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Low fuel level

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2023 2:43 pm
by Andykbike
Hello all, Hope you are well, just a little question
Do anyone of you know how much fuel is left
In the tank when the low level fuel light is illuminated some say a gallon some say a litre
Please can advise.
Many thanks
Andrew

Re: Low fuel level

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:00 pm
by schrader7032
Welcome to the forum, Andy! Can you tell us what year and model of BMW you have?

I've always used good old math to determine how much fuel is left. Hopefully you have an idea of what your gas mileage is, say 40 mpg. Then once you get the low level indication, note the miles traveled since the last fill. Divide that by your mpg which will estimate the number of gallons it takes to travel that many miles. Then subtract that number of gallons from the total specification for gallons in your tank.

Re: Low fuel level

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:20 pm
by Andykbike
Thank you for this, the year is 1994 k75rt
Once again thank you
Kind regards
Andy

Re: Low fuel level

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:55 pm
by schrader7032
Thanks...I see online that the fuel capacity is somewhere around 5.5 gallons, maybe a little less. Have a read through some of these threads:

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.ph ... do-you-get
https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.ph ... k-Capacity

There is some discussion about a "flap-ectomy" which allows a little more gas. I still think you should get into the habit of computing gas mileage at each fillup. Then you can begin to use that average mpg to compute the gallons used once you've gone on to reserve. That will let you know "theoretically" how much fuel you have to empty.

Re: Low fuel level

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:36 pm
by Darryl.Richman
I don't have any specific information about this, but I do recall that the first generation K100s had a reserve light that came on with 4L left in the tank. That's also typical for the later 2 valve boxers* and the oilhead 4 valve boxers.

* 4L is typical, but the fuel straws from the petcocks can be modified to change this. Also, bikes with a petcock on only one side have a sort of built in 2nd reserve that can be accessed by doing things like abrupt braking to slosh the gas up and over to the petcock side of the tank, or stopping and leaning the bike over.

Re: Low fuel level

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 6:33 am
by Parked 2Long
I found it best to use the trip odometer for a fuel gauge.
200 miles time for a fill up. Those fuel lights were to unreliable on my bike.
That was an 85 k100rs