Fuel gauge

harr

I Probably already know the answer to this but to prove a point to someone else...
Was with brother in law today in his Mazda 6 (09) fuel light comes on and only had a tenner on him well in cash anyway..we drove another while and we knew we probably won't make it to his local garage..so he gets a tenners worth of Diesel to see him home..we drive out of garage and he noticed the gauge had not moved ..I told him it probably won't move as it was only a tenner he put in.So he goes back into garage ranting he has been conned and demanding to speak to management who offered to show him the calibration report for the pump and to fill a 5 litre container to prove he was conned but he was having none of it...so should the fuel gauge have moved ?
The manager in fairness had the answers for him but he wouldn't listen and now wants to report the garage to revenue 🙄

colm_mcm

That's normal enough.

pa990

Firstly €10 of fuel is only 7 litres.
Hardly going to make a massive difference in the fuel gauge.

Secondly, the fuel gauge isn't a calibrated, it's an approximate quide.

Thirdly, a 5L fuel can will hold more than 5L

Fourtly, that guy sounds like a duck.

colm_mcm

pa990 wrote: »

Fourtly, that guy sounds like a duck.

Sounds like good quack though.

harr

pa990 wrote: »

Firstly €10 of fuel is only 7 litres.
Hardly going to make a massive difference in the fuel gauge.

Secondly, the fuel gauge isn't a calibrated, it's an approximate quide.

Thirdly, a 5L fuel can will hold more than 5L

Fourtly, that guy sounds like a duck.

Yep he can be a bit of an ass ....one these lads who likes to think he is always right 😁 Is there not a marker line on a fuel can to show the 5 litre mark ?

coylemj

harr wrote: »

...he wouldn't listen and now wants to report the garage to revenue 🙄

Nothing to do with revenue. As long as the filling station is buying from a tax-compliant supplier (who pays the excise) and they're paying their VAT, that's all that revenue care about.

What your friend is concerned with comes under the old heading of 'weights and measures', these days it's this crowd he needs to talk to if he thinks the pumps are not calibrated properly .....

https://www.nsai.ie/Our-Services/Measurement/Complaints-and-Appeals.aspx

colm_mcm

If your friends car hasn't stopped in the meantime from lack of diesel then he probably got some!

harr

coylemj wrote: »

Nothing to do with revenue. As long as the filling station is buying from a tax-compliant supplier (who pays the excise) and they're paying their VAT, that's all that revenue care about.

What your friend is concerned with comes under the old heading of 'weights and measures', these days it's this crowd he needs to talk to if he thinks the pumps are not calibrated properly .....

https://www.nsai.ie/Our-Services/Measurement/Complaints-and-Appeals.aspx

In fact the garage manager gave him those details and showed him the last calibration they had performed (December) ..I honestly think he won't take it any further. The garage is a mainstream one and is in business years. I can't see them being on the take.

harr

colm_mcm wrote: »

If your friends car hasn't stopped in the meantime from lack of diesel then he probably got some!

I could here the pump pumping so to speak and yes we got home with fuel light still on..it's a 2.2 litre car I think so yes I definitely think he got fuel but he is still convinced he didn't...

colm_mcm

Does your friend have a tinfoil hat?

coylemj

The needle being at rock bottom and not budging any lower or the low fuel light being on doesn't mean that the tank is bone dry. I had a car once and the low fuel light used to come on too early - when there was tons of fuel left in the tank, enough for 30-40 miles. I mentioned this to the garage the next time it was in for a service so your man said he'd adjust it. A couple of weeks later I was driving to Galway on the old N6 and as I pulled into a shop in Moate to buy a paper, the fuel light came on. No problem says I, I'll pull into the big Texaco place on the Dublin side of Athlone (10 miles away) and fill up. Half a mile outside Moate, I ran out of petrol!

So what the OP's friend needs to understand is that the needle at rock bottom or the low fuel light coming on doesn't always mean empty and if the tank was very low, you could easily add 7 litres and not see the gauge move a millimetre or the light go out.

dev100

harr wrote:

I could here the pump pumping so to speak and yes we got home with fuel light still on..it's a 2.2 litre car I think so yes I definitely think he got fuel but he is still convinced he didn't...

Is he the type who shouts and that's in restaurants and you have to hide your head in shame lol... Tell him it's not like 20 year ago where a tenners worth got you half a tank ...Nsai control and regulate and test the pumps it shows a calibration sticker on the pump. If you could imagine it's illegally only dispensing half of a tenners worth . You get someone who goes in to fill to the spout and has to pay nearly double of what they would normally pay if would be flagged straight away !!!

Any discrepancies will end being costly on the company ....

Sam Kade

harr wrote: »

I Probably already know the answer to this but to prove a point to someone else...
Was with brother in law today in his Mazda 6 (09) fuel light comes on and only had a tenner on him well in cash anyway..we drove another while and we knew we probably won't make it to his local garage..so he gets a tenners worth of Diesel to see him home..we drive out of garage and he noticed the gauge had not moved ..I told him it probably won't move as it was only a tenner he put in.So he goes back into garage ranting he has been conned and demanding to speak to management who offered to show him the calibration report for the pump and to fill a 5 litre container to prove he was conned but he was having none of it...so should the fuel gauge have moved ?
The manager in fairness had the answers for him but he wouldn't listen and now wants to report the garage to revenue 🙄

harr

dev100 wrote: »

Is he the type who shouts and that's in restaurants and you have to hide your head in shame lol... Tell him it's not like 20 year ago where a tenners worth got you half a tank ...Nsai control and regulate and test the pumps it shows a calibration sticker on the pump. If you could imagine it's illegally only dispensing half of a tenners worth . You get someone who goes in to fill to the spout and has to pay nearly double of what they would normally pay if would be flagged straight away !!!

Any discrepancies will end being costly on the company ....

He is pig headed yes...all of the above was explained to him...to be fair to the manager she listened to him and explained everything in a calm manner..the company in question I just checked is 50 years in business.

biko

Next time he gets light on, repeat at another garage.
If fuel gauge doesn't move again make him go back to first garage and apologise.

T5180

Your friend sounds like a right barrel of laughs to be with .
I have worked on a lot of this equipment in the past and carried out calibration checks , and generally we found that the measure was in the favour of the customer . Even if the forecourt owner decided to tamper with the pump flowmeter the range of adjustment is so small that something as crude as a car fuel gauge would never highlight a discrepancy .
If your friend was so convinced he was right why did he not take the manager up on the offer to demonstrate the measure with a 5 litre can , it would have ended the discussion immediately . The manager is a saint , hopefully he doesn’t have to deal with that sort of behaviour too often .
I never ceases amaze me how many people will drive out of there way for a cent of a difference in the price of a litre of fuel and then pay €2.00 for a 300ml bottle of water …….