Interesting Computation

[Sennahnamrecken]

I have a 2008 SRT 10 and ran low on fuel. The light just came on. I took gas at the first Station 4 Gal. moved 10 Miles on to the better gas station and took another 14 Gal. This amounts to 18 Gal. in my 16 Gal. tank with 10 Miles driven. Even if I ended up at the 1. gas station on fumes it still does not add up, since I did not use 2 Gal. for 10 Miles. Anybody has an idea?

Another Problem: The same day after refueling, the electronic throttle control light came on. Admitting my ignorance, I crawled home to take a look at the owner's manual. There it was, I just had to shut the car down and restart it, which I did at home. The car works fine, but the check engine light stays on, since I had an incident, I guess. Since I am in the boonies, Miles away from the next Viper service, is there a way, I can get rid of the "check engine" light myself without going to the next service station some 120 Miles away?
I shipped my car from FL for the summer to Up-State NY which is Viper waste land.
Any comments without referring to my stupidity would be appreciated.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Sorry for your troubles...and, though I am not sure what is going on with your car...I do have a suggestion or two.

You can complete a couple of more full drive cycles to see if the CEL goes off.

OR

Purchase a low cost CAN bus capable OBD II code reader that will read and clear codes. Make a list of the generic P-codes then clear the codes. These tools cost about $40.OO to $60.00 US.

I carry one of these tools in ALL of our cars...not just Vipers. Once you clear the code, you should be able to get out of limp mode if that is also an issue.

As stated, keep the list of codes so that you can seek proper advice from your technician.

Best regards !

 

[MoparMap]

Does the gen 4 really only have a 16 gallon tank? I know that's what Google shows when searching, but my 2004 service manual states an 18.5 gallon tank. I find it odd the gen 4 would have gotten smaller as the chassis really didn't change, but I guess evap stuff might have changed for emissions and taken up more space. Still inclined to believe it's really an 18 gallon tank though, which would make your math work out better.

 

[ViperJeff]

Looked at a few equipment lists for Gen 4, they all said 16 gallon

 

[MoparMap]

Hmm, well, for what it's worth the part numbers for the two are basically the same. Just double checked my manuals and the letter at the end of the number changed, but that's typically just revisions and I wouldn't expect a capacity change to be a revision (it would most likely be a whole new number), but could be wrong. The 04 manual shows AC at the end, but the 2008 has AG. The gen 5 shows the same 16 gallons though as well. Based on how you filled it though it seems like it would have to be the bigger of the two and the internet is wrong in lots of places, lol.

 

[usmcfieldmp]

You can typically go to any auto parts store and have them clear the codes for you for free.

 

[littlecaars]

I have an 08 gen4 and I have a 16 gallon tank.

 

[70mopars]

Maybe the gas station pumps need to be calibrated. Or it's intentional to make a higher profit. ;-)

 

[TexasViper35]

I drove my car on a 1500 mile trip 2 years back and for laughs I measured the fuel mileage. I was shocked! @ 70 mph in 6th gear she consistently clocked 28 mpg on the highway! Mind blown!

I only do city driving these days, not much of it but almost daily. I was wondering why I had to fill her up so often with the very few short trips that I make each week so I decided to calculate the City MPG. It was spoiled when I needed to drive to Dallas via the tollway but I decided to check the trip meter when I got there; with 1/4 of a tank left I had only driven 17 miles since the last full-up, +/- 10 of that was on the tollway!

Would one of you that drives mostly suburban or city miles check what kind of MPG you are getting? I thought that the car should be getting 8-10 City MPG, but maybe this explains the phenomenon that the fellow that started this thread experienced????

’04 Mamba

 

[MoparMap]

I'm not 100% sure what my pure city driving mpg is, but I think it was closer to 12-14 back when I had my stock cam and mild tune on my 04. My daily commute used to be about 55 miles, maybe 45-50 of those on the highway and the other 5-10 through town. In summer I would get around 18 mpg average and in winter that usually dropped to 16. With my new cam I think I'm closer to 16, but I also haven't really been doing that commute weekly for a long time due to Covid and working from home. It's also just been cold outside, so lower numbers in general.

The easier way I looked at it was just checking my trip meter whenever my gas light would go off. I reset it at every fill and usually the low fuel light would ding around 260-280 miles on the trip meter. My best ever was coming back from a trip to Texas when I hit 320 miles before the ding. I thought I had forgot to reset the trip meter the number was so high, but it was all highway miles and I think higher quality fuel. Nowadays I think the light comes on closer to 230 miles or so, but I'm also mostly just running errands around town with the occasional trip to work here and there on the highway.