FEH Fuel Tank

[GaryG]

If you have experienced fuel tank fills on the FEH that are not consistent, your not alone. For almost a year, I’ve had problems calculating my MPG at the fill up amounts pumped into the tank. Also, you may have found that the amount of miles you go very greatly before the needle drops off the full mark on the fuel gauge. Since Dec. ‘05 when I got the Scangauge (SG), I’ve compared the Nav System and the tank fill up's to find the actual gas used.. After looking at the shop manual on page 310-01B-3, I saw the problem. The fill nozzle is connected at the side of the gas tank about 1/3 distance from the top of the tank. Also, the connection is near the left rear of the tank. If the FEH is on a slope that puts the left rear corner lower than the rest of the vehicle, your going to put much less gas in the tank. If the FEH is on a slope that puts that corner of the vehicle higher than the rest of the vehicle, your going to put much more gas in the tank. I’ve gone as little as 0 miles and as much as 120 miles before the Full needle dropped off the Full mark on the gas gauge after a fill up.

When I hear claims of MPG from FEH owner’s who do not have a SG or Nav Sys, I just don’t think they know the real world numbers of their FE. It’s a shame Ford can’t offer the type of gauges that are in the Toyota and Honda Hybrid’s.

It appears Ford needs a very large vapor pocket in the fuel tank to make everything work right. What this means is, you fill the tank only to about 14.5 gallons on level ground. This may give you less than a total of 15 gallons at fill up. At 0 Miles To Empty, I’ve found I have about 1.28 gallons left in the tank. This may be why you can only put around 13.5 gallons in the FEH at 0 MTE. If you are on a slope with the left rear raised, you can put in as much as 16.5 gallons.

GaryG

[xcel]

Hi Gary G:

___Great information! I do want to add that Gpasman1’s FEH I drove to the Hybrid Experience last year allowed very close to max cap from almost empty on the 2 fills I was involved with. It may have been luck of the draw at the 2 stations we filled at but I tend to fill very very slowly when nearing max cap and the vapor space could possibly be absorbed by the Vapor Recovery unit under a slow and steady fill for the last 2 gallons depending on where the Vapor recovery taps off from the tank itself? The Ranger, Accord, Corolla, and MDX come right to the lip from near empty every time I have filled/do fill them with no unusual variations to be seen tank to tank. I drive most of my vehicles to within 1 gallon or less of empty before visiting the station which may have something to do with the consistent fills as well?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[zadscmc]

I find standing on the bumper on the side of the fuel tank helps bounce out the excess air. I look silly doing it, but I can usually pump another gallon into the tank. Of course, I can only do that outside of NJ.

[GaryG]

Hi Wayne

Yesterday when I filled up, I tried your technique of filling the tank. The only thing I did different was a slight bump on the side of the FEH at about the time I thought the tank had filled to a level where the air pocket was forming on the right side of the tank. I had pumped about 14 gallons at that point and began a very slow fill from that point. The total gallons I got into the tank was 16.25 if the pump was accurate. I figured I had about one gallon left from the 0 MTE reading. This would mean the tank can hold over 17 gallons as GPSman has stated in the past.

According to my SG, I used 13.9 gallons from my last fill-up, and my trip OD had 588.1 miles, which puts me at 42.3mpg. If I divided the amount of gas I pumped in the tank this fill, and divided that by the miles, I would have got 36.19mpg. There is no way I got 36mpg.

This was the most gallons that I have added to the tank at a fill-up. The slope I was on, did not seem favorable for that type of fill, based on my experience.

Zadscmc, it maybe better to bump the FEH from side to side than up and down. I've tried both at other fills, but this seemed to be a winner. The reason I tried this was based the the shape of the tank I got from the shop manual.

My point in this thread was to point out how much off using the gas pumped to determine your MPG on that tank. Both my SG and my Navi were 6-7mpg higher than using the gallons I pumped.

Just to get an idea where the MTE compared to the SG TTE (tank to empty) after the fill, the message center was 628 and the SG was 629. Generally, the SG reads a much higher TTE than the message center.

Hope this info helps the FEH owners.

GaryG