Low Fuel Warning Light

[mcglsr2]

Wow. I just now discovered that my 95 does not have a low fuel warning light. This blows my mind. I've converted the factory gauges over to Auto Meter ones, did this awhile ago. Well, I'm going back through now and working on a couple of things, I figured I would wire in the low fuel light this time around. I'm looking through the wiring diagrams, and I don't see any schematic for a low fuel light. "No...surely there is one..." Some quick Google-fu and nope, no warning light. I guess that's why I didn't bother wiring it the first time I swapped the gauges.

So, good to know. But I admit, that really blows my mind. I've always thought of the low fuel warning lights as a given...like seat belts. A car just has it. Of course, older cars wouldn't, but I've got another car from 1987 and it has one, so I just always assumed the Mustang would too. So very weird to me.

Anyway, that's my discovery of the day. Carry on.

 

[Orange 94]

It doesn't? How about a bell?

I thought I remember mine having a light when I first got it fired up and drove to a station. And I can't imagine gt vs v6 being different.
Maybe I'm thinking of the truck since the gauges were similar.

 

[ttocs]

no light or bell. They do have a gauge though that will tell you how much is in it. That is what I use and never had an issue.

 

[mcglsr2]

Well of course there is a fuel gauge ;D And of course all one has to do to determine the level of fuel in the car is look at it. But that's not my point; I'm just surprised by the lack of the light. Every other car has one (beyond a certain year, certainly). I was just surprised to discover that this car doesn't, when I (perhaps wrongly) fully expected there to be one. I have been driving the car this whole time without a warning light, so I will surely survive I was just surprised is all.

 

[ttocs]

the 97 ranger I had didn't have one either so no way my 94 GT would. Just another piece to add weight and probably quit working by now if they did have them.

 

[Twista]

my buddy 1985 t top mustang had a low fuel light. They mightve stopped them in 1990?

 

[OnyxCobra]

Yeah they don't have a fuel light which is pretty lame, also at least in my car the gauge isn't accurate at all so I just make a point to fill it when i get around 1/8 tank. I've ran out twice in my pile cause of the gauge.

 

[mcglsr2]

Yah my "research" indicated that the Foxes had the warning light but at some point previous to the SN95 Ford removed them. No idea when though. Oh wells.

 

[Orange 94]

Yeah they don't have a fuel light which is pretty lame, also at least in my car the gauge isn't accurate at all so I just make a point to fill it when i get around 1/8 tank.

Yeah same here. Always makes me nervous... the first half of the gauge goes by super quickly. The last quarter seems to last forever and I always think it's broken haha.

I always drain my car before parking it over winter, always scary driving to the gas station wondering if it will make it.
Which reminds me... still haven't put stabilizer in that shit... yikes!

 

[mcglsr2]

What is this "winter" thou speaketh of?

 

[lutter94]

Why does anyone need a light? Better put a low oil pressure indicator next to the pressure gauge too, just in case no one understands that outside of "normal" is a bad thing......If you think it isn't accurate, reposition it to where you think it is accurate, or at least like it. Pretty sure I can use my trip odometer for a fuel gauge, you drive your car long enough, you know your range.

 

[chris91]

My 99 has one. Guess they brought it back for the new edge cars. It comes on at like the 1/8 tank point.

 

[mcglsr2]

Why does anyone need a light? Better put a low oil pressure indicator next to the pressure gauge too, just in case no one understands that outside of "normal" is a bad thing......If you think it isn't accurate, reposition it to where you think it is accurate, or at least like it. Pretty sure I can use my trip odometer for a fuel gauge, you drive your car long enough, you know your range.

To an extent, I disagree. I wasn't really intending to turn this into a "why do we need idiot lights" discussion, I meant it more of a "hey, I didn't know that." I understand (and have read) all the arguments on why one should not need a light. Having said that, I think it's better to have a light. I mean why not? What's so hard/bad about having a light? Is it necessary? No...but then I'm not sure anyone here is saying it is specifically necessary. Most car manufactures attempt to build cars that are as people-proof as possible. Sure there will be those drivers that actually pay attention to their gauges - but for every 1 of those there are 20 that don't. Sad? Maybe. Fact of life? Yes. So for those drivers, having a light pop up that says "hey, by the way, you need gas" is not really a bad thing. Look at this way. On your cell phone, it will tell you that you have a text. Does it need to do this? Nope. You can go look at your texts anytime you want. But do you want to do that? I don't. I'd rather my phone just tell me.

And for what it's worth, I track my Mustang, so I am quite accustomed to looking at my gauges. I do not have a low fuel warning light, and I have not once run out of gas in the Mustang. But I'd wouldn't say "no" to a warning light


Edit: I did some thinking - I wonder if this is a generational thing too? I've always driven a car that had the light (my first car was 87 Shelby CSX, which has a light) with the Mustang now being the exception. However, I'm pretty damn sure my parent's 69 Dodge Dart does not have this light. Because of this (and the cars they grew up driving), I bet they would be less surprised to find the lack of a light on the car, whereas someone like me that has always had the light, is now surprised by it's absence?

 

[mcglsr2]

My 99 has one. Guess they brought it back for the new edge cars. It comes on at like the 1/8 tank point.

I figured they had to bring it back at some point. I'm saying it: that light is like seat belts now. It's just part of a car. I wonder why they took it away for a little while. Cost would be the obvious answer, but honestly, how much does that really save? A light bulb and some wire? Maybe it would be a low power CPU as well to do the calculation. I wish I knew an engineer/designer for these cars that I could just ask random questions like that to.

 

[lutter94]

people-proof

Idiot Proof is the technical term. And I use it quite often.

My frustration comes from the lack of an oil pressure gauge on most cars now-a-days.....Had to replace a pan on an 01 LS V8 recently, a gauge would have been amazing. And its nice to look at after changing oil.....

 

[ttocs]

probably doesn't cost much, why not add one to your car?

 

[mcglsr2]

Idiot Proof is the technical term. And I use it quite often.

My frustration comes from the lack of an oil pressure gauge on most cars now-a-days.....Had to replace a pan on an 01 LS V8 recently, a gauge would have been amazing. And its nice to look at after changing oil.....

Haha Now oil pressure, I can totally see that being an issue if it's not there. Maybe they combine it with a MIL light? "Stop driving your car cause there is an issue, in this case you lost oil pressure."

probably doesn't cost much, why not add one to your car?

I suppose I could. I don't know how'd I go about getting the level of the fuel. I'd have to drill and tap the tank somewhere, install some sort of sensor and run that back to the idiot light cluster. Do-able, not sure it's worth it though Don't factory cars do this based off the float position for the fuel level? I suppose another option is to somehow trigger the light wen the float hits a certain resistance?

 

[ttocs]

I was just flipping the script on you after you asked how much it was really saving them. I figured that suddenly when your time/$ involved was on your end that the actual cost would be realized.


I am actually building a tank for my meth kit for my supercharger from snow and it comes with a float to put in the tank to let you know when it is low. Yes you would need to put a hole in the tank to mount it. I am willing to bet that the low level light is all internal to the float as well or at least hope they do.

http://www.mkmcustoms.com/snowperformancelowlevelindidcator.aspx?gclid=CNfe_LWrvsECFfLm7AodwCoAUA

One of the reasons I went with PLX design gauges was that you could set up the upper/lower level limits so that it will alarm to tell you when one is passed. The gauge in the dash is just a digital display so I can keep adding sensor modules to the displays and not have to worry about watching them all the time.

 

[Orange 94]

Idiot Proof is the technical term. And I use it quite often.

No, he is definitely right with the term people proof. All people are idiots.

/thread.

 

[mcglsr2]

I was just flipping the script on you after you asked how much it was really saving them. I figured that suddenly when your time/$ involved was on your end that the actual cost would be realized.

Well, there's a bit of a difference between me and the Ford Factory, now isn't there? When one is building the car from scratch, as Ford did, it's quite easy to add in stuff at that point. If we are talking about me going in after the fact, well that's a different story and not what I was talking about. I was talking about at the factory.

I am actually building a tank for my meth kit for my supercharger from snow and it comes with a float to put in the tank to let you know when it is low. Yes you would need to put a hole in the tank to mount it. I am willing to bet that the low level light is all internal to the float as well or at least hope they do.

http://www.mkmcustoms.com/snowperformancelowlevelindidcator.aspx?gclid=CNfe_LWrvsECFfLm7AodwCoAUA

I bet it could be done based off the resistance of the fuel level sender, no additional drilling needed. Which is probably how your meth kit (heh heh) is set up.