Jump to content

Lincoln Aviator Gas Tank issues


DCDB

Recommended Posts

I've had my Aviator for 2 months now and have never been able to completely fill up the gas tank. The owners manual says that it has a 20 gallon tank, but the most I've ever been able to get has been maybe 15 gallons.
 

I even ran the gas down to where I only had 25 miles left until empty and when I pumped gas, I was only able to put in about  13 gallons before the pump began to stop. This is with an average of 15 mpg during that trip.

 

My local dealership said that Ford engineers are working on a solution. They gave me another Aviator, while mine is in the shop for the second time with other issues, and it looks like this one isn't getting the full 20 gallons either!

 

Is anyone else having this issue?

Edited by DCDB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DCDB said:

I've had my Aviator for 2 months now and have never been able to completely fill up the gas tank. The owners manual says that it has a 20 gallon tank, but the most I've ever been able to get has been maybe 15 gallons.
 

I even ran the gas down to where I only had 25 miles left until empty and when I pumped gas, I was only able to put in about  13 gallons before the pump began to stop. This is with an average of 15 mpg during that trip.

 

My local dealership said that Ford engineers are working on a solution. They gave me another Aviator, while mine is in the shop for the second time with other issues, and it looks like this one isn't getting the full 20 gallons either!

 

Is anyone else having this issue?

 

Hi DCDB. As akirby stated, it is a problem that has been seen before and will certainly be addressed.

 

However, just as an FYI: There is a safety factor built into the fuel remaining warnings. So when your fuel warning stated you had 25 miles to empty, it is more likely you could have had ~ 50-75 miles to empty. At 15 miles per gallon, that brings you much closer to a real fuel capacity reading.

Also, even if you ran the tank until the engine stalled, you will not be able to put 20 gallons into the tank. The fuel tank is not sucked dry, even when fuel can no longer be accessef by the fuel pump.. Probably a gallon or so still in there, even when the fuel pump can no longer get fuel. Not saying you do not have a problem, just putting it into better context.

 

Keep us updated and good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/10/2020 at 2:52 PM, DCDB said:

I've had my Aviator for 2 months now and have never been able to completely fill up the gas tank. The owners manual says that it has a 20 gallon tank, but the most I've ever been able to get has been maybe 15 gallons.

 

Are you sure the tank is 20 gallons?  I just checked the Aviator manual and it says 18 gal (68L) not 20 gal. 

 

I filled up my Aviator GT for the first time last week and the fuel gauge was around 1/4 tank mark remaining beforehand.  I pumped in 54L (14.2 gal) so if the capacity is 68L (18 gal) that means there was about 20% remaining still in the tank before fill up so that seems pretty accurate to me.

 

Untitled.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I owned a Black Label and my owners manual stated that it has a 20.2 fuel tank capacity.  You can google it as well.  This was obviously an issue for my car because they ended up buying back the vehicle.  I really love the look and comfort of the car, but for the amount of money spent purchasing this car, it shouldn't have so many problems.  Lincoln obviously has a quality control problem, and these cars shouldn't be leaving the manufacturing.  I chose not to go with another Lincoln because of this and went with another brand instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even when it says 0 miles til empty, there should be at least 1~2 gallons left because.. people.

Either way, even with that accounted, you putting 13~15 gallons at best is an issue.

 

By the way, I hope you're not calculating the fuel economy based on odometer because OEM's often lie (a little) about that in addition to the speed that shows up on the speedometer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, dlghtjr90 said:

Even when it says 0 miles til empty, there should be at least 1~2 gallons left because.. people.

Either way, even with that accounted, you putting 13~15 gallons at best is an issue.

 

By the way, I hope you're not calculating the fuel economy based on odometer because OEM's often lie (a little) about that in addition to the speed that shows up on the speedometer.

 

I find on my Aviator GT what is shown in the display for both the gas level gauge and the DTE is not so much a based on the actual amount of gas in the tank (although I'm sure it does measures the actual level in the tank for safety) but rather a projection the car is making from constant calculations of the estimated DTE and gas level based on your driving patterns.

 

The gas gauge and DTE will noticeably change and has actually gone up depending on whether you are driving in EV or not.  A couple weeks ago I was driving on highway with the engine running the whole time (battery was depleted) and when I got home the gas gauge was exactly at the 1/2 mark and DTE was 398km to empty.  The next morning the same gas level and DTE on display.  For next 2 days after I only drove short trips in EV mode only so the engine never came on at all and no gas was used.  On the third day when I turned it on the gas gauge was slightly above the 1/2 mark and the DTE had jumped to 416km.  Since I didn't pump any extra gas in the tank, the display is clearly revising the "projection" of the gas level and DTE because I was using EV a lot so it is more efficient and will have more range.

 

Maybe it only does that on the GT because it's a PHEV so the calculation takes EV usage into account.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, rampagex7 said:

 

I find on my Aviator GT what is shown in the display for both the gas level gauge and the DTE is not so much a based on the actual amount of gas in the tank (although I'm sure it does measures the actual level in the tank for safety) but rather a projection the car is making from constant calculations of the estimated DTE and gas level based on your driving patterns.

 

The gas gauge and DTE will noticeably change and has actually gone up depending on whether you are driving in EV or not.  A couple weeks ago I was driving on highway with the engine running the whole time (battery was depleted) and when I got home the gas gauge was exactly at the 1/2 mark and DTE was 398km to empty.  The next morning the same gas level and DTE on display.  For next 2 days after I only drove short trips in EV mode only so the engine never came on at all and no gas was used.  On the third day when I turned it on the gas gauge was slightly above the 1/2 mark and the DTE had jumped to 416km.  Since I didn't pump any extra gas in the tank, the display is clearly revising the "projection" of the gas level and DTE because I was using EV a lot so it is more efficient and will have more range.

 

Maybe it only does that on the GT because it's a PHEV so the calculation takes EV usage into account.

 

Your observation is spot-on. The PHEV makes it more interesting, but I experience the same phenomenon with regular gas vehicles especially when the previous driver had a really aggressive driving followed by me hypermilling - the DTE and the even gas level goes up the next time I start.

 

 

17 minutes ago, akirby said:

Normally DTE is based on the last 500 mile avg.  I don’t know if the PHEV is different.

 

I think it may have further reduced to 250 miles, but moot point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/3/2020 at 9:41 PM, dlghtjr90 said:

Your observation is spot-on. The PHEV makes it more interesting, but I experience the same phenomenon with regular gas vehicles especially when the previous driver had a really aggressive driving followed by me hypermilling - the DTE and the even gas level goes up the next time I start.

 

I've never noticed the DTE increase after time like it did on the Aviator on my previous Ford/Lincoln vehicles, maybe that is something unique to the PHEV because it has to factor EV driving into the calculation.  On my 2017 MKX the DTE would either stay the same for a while or go down more slowly relative to the distance actually traveled when highway driving but it never went up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I've had an 85 Continental Mark VII, a 94 Town Car, two 97 Town Cars, and now a 2020 Aviator. ALL of them have (had) a "20 gallon" tank, yet run the needle down to empty, and the most you can pump is 17.4 gallons. We only drove one of the Town Cars until it actually ran completely out of gas, and it went like 50 miles after saying it was empty. I accept this as a safety feature, to prevent running out of gas completely. In fact, doesn't the manual say running out of gas can damage the vehicle and maybe void the warranty? Maybe I'm the minority here, I'm just curious why it's such a big deal?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, BriBoy said:

I've had an 85 Continental Mark VII, a 94 Town Car, two 97 Town Cars, and now a 2020 Aviator. ALL of them have (had) a "20 gallon" tank, yet run the needle down to empty, and the most you can pump is 17.4 gallons. We only drove one of the Town Cars until it actually ran completely out of gas, and it went like 50 miles after saying it was empty. I accept this as a safety feature, to prevent running out of gas completely. In fact, doesn't the manual say running out of gas can damage the vehicle and maybe void the warranty? Maybe I'm the minority here, I'm just curious why it's such a big deal?

 

One of the reasons it's a big deal to run out of gas completely is because most modern vehicles today all have their fuel pumps inside the tank itself so the pump needs to stay submerged in a certain amount of liquid fuel to stay lubricated and work properly.  If you run the tank dry, the pump is also dry and could burn out and get damaged not to mention all the other components of the engine that could have problems from running out of gas.  That's why the "empty" mark on the gauge always leaves you a bit of a buffer and now you are bombarded with pop messages, warnings and beeps to sufficiently annoy you to gas up before you get empty.  Your new Aviator will also automatically find you the nearest gas station and offer to navigate you there....

 

Although I'm sure with all the fancy electronics they put in vehicles today it will probably shut everything down before it lets you run the tank completely dry to protect itself. 

 

I've never gone much less than 1/8 of tank on my Aviator GT yet so I can't say for sure how close it will let you cut it, so far the most gas I've pumped in is 65L (about 17gal) at Costco.  Being a PHEV I'm more concerned with finding Ethanol free gas than squeezing every drop out of the tank, although theoretically on mine if you ran out of gas as long as the battery still had sufficient charge you could switch to EV mode and still get where you're going.

 

Ironically, just like you can't run your gas tank completely dry, on the Aviator GT you can't even run the high voltage battery to absolute zero it always maintains a small reserve of charge and will turn on the engine to charge the HV battery as needed.  The battery capacity is 13.6Kwh and I've been using EV mode and charging mine regularly since I got it 6 months ago, the longest charging session I've logged on my Juicebox charger was 13.2Kwh.  I've noticed now in the summer when I'm using A/C all the time (and since the A/C system is fully electric) it keeps a higher reserve charge on the battery as my regular daily charge sessions are shorter at about 12.7-12.9Kwh.

 

Edited by rampagex7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, rampagex7. What I meant was, why is it a big deal to only pump 14 gallons, I know it's a big deal to run completely out of gas. Thank you for your reply, explaining the GT and how it handles the low fuel/low charge situations. I have a BL petrol. which I like to keep full of fuel, always.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, IcemanTX said:

We got a new Aviator AWD Reserve last week and I am a bit confused by the “miles until empty” after fueling.  I just filled ours up and it says 205 miles to empty.  That seems really low.  What do you all see when full?  Am I missing something?

When I first got my Navigator and was driving it fast etc, I would see about 350 to empty. Now, I see around 470. I have slowed down and I use the cruise a lot. MPGs are up, and I think it calculates it based on the prediction when filling up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, IcemanTX said:

We got a new Aviator AWD Reserve last week and I am a bit confused by the “miles until empty” after fueling.  I just filled ours up and it says 205 miles to empty.  That seems really low.  What do you all see when full?  Am I missing something?

 

Hi Iceman. Give it a few fill-ups to enable it to calculate according to your driving environment.

 

The "Miles to Empty" readout is calculated according to the previous 500 miles in my 2007 and 2018 MKZ's. So I assume it is similar in your Aviator. Therefore, if your Aviator spent quite a bit of time idling on the lot, being taken on short test drives, idling at home etc (just throwing out possibilities), it is currently reading very low.

 

If you don't see it rise over the next few fillups, then there may be an issue. However, you will probably see it rise rather quickly once you begin to take longer drives.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

Edited by bbf2530
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...