outback!
So the next time we fill up, are we filling a tank that had 70 litres before or did we get 75 litres into it (if that's possible by counting up the "neck"), or did we only have 65 litres?
Because of this extra space we can squeeze it into (hubby calls it "filling the hub caps"!) we've found it hard to work out how much we have remaining and just fill it up.
:)
PS: We love our Sorento but the after-market stuff drives us nuts.

Gee you mob rattle on things you know little about. I have a bowser for my own business and also a registered weighbridge. For a start the metering device on the bowser has a seal on it and when it is calibrated it is resealed. It is an offence to tamper with the device. My weighbridge had a compliance sticker missing of it during a recent inspection, I was not allowed to use it until it was replaced. In the case of the weighbridge if someone makes a complaint re accuracy and think they have been diddled then they can contact the authority and if our bridge is found to be out the fine used to be $20,000. I don't know the penalty for the bowser but would assume it would be simillar.
I must say though a few years ago we bought fuel at Carnegie station abd the fuel was dispensed out of an overhead tank with a farm fuel meter wich was not able to be calibrated. How accurate was it, who knows? But it is a long walk to the next joint.
Lindsay

Twice I have tried to fill my vehicle once at Dubbo and the other at Bourke.
The Diesel had ran out but was still turning the meter.
I could hold the pump outside the fuel neck and it would just splutter but was racking up the dollars.
I approached the Service station and that only charged me for an estimated delivery amount.
So how does the meter read the input?

Honkhy

Whilst refraining from comment on the Original Posters situation I thought it might be worth putting 7-litres into context, and noting, anyone has a right to raise a concern with the proprietor of a business if you don't believe you are getting what you paid for...

There are strict rules governing the dispensing of fuel and the calibration of pumps and we place our trust in service stations to do the right thing.

I don’t think that trust is misplaced.

Many EO visitors and members are business people, and I’d be surprised if any would set-out to rip people off intentionally, and I think 99.9% of service station owners are of the same ilk!

The fuel variance involved here equates to a 10% variance in fuel consumption.

I understand the issue raised is about the fuel tank being filled beyond its capacity. But other things that are more likely to make fuel “disappear” include environmental factors such as road conditions, headwinds, and most importantly, a heavy foot-on-the-throttle...

My point?

On average, I expect that we get the amount of fuel we pay for, but perhaps there are occasions we don’t for whatever reason, whether it is a poorly calibrated pump or something more intentional .

But I suspect loss through incorrect fuel pump calibrations would pale insignificantly when lined up against other factors, such as the environment, or a “lead-foot” and the latter of which is squarely in our control.

Is this issue worth the airplay it has created?


Cheers, Baz – The Landy