Is everyones gas gauge a joke, or just mine?
 

I've got an 08 FXDB. 5 gallon tank, correct? Why does the gas light come on after I go through 3.5 gallons? There's still over a third of the tank left, atleast 70 miles or so. how the hell is that almost "empty"? Is it because I've got a 2" tank lift on the front, or are they just ridiculously unreliable? Does the tank lift leave a lot of unusable fuel in the tank because of the angle?

Is there some sort of replacement cap I can get for the gauge? If it's not gonna work anyway, I'd rather just watch the odometer. I tried to pull out the cap, but the wires are super short....like maybe an inch of play it seems. Is there some secret to this?

Mine is accurate to within 2-4 gallons.....:icon_warped:

Ha. Why do they even bother then?

Mine was not accurate when new, but has settled in and works well now.

O' the good old days of opening the cap or sloshing the tank to determine how far you had left!

Maybe it's just HD's way of helping ensure you don't run out of gas. I never pay attention to the gauge but just go by miles.

I have the 2 inch lift and it definitely affects the accuracy of the fuel indicator.
I'm not saying that the stock fuel indicator is great, but the lift causes it to indicate much less gas than is available in my tank for sure.

Tom

Mine was pretty consistent so I knew how much was left when the light came on, but then I changed to the Kury fuel gauge and set the light to blink where I wanted it to. As long as it is consistent then it should be fine as a reminder that you are close to needing to stop. Most people watch their odometer though...

your cars fuel gauge is of too. take a felt pen and color over the gauge and the light, color is up to u. :icon_shrug:

I can't believe you are whinning about your gas gauge. Be thankful you have one.

Is everyones gas gauge a joke, or just mine?

Yep, just yours...

Don't worry. Be happy. Just ignore it. Use your trip odometer and keep a record of your fill-ups, so you can obtain an accurate average mpg.

My gas gauge is sort of a reminder for me. When I start the bike up after a few days of being off it, it tells me if I had just gassed up before parking it, or not. Then I remember that I just made it home on empty and needed to gas it soon, or whatever the circumstances were were.

I have a 2" tank lift and know that when the needle first hits "E" on level ground that I have 25 "safe" miles left. In that regard, it is handy and fairly accurate, but if I fail to notice when it first hits the "E" I'm lost because that is where it will stay until empty and it moves really fast once it gets below the 1/4 tank level then stopping at "E" and staying there.

The odometer/trip meter is also a nice way to calculate your next refueling, but I recently built the engine and did a lot of erratic accel/decel runs for a few hundred miles to seat the rings, yielding me 22 to 25 MPG, it's hard to trust the odometer on that amount of mileage drop.

I keep a log during each fill-up, gallons, odo reading, date and notes telling me the town or whatever so that I can look back, recall the trip and picture in my mind the conditions, two-up, slow country rides, fast, racing, etc. so that eventually I'll be able to trust my odometer and maybe my gas gauge more.

For now I'm carrying a 1 gallon Reda saddle bag gas can (actually holds .87 gallons) for insurance and for when riding with buddys that forget to fuel up.

I've got a 2001 fxd,the gauge crapped in 05,just left it . i fill up at around r4 135-150 miles or reserve.............

The guage isn't all that accurate on mine but the light seems to always come on after using 3.5 gallons out of my 4.7 gallon tank. I still use the odometer though.

Ah, good old petrol taps with a reserve...those were the days :-)

I think the general answer is - it's not just you =)

doesn't matter anyway as gas always depends on riding style. wind, load, drag, etc, if you expect it to be that good well I think your looking for something thats not there, like many posters have said most of us just work on a certain number of miles, and know if we are riding hard then thats going to be a lot less,

I notice my light comes on at 1/4 tank, if I ride a bit then shut off and back on the light will go off, I figure its the float on the gauge and since the bike sits on the stand at a angle it thinks I have less than I actually do...

The tank gauge itself is slow to come up, that I hate, but if I sit on the bike and wait a minute it comes up to where it should be....

I go by the miles on mine too. I just reset my trip odometer everytime I fill up with gas. I know about how many miles I can go on a tank and just make sure to monitor the mileage. My fuel light comes on long before I run out.

My wife and I each have new 2011 bikes and we noticed the there is a small r on the trip odo,we keep it set to that and once we fuel up and start moving it goes up to say 305 kms and as we ride it decreases in kms and we have this on our car as well and it's pretty bang on,and have'nt had any trouble yet,the light has come and we look down and it says 40kms,thats pretty close in my book.The gas gauge is just there,I don't go by that,I'll check to see if it's fairly close to what the odo says,but I won't refuel based on the gauge,if you don't have our feature then just reset the trip every time and you should be fine,as long as you know how many miles you can get out of a tank.

Mike.

Yeah, I've always just gone by the odometer on previous bikes. This is first one vie had that had a gauge. I kind of wish I'd didn't. I'd rather just go by miles than have a fuel light shining in my face 60 miles more than it needs to.

Anyone know of a write up on here to remove the gauge and replace it with a regular cap?

Have had the HD speedo/tach combo guage for a couple months now, and just go by that. It is actually alot more accurate than the tank gauge... Tank gauge never seemed that accurate to me.

my 2006 fxstbi gauge was garbage as well. For how much the bikes run brand new, you would think that they could give a guy a decent fuel gauge. Everytime I would wash my bike I would get moisture inside the fuel gauge glass. The same would happen to my speedometer glass. After my tank had been fueled my gauge would show I need gas for the next few days. I finally had enough with that and upgraded to a better one.

Mines pretty beat, says going on empty when it's half full... I just top off every 125 miles or so...

You might try and get a fuel cap cover and just cover it up.

mine is the same way, not a big deal

I brought mine back to the dealer when I realized mine was telling me to fill up when I still had over 1/4 of a tank left. Dealer tested the tank and it would show 1/2 a tank properly on the gauge but once below that it would become less accurate as gas was used, until 1/4 when the light would come on. On my 4.7 tank, I've got a lot of riding left to do on 1/4 of a tank. They attempted to adjust the float, but this did not really resolve the problem. I'm wondering if it's just a poor adjustment on the gauge setting for how much is left to come on. I have a feeling they make it come on earlier than later for safety reasons.

Good to know the speedo/tach combo has a gauge as well. May go this route if it's better.

The MOCO just puts one on so we don't whine about not having a fuel gauge. I have never went by fuel gauge, trip odometer only.

I always start looking for a station to find out I have two gallon left. I would rater be safe then sorry. Just my two cent

All of mine are close enough to be useful. I do plan to do a tank lift on the softail so I guess that will change.

DITTO!:icon_fryingpan:

:icon_slap: as i said before, when you run out go back 5 miles and fill up

x2
with 1-1/2 gallons that would get me about 60 miles. Pretty easy for that to go by and forget about fuel when you got a good day of riding. And it sure would suck to have to sit and wait for fuel when your 20 miles from the closest station..
would you rather have the light come on with 10 miles left?? And you don't ever want to starve a electric fuel pump.

The gas gauge on my bike is actually dead on accurate, but I still rely on the tripometer to decide when to fill up.

I never trust the fuel gauge, fill by mileage.

I use the trip meter at 125 -150 or when the old lady starts to complain, then it's time to stop.

the day I got mine and filled it up and it showed 1/4 tank full, I decided it was pointless.

Never used it, or paid attention to the reserve low fuel warning. I always fill up around 140-150 miles and get about 3.0-3.3 gallons. Which means I should be about to go 225 miles easily.

Is this the only thing you have to complain about? If it is, I want your life.

Mine works fine. it's your 2" lift tank.