Has anyone else had gas gauge problems?
 

Here's the deal.

My fuel gauge turns on. No big deal I should have about 0.92 gallons of gas left. I finish the 5-6 mile ride back home figuring I'll get gas on my way out the next day. Early morning the next day my bike starts, but is having trouble idling. I tried to give it a little gas and it just shut off. I look inside the gas tank and there isn't a drop of gas anywhere.

Anyone else ever have problems like this? Is it a bad reserve sensor? Any other thoughts?

thanks guys!

Bad sensor, although they aren't very close even when good. I have about 1.5 gallons left when my light comes on. I've ridden over 25miles after the reserve gauge said I was completely empty and I could still see some gas down at the bottem.
If this thread gets alot of replys I promise someone will say "first the bars come on, then they start blinking, then the bars start disappearing as they blink!". Not true. Once they are on and blinking thats it, your empty.

Where did you read that?
The manual says once they come on you have 0.92 gallons left?

From my experieriences, i've always had the reserve bars come on when i'm close to the bottom of my tank. Also, it does as boredandstroked said, the bars come on and as i get less fuel the bars will slowly disappear until i'm empty. is this not how this works??

i consistantly ride the same 20 mile stretch of interstate highway and by coincidence my reserve light always has come on right as im about get on the ramp. By the time i'm at the off ramp my last bar is blinking and i can just barely make it to a station, tank is bone dry every time.

Now i'm curious, next time i'm at the last reserve bar i'll put in 1/2 a gallon and see if a few more bars light up (after the 90 second delay of course) :icon_hyper:

This is how it is "supposed" to work. And yes the bars are supposed to begin blinking until they are gone, but it seems that as soon as my first bar starts blinking I'm empty if it even begins blinking at all.

As I stated earlier. My reserve came on and I ran out of gas in 5-6 miles. There was definitely not 0.92 gallons of gas left in my tank.

My reserve is definately somewhere around the 1/2 gallon mark. Seems like i can ride for 10-15 minutes in town before i'm pretty much empty.

I can usually get 40km's once they come on. I havent tried to push it any farther then that because I would rather not run out of gas.
But in theory if the bike gets 40 mpg then you should get 37 miles out of the reserve once the light comes on.
So that being said it seems that it is not the most reliable way of knowing when you will run out of gas.
I just track my kilometres and go that route.

You are close. Its supposed to come on at .92 gallons. Then the bars start to blink and disappear on a time base, not gas consumption. Judging by what I've heard though, including this very thread, the sensor for the reserve sucks. I go by miles on the trip. I head to a station once every 100-120 miles, just to be safe. Never takes more than 3.5 gallons.

My last tank of gas goes as follows.

My res lights came on
The more I drove 1 bar would disappear and the last 3 bars started blinking. This kept happening till I had zero bars left. So I went to the gas station and put in 3.6 gals! I wasn't even close to out of fuel but my gauges said I was running on fumes.

Moses

i think i might be having an issue with my gauge as well.
i've had this 04 f4i for about 2 weeks now, and everytime my res bars come on and start blinking, i head to the gas station. although, everytime i've filled up, the gas nozzle ALWAYS clicks off at 2.5 gallons. is this right? do i have more gas left in this tank that i dont know about or something?

I do think your fuel gauge sensor might be bad. It does happen...

Regarding the reserve bars, I can go around 40-50kms if after they are all blinking and i'm riding like a granny.

I have the habit of looking to the gauges every few minutes when in cruise mode but when I'm on it I do not look at them ever.

That has left me stranded alone in the hill/mountain 8kms from nowhere.
Not good...

Just curious, the nozzle "clicks" when you're done filling up?

Personally, I visually fill her up to the little bar about an inch underneath the cap, so it would never click when I fill up because the nozzle is never submerged. Is this the proper way to fill up? :icon_shrug:

hmm...i usually just stick the nozzle in there and let it do its thing

I too am confused about the fuel gauge and reserve of this bike. I've had mine for four years now, ridden for three seasons and whenever all four bars are flashing I head'er to the gas station.

I fill up and there's typically 14.5/15L to full ... which means that by my gauge, the four flashing bars means that I'm then on my 3.5L reserve. It seems like these gauges are inconsistent and Honda hasn't been too clear on what they're supposed to read/indicate.

As far as filling up goes, the manual for my 04 says to fill up to the bottom of the filler neck. I use the bar as a target and top it up so that the top of that bar is just barely submerged.

This season I'm thinking I'm going to get someone to follow me and I'm going to run it until she's dry, add a measured amount of fuel and see how much it takes to top off. Then I'll really know what that bloody reserve light means.

I have only had one experience where my reserve was down all the way. The bike was getting sputtery as I was getting to the gas station. After that I hunt down a gas station the moment the countdown starts.

This is the way I do it too. Those nozzles are built for cars, not bikes. If you are waiting for your nozzle to click you will never be fully filling you bike up. I just pull back on the sleeve to let it up and just watch it as I fill it. Never given me an issue.

:icon_that:

ahhh i see. thanks.