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The Fuel capacity in the owner's manual is all over the place!

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Baveux

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I'm not sure about you, but I find BRP owner's manuals utterly baffling. They provide confusing information about engine oil, and now I suspect there's an issue with my fuel level indicator. I departed with the low fuel warning active, supposedly with 35 miles remaining. Shortly after, the display showed low fuel, then within two miles, the indicator dropped to zero with three bars and no numbers, despite the 35 miles. After refueling with 5.5 US gallons, I consulted the French and English manuals and the repair manual at home. Astonishingly, they contradict themselves, stating the tank capacity as either 5.2 or 7 gallons. I'd like to believe it's seven, but those manuals are seriously lacking. If BRP has included a reserve buffer, that's acceptable, but clarity is key - state that the gauge will read zero when there's still 1.5 gallons left.
I love my Spyder, but BRP Can-Am often lacks professionalism in many places.
 
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Most of us do not rely to heavily on the electronic fuel guages or the miles to empty features on the machines. The TRIPMETER is your friend. Do a true fill up and then watch how many miles you go as the gauge goes down. Most do not run their gas tanks empty. Most fill at about 150 miles or so. I went 200 miles on my F3's a couple times. The fuel light is supposed to come on when there is about 35 miles left in the tank. I don't like driving with warning lights on, and 150 miles is plenty of time in the saddle before refueling.

What is a full fill? If you stop filling when the auto shut off kicks in, you will find that there is room for another gallon. My method is as follows. Fill until the gas comes up to the ring at the top of the tank. Stop, let the fuel go down. Keep filling until it comes up to the ring the second time. Then set the Trip meter to zero. See where your fuel gauge is at 150 miles or so. This method worked for me over seven Spyders and 200,000 assorted miles. I NEVER ran out of fuel or caught myself running on empty.

No two Spyders are exactly alike. Drivers gun the engine in different ways, creating many variables. Others will most likely chime in with their methods. Find the one you like and once you learn the quirks of YOUR machine, you will be good to go. The information talking about 7 gallon gas tanks is most correct. I don't have a current manual since I sold my Spyders last October.
 
Baveux, there's already quite a lot of info & discussion on the Forum about all of this, IF you do some searching and reading; and you should ALWAYS do a Search First, and then have a bit of a read of what's been posted already, BEFORE starting a new thread - at the very least, you'll most likely gain some insight into the subject, if your questions aren't answered entirely! :lecturef_smilie:


That said, here's another take-away that you should bear in mind, altho this one is in respect to all your reading of BRP's Glovebox manuals or Owner Guides - you need to realise that they are a hotchpotch amalgam of cut-and-paste passages/sections from previous manuals in a variety of languages all dumped together in a heap & shaken until they might look a little like a manual; then they're translated by an inept language BOT into what it thinks is the appropriate language; they are NOT proof-read well, if at all, by any person with even the most basic understanding of any of the languages concerned, let alone the systems/machines the 'manual' is supposedly about; and despite years of consumer complaints, they are STILL basically very UN-reliable sources of information about your Spyder/Ryker or any other BRP/Can-Am product! :banghead:

Case in point - the fuel tank capacity... There is NO RESERVE built into any Spyder fuel tanks, but all the V-Twin powered Spyders do have a 22 odd litre fuel tank capacity (I can't remember the decimal extras! :p ), of which no more than 20 litres are safely 'usable' and the remainder SHOULD NOT be treated as a 'Reserve' except in dire circumstances (see later comments below!) - while the 1330 powered Spyders all have 26 odd litre tank capacity, of which no more than 24 litres are safely usable, with the same caveat as for the smaller tanks above! And that difference is likely where the 'discrepancy' you're complaining about in your manual crept in - it's simply a case of a dodgy 'cut-&-paste' job on a previous version of the manual, no matter that the info has since changed, resulting in the wrong info being given for a different model, and that only happens after poor or no proof reading - but it's by no means the ONLY discrepancy like that!! There's MANY MORE similar errors, not just to do with the oil capacity or the fuel capacity either!! :bdh:

So you should always treat anything you read in these manuals as being 'possibly somewhere in the ball-park for at least one Spyder/Ryker model at some stage in the history of Can-Am, but not all that likely to be specifically accurate for your particular machine!' :cus: Which means you REALLY should NOT be surprised at all if there are discrepancies &/or direct contradictions about anything, even in the same manual - don't even waste your time &/or any energy being astonished, it's something those of us who've been dealing with these things for a decade or more have come to realise is to be expected, and is quite unlikely to changed! So as mentioned earlier, despite years if not decades of complaints from end-users, they are simply what we've got, and they cannot be relied upon to be accurate! :lecturef_smilie:



As for your fuel gauge & it's inaccuracy - Yes, it's inaccurate, just like most other Can-Am gauges, but in this case, the thing you need to remember about ALL modern fuel gauges is that they are designed to stop you from damaging things through your ignorance! nojoke

Most Modern Fuel Injected ICEngines NEED to maintain a MINUMUM of about 2-4 litres of fuel in their fuel tank to properly lubricate and cool the fuel pump & injection system or the lack of fuel WILL start the destruction process on your fuel tank's immersed fuel pump & possibly also the injection system too!! You might not notice the damage caused instantly, but once you've run the fuel level lower than that necessary to properly cool & lubricate the fuel pump & injector system, some cumulative & irreversible damage will have occurred, albeit likely microscopically initially; that initial damage will progressively expand & increase over time; and if it's let run for long enough, it will be terminal to, at the very least, the fuel pump, if not other parts of the injection system and possibly even the engine itself! :shocked:

So as mentioned by others, don't rely on the notoriously inaccurate fuel gauge - it might be a reasonable enough 'best guess' guide occasionally; but for general use, you will be better off in the long run using your trip meter and working out roughly how far you can go on a tank full of gas, then trying to never exceed whatever distance you deem is safe given the circumstances! Altho it might also pay to remember that, despite their inaccuracies, the fuel gauge and the low fuel warning light are NOT there to stop you 'running out of gas' per se, but instead, they are there to at least in part try and protect you from running the gas tank TOO LOW in order to protect the fuel pump and injection system! :lecturef_smilie:
 
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Peter, what do you think about labeling all the quirks that appear in the manuals and publications as "BRP Spyderisms" ;)
 
Peter, what do you think about labeling all the quirks that appear in the manuals and publications as "BRP Spyderisms" ;)

It'd be something the Mod/Admin Team would need to consider, but I know that for my 2-bob's worth, I'd gladly make it a Sticky if you wanted to pull a post &/or thread together on it! :thumbup:
 
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