Yonask

Does the half circle on the fuel gauge in the instrument turn black when your tank is completely full. On my guage all the bars turn black except for the very top one and it annoys the hell out of me My SA said that is normal. How about your guages? I've attached a picture.

CE750

Just rimmed my tank on the CDI and it too isn't black... guess it's a bug in the software. I'm **** and generally go crazy with stuff like that, but I have to tip my hat to you, you're really picky!

konigstiger

Did you notice the emergency brake foot pedal is bare and not finished and the glove compartment lock is illuminated but not the ignition? Well if we’re going to nitpick….

Anyway here’s how I see it, the upper half circle is white because it is not the black bars that indicate filling but rather the white bars. As the tank empties black dominates the gauge and therefore the lower half circle is black; white – full, black – empty.

speedy888

mine does not turn black either. this has got to be the most ridiculous gauge i've even seen. how did they get this approved?

sacguy

I guess I am not picky enough, the gauge and its operation does not bother me at all. I guess I need to pay more attention to these details!

BudC

I just use the gauge as a rough approximation. Use the trip computer and call up the range remaining. It'll give you a better indication of how far you can go before you need to start looking for fuel.

ATS

It makes sense. Empty and full are not the same thing..

Black is empty, full is white. Look at it as the white is the fuel.
So it drops down and that black part of the tank is now empty.

DWP

I had some trouble adjusting to the fuel gauge on the W211 when we first got it. The visual metaphor used by M-B (black=fuel, white=air) was the opposite of what seemed intutitive to me, which was, the presence of color (in this case, white) representing the presence of fuel and black (the absence of color) representing the absence of fuel. Different cultures think of very different visual metaphors as naturally "intuitive." Some Iraqis have been shot because they didn't know that a hand held up, palm out, means "stop" to an American. Me, I've grown accustomed to the M-B fuel gauge.

Yonask: Some air remains in the tank even when when it's topped up in the filler neck, and M-B engineers left the half-circle in the fuel gauge unfilled to represent the air remaining in the tank. Actually, I made that up and I have no idea whether it's true, but feel free to use it, no charge, if it makes you feel better about the gauge.

ATS

That is too good..

Yonask

I guess that works for me...

CASL55

I filled up my tank today, noticed the gauge, and thought about this thread.

I think the reason the engineers left the little half-circle at the top is to let you know whether the tank is full or empty, even if you don't know whether white is fuel or black is fuel. If you didn't know (and I think the way the engineers did it is backwards from what I would expect: I would expect white to be fuel; black seems to be the absence of anything), and the display were all white, the tank could be full on it could be empty. Same thing with all black. All you have to know is that more fuel raises the demarkation between white and black, and less fuel lowers it.

There's a test to see whether my reasoning is right. If it is, and the engineeers have thought this thing through, when the tank is dead empty, the little half-circle at the bottom of the tank should remain black. I've never run my tank all the way down, so I don't know whethter htis is true or not. Does anybody?

Jim

jameson75

Bottom line is, if one doesn't know whether or not the fuel tank is full or empty they shouldn't be driving a mercedes. you shouldn't let the fact that the top semi-circle doesn't illuminate...come on now, you're driving a mercedes benz.

CASL55

Imagine that you've just picked up a rental car at Frankfurt airport, and it's an E class. Imagine that you've never driven a current-issue E. As you drive out of the parking lot, wouldn't you like to know if the Hertz folks really filled the tank?

Jim

jameson75

respectfully I fully understand the dilemma you pose. However, we talkin in the masses here, but when you rent a vehicle, they usually make it a point to tell you and mark on the rental sheet how much fuel is left, so that one will know how much fuel to return the car with. It also comes down to common sense, when I first purchased my E500, I took a look at the gauge and new that the tank was full, by the black indicators. Reason being is if you take a closer look, the black indicators have a thin white line in between them, suggesting that the background is white and the black bars are the marks that move down as your fuel is consumed.

CASL55

And I appreciate your position that these niceties are not needed, and understand that there are other ways, such as the one you mention, of solving the problem. You could also look at the temperature gauge on the other side to see how it works. I believe that you can't have too many clues to make a human interface intutive, and I'm not normally big fan of the MB HI, but I think leaving the blanks at the top (and bottom?) is kind of neat; it didn't cost anything, and it may be useful.

I don't know about you, but normally when I rent car at an airport, there's nobody from Hertz to look at the fuel gauge. I just walk down the row of cars until I find my name in lights, throw my bag in the open trunk, and get in. The key is in the ignition, and the contract is on the seat. I drive away, showing my driver's license and the contract to the gate attendant on the way out. Except for him, at no time have I talked to a Hertz employee.


Jim