distance to empty
 

frustratingly distance to empty switched from a number to an icon and I failed to memorise the last visible number. I executed "nearest petrol station" and found lots of fuel stations behind me and the next one 35km ahead, I was left in an awkward situation. I was fairly sure I could make it but without dte, not comfortable, so I exited the highway and ended up taking a 1hr detour after fuel because of the lack of on ramps.

VAG cars show dte down to a zero (where you get a few more kms of grace) and this is very helpful because the time you most need to know dte is in the kind of situation I was in.

I tried up and down arrow and ok. is there any way to clear the nanny warning and get back the info?

All I know I'd you can usually get quite a few miles after it goes from a number to the symbol. I had it happen in my last ML when I was in the middle of nowhere (north side of Lake Superior in northern Ontario). I was SURE I was going to run out of fuel but didn't. Put 97 litres in the supposedly 95 liter tank when I finally found a gas station (and got over 1,100 kms on that tank).

I think there is a big safely margin with the reading.

Distance to Empty (DTE)
 

I have never placed much confidence in those readings. In my 2007 R-Class diesel, the car computer apparently calculated two different Miles Per Gallon (MPG) numbers, the "instant" number and the "average" number. The "instant" number varied wildly depending on what you were doing, e.g. going uphill or coasting downhill. The average numbers were more stable but there were a couple of them. There was: MPG from "start," and MPG since reset, (and yet a third).

I found that the DTE calculation seemed to be based on the "Instant" MPG number and could therefore be very misleading. I could check it and it might read: 450 miles DTE. Ten minutes later, it could read: 60 miles DTE, and then later, 300 DTE.

I now have a 2012 ML350BTC and I think it operates the same way, but haven't yet checked it out carefully.

I'd be very judicious about trusting it.

[QUOTE=

I tried up and down arrow and ok. is there any way to clear the nanny warning and get back the info?[/QUOTE]

press OK ....warning off... Back to normal display. I am sure this worked for me, but only had it long enough to do once. Certainly is the way on my bmw's

I must have not pressed OK. Although among all the button pushing, I thought I did.

Today on the way back, using distronic cruise control, all the traffic drove right into a furious rainstorm. I thought, oh good, it is set on max distance. That is helpful because I can hardly see anything. Suddenly bong.. bong.. bong.. I got three yellow messages, distronic not functional, pre-safe not functional, blind spot not functional. I had to OK all three of them.

After the rain subsided, the systems came back again.

Now I know what those pilots face when they get a bunch of computer warnings while trying to fly a plane in problematic weather.

I'm hoping it wasn't a water in the electrics thing, and it was just the radar getting impaired by the quantity of water in the air.

I know exactly what you're referring to, and it drives me mad too. I generally try to not let my tank run that low, but it doesn't always work that way as I have a Caltex fuel card that limits me to their service stations only.

I don't believe there's any way you can clear the "Range" message symbol once it appears without refilling the tank. Once it stops showing a distance to empty kilometre/mile reading and goes to "Range" it means it's seriously getting closer to an empty tank. Just like 2012MLBlue mentioned below I have also continued to drive for about 60km to the nearest town when the "Range" symbol appeared on an interstate trip. I must admit I was a little nervous, and I turned off my aircon and drove at 95km/h until I saw that Caltex sign in the near distance. I then also put about 98 litres in and also believed the tank capacity was 95 litres. Yes, I agree that MB has purposely built in a huge safety margin so us fools who tend to live on the edge don't get caught out, thankfully!

Kramer could have a field day with an ML350 Bluetec:p:

that episode did flash before me.

I think DTE is calculated from a fairly long average.

After filling to the top, I got a range of 950km yet over the next 30 minutes, during which time the average consumption was 6.9l/100km, distance kept increasing until at most it was 1250 where it stayed for quite a while, but at that point the fuel needle was visibly several mm below full.

If there is still 7 or 8 liters of usable gas when the range icon shows up, that would be 100kms and another hour of gentle cruising. Guess I must shake the habit I've acquired of confidently running tanks down to 10km left. My wife would run the car down to 0 or 5km around home, where you're always a few km from fuel. (But she got caught once doing this and leaving it parked on a 20 degree slope).

The ML tank holds 93L. (No arguments will be entered into about fuel in the filler pipe or filters.)
Of that about 12L is classified as reserve.

As I understand it, the yellow light comes on with a ping, when you enter this reserve area. Soon after the DTE figure turns to the bowser icon which can be cancelled with OK. Later the bowser will return and cannot be cancelled until you refill. This has only happened to me once and I think it took 91L to fill.

Whilst I appreciate the ability to drive 1000km on a tank, I am a firm believer that the car will run quite well on the top half of the tank, so why risk the bottom! :nix:

Any improvement on my perception will now be gratefully recieved.

When the miles stop displaying you have about a gallon left which will get you just over 20 miles. The ML really should have a bigger tank for the amount of gas it sucks down.

You really shouldn't use cruise control in bad weather, DISTRONIC or otherwise.

I believe Snopes debunked that rumor.

:rolf:^^Funny stuff

My ML350BT just finished it's 2nd tank of diesel. It logged 622km with 11.8l/100km average speed of 29km/h. I did most of the driving in city with maybe 5% of short freeway driving.
After refill, it predicted 924km range. I don't expect it to go to that range but I am still happy - especially now the diesel price is lower then the gas price!

why did this last post generate poker spam in the email notification.

edit: mods!! cleanup on aisle this one Helden is a dirty spam bot hiding poker sites in smilie gif redirects to fool google..

FECK...... Just had my second fill and have logged 8.7 l/100km for just over 1300km total since delivery.... But my average speed is 50 something.
Since reset....shows 8.4 l/100km. So I AM expecting easily over 1000km from a tank.

50kmh avg I wish, our family car has a 1900 km average speed of 24kmh such is traffic in sydney.

Just checked the average speed.....

57 kph 8.6 l/100km. Overall for 1440km

Today 60 kph average @ 8.1 l/100km for 95 km. :zoom:

So, if you are using too much fuel.....DRIVE FASTER :y

Lee

Nothing wrong with the systems. They purposely shut down in severe adverse weather conditions (presumably because they can't operate in such conditions- the rain is confusing the sensors maybe?).

My BMW would show distance to empty even into negative numbers! With my Bluetec I've gone more than 20 miles (about 35km) with the icon lit.In fact I think I've gone much more than that.IIRC the switch from a number displayed to the icon occurred for me at about 20-30 miles but I can't swear to that...it last happened more than a year ago.Also,my experiences took place on the Interstate at 60-70mph...things may well be different on city streets or suburban roads.

My "Distronic Plus" features have only shut down or shown a "feature not available" warning a few times,all of which were during slushly,snowy,icy weather when,I assume,one or more of the sensors were caked with slush/ice.