How empty can it go?

[gazter76]

I made an effort to drive my car until completely empty of petrol a couple of days ago. It seems to try to panic the owner to fill up despite having a fair whack of petrol still in the tank. In the end, having drove over forty miles on save with the fill up light blinking rapidly, i relented, having not wanting to be the muppet with a car that has two fuel systems, stuck on the side of the road because I was empty on both.

A couple of things i noticed, the screen fills up with a warning that you need to fill up, and blocks out all other info. However if you hold the button down the screen refreshes back and lets you see the normal info.

The tank is 45 litres, so despite the excessive fuel warning information about an imminent empty tank for over forty miles, i was still only able to put in 41 litres, leaving another forty miles of range.

 

[puckernutter]

I usually drive it until the range on petrol just displays "---", I did this just the other day after two days of "warning blinking" in the center display. I put in 39 liters of Petrol then.

 

[gwatpe]

I managed to drive 160km once the display went to "--.--" on the petrol range. Did manage to refill with 45L.

 

[gazter76]

I managed to drive 160km once the display went to "--.--" on the petrol range. Did manage to refill with 45L.

Nerves of steel!!! Or did you drive around with a full jerry can in the boot?

It does seem unnecessarily over cautious in telling us to fill up. A 20 to 30 mile range equivalent, maybe up to 40 miles at the outside.

I like the graduated warning, a slow blinking light and then a fast blinking one, just wrong thresholds!

 

[Kamz58]

I got the fast blinking refuel signal last night and panicked because I had to travel to work this morning and the earliest i can refill is when I would be going back home today. I do have full battery though. Do you guys think that if I totally run out of petrol would I still be able to drive it on pure EV? or is it necessary that the fuel tank must have some petrol in it?

 

[anko]

I got the fast blinking refuel signal last night and panicked because I had to travel to work this morning and the earliest i can refill is when I would be going back home today. I do have full battery though. Do you guys think that if I totally run out of petrol would I still be able to drive it on pure EV? or is it necessary that the fuel tank must have some petrol in it?

As soon as you hit the 5 liter mark, the engine will be stopped and the battery will be depleted first. Save and Charge mode will not function anymore. Only when you floor is, the engine will be started again. Or when you turn on the heater. Then the engine may run to provide heat, not power :roll:

 

[jdsx]

I got the fast blinking refuel signal last night and panicked because I had to travel to work this morning and the earliest i can refill is when I would be going back home today. I do have full battery though. Do you guys think that if I totally run out of petrol would I still be able to drive it on pure EV? or is it necessary that the fuel tank must have some petrol in it?

As soon as you hit the 5 liter mark, the engine will be stopped and the battery will be depleted first. Save and Charge mode will not function anymore. Only when you floor is, the engine will be started again. Or when you turn on the heater. Then the engine may run to provide heat, not power :roll:

Ah yes, I can imagine Mitsubishi would want us to be warm in the car while waiting for the flatbed :lol: :lol:

 

[Kamz58]

I got the fast blinking refuel signal last night and panicked because I had to travel to work this morning and the earliest i can refill is when I would be going back home today. I do have full battery though. Do you guys think that if I totally run out of petrol would I still be able to drive it on pure EV? or is it necessary that the fuel tank must have some petrol in it?

As soon as you hit the 5 liter mark, the engine will be stopped and the battery will be depleted first. Save and Charge mode will not function anymore. Only when you floor is, the engine will be started again. Or when you turn on the heater. Then the engine may run to provide heat, not power :roll:

aahh ok, thanks for the clarification

 

[anko]

Ah yes, I can imagine Mitsubishi would want us to be warm in the car while waiting for the flatbed :lol: :lol:

:lol: indeed.

 

[Kim]

See?!? THAT's clever!

 

[gwatpe]

Once the battery is flat, the PHEV will continue in series hybrid mode, until all the petrol is used, and then will continue until all the battery is used.

To test if the PHEV can then be recharged, with an empty petrol tank and then driven again will require towing home or to a recharging station. I see no point in testing this, as it is easier to just have a small jerry can on board for those trips where range without a commercial petrol tank refill available is important.

 

[duetto]

my fuel guage was down to one thin blue bar, had 100 mile range shown drove 12 miles to garage mostly down hill, at the garage checked range again had dropped to 70. still no warnings of low petrol, filled up till pump cut out at 36 litres. I thought it was only a small 37 litre tank which meant I only had one litre left. [battery fully charged]

 

[jdsx]

Petrol tank is 45 litres....so you had 9 litres left - around 2 gallons!

 

[duetto]

thanks for correction

 

[eray1066]

Recently I was running late for a Zoom meeting and needed to get home. I was driving my 2018 Outlander PHEV with a trailer loaded with firewood from our farm. As I neared my house I ran out of gas. However the depleted battery gave the electric motors enough juice to climb the last 1/4 mile uphill at about 2 mph. It was like "The Little Engine That Could"! I drove maybe 35 miles with the gas light on.

 

[STS134]

I've done this several times:

- When there are about 30-35 miles of gasoline range left, the "refuel" warning comes on. The gasoline pump symbol starts flashing slowly. There is 1 bar remaining at this stage.
- At about 25 miles of gasoline range, the gasoline pump symbol starts flashing quickly, the fuel gauge goes to zero bars, and the message "refuel" does not automatically disappear from the display.
- Somewhere around 20-25 miles of gasoline range, Save and/or Charge mode will be automatically canceled by the computer if you are in either mode, and you will not be allowed to enter either mode until you refuel.
- The car will then consume any remaining battery power, if available.
- After the car consumes all battery power down to 1 bar, it will then drive an additional 30-40 miles or so before it refuses to use the ICE. It will then start consuming battery again, and if you look at the PHEV Watchdog, you'll see the battery start to deplete below 28%.

At that point, I'll usually stop the test and get my gas can out of the trunk and refuel.

 

[littlescrote]

- After the car consumes all battery power down to 1 bar, it will then drive an additional 30-40 miles or so before it refuses to use the ICE.

That's further than it will go on the battery from 'full' to 'empty'! Surely a typo?

 

[Dirtyshirt72]

I can concur with that said above. As I live within 2 miles of fuelling station, and most of my recent journeys are more than 10miles (managed a total of 19 miles on sunday, what a treat), I gain nothing by waiting to fill it.
Sunday was the first time I managed to put more than 38L in the tank. 39L, at temp of about 9 degrees C (pumps calib at 15 deg C.)
So safe to say the warning comes on when there is at least 7 litres left in the tank.
Next time (probably about 3 weeks away) I fill it, I will make sure battery is full first, then bottom out completely.
MPG has not been great in recent weather either. My version needs ICE to heat, so defrosting in the morning uses quite a bit of fuel I think. As temps rise, I look forward to seeing a marked improvement on my short commutes.

 

[STS134]

That's further than it will go on the battery from 'full' to 'empty'! Surely a typo?

Not a typo. After it drains the battery and decides to use the ICE again, it will run another 30-40 miles behaving fairly normally, with the exception that you cannot enter Charge or Save modes and the display in the instrument panel will be constantly telling you to refuel it.

I remember I got the first refuel warning at ~30-33 miles of ICE range. I reset the trip meter to 0 at that point. Got the second refuel warning (fast flashing of the gas pump symbol) at ~25 miles, and about 2-5 miles later, the range display started reading "---" and I could no longer use Save or Charge modes. I then kept driving it in Normal mode and it was behaving normally until at some point, it switched back to using the battery and began depleting it way below 28% (0 bars). I watched in PHEV watchdog as the battery hit 25% and then 23% and then pulled over, poured gas into the tank, and looked at the trip meter. It had about 50 miles on it.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Mine shows '---' when there's around 40 miles of petrol range showing. But there is still loads of fuel in the tank when the petrol range gets to zero. When we first got the car, we'd start filling up when the range disappeared, but it would only take 30-35l (in a 45l tank). I find it really annoying that the display goes to '---' when there's still over 10l in the tank.