Gallons! How to tell the fuel computer to use proper UK Gallon

I live in England and we have the Gallon. I imported a US Dodge Grand
Caravan SXT 2007, www.wheelchairdriver.com and its fuel computer is wrong!

It thinks a gallon is about 3.something litres! Instead of 4.54 litres.
Thats a US gallon of course! Our original Gallon is bigger. So...

Since the same ish vehicle is sold here Chrysler voyager, there must be a
way with a combo of button pushes etc to change this! Does anyone know how?

Thanks!

 

In the US a Gallon = 4 quarts, in Canada and the UK a Gallon = 5 quarts.

A UK dealer would be your best source for information on this issue. It may
involve a program change in the computer.

Richard

 

No, in a REAL original British Gallon (Imperial Gallon) there are 8 Pints, 4
Quarts or 4.54 litres.

In the US and Cannada your Quarts must be the wrong size too!

I just looked it up! Your pints are smaller as well! So your quarts must be
too...

There are 8 proper pints in a proper gallon.
But there are 9.607 of the US pints in a real gallon!
Does this mean you get less beer too?

A UK Gallon is actually 1.20095 US Gallons.

I will go to a dealer but I suspect they wont know... Its why I asked here.
Someone must have come across this before!

 

At the risk of getting into semantics....

The Imerial Gallon is 4 quarts also! However the Imperial Quart is 40
fl. oz. - whereas the American Quart is 32 fl. oz.

That makes an Imperial Gallon 160 fl. oz or 4.54 litres, and a US
Gallon 128 fl. oz. or 3.78 litres.

Thank GOD that a fl. oz. is the same in both systems.

And living here in Canada, let me just say that at least the US was
smart enough NOT to go "metric". All that was here in Canada was an
excuse for retailers to rip people off - it was a smoke screeen for
price increases as high as 50% - but almost no one noticed because of
the changes in the measurement systems and the resulting confusion.

I will keep an eye on this thread! I would LOVE to find a way to tell
my on-board computer ro display in Imperial Gallons!

If you find out how, please let us know!

Thanks

 

The American gallon is actually older then the Imperial gallon. The
American gallon is the British wine gallon which was standardized by
Parliament in 1707. The Imperial gallon was introduced in 1824 as a
replacement for the many different gallons that were in use in England at
the time.

The American system of fluid measures is binary which makes more sense in
a digital world then the metric system which is base 10, or the Imperial
gallon which has a decimal pint (although that's nice in a pub when you
order a pint of ale).

ounce = 2 tablespoons
gill = 4 ounces
cup = 8 ounces
pint = 16 ounces
quart = 32 ounces
gallon = 128 ounces

The mile is also a binary measure, it's 8 furlongs. The Roman mile was
5000 feet which is a good round decimal number. Queen Elisabeth changed
it to 8 furlongs. Unfortunately she didn't bother to binaryize the other
length measures, they are a mismash of 12s and 5s, i.e. a furlong is 12 *
12 * 5 * 5 inches.

 

But since we invented Gallons and the US only took it over (Like English) we
are right and the guys selling you short measures many years ago are
responsible for your mistake!

Well yes! How did that happen!

Well the intelligent shopkepers and industry in general just took advantage
of the averagely bright canadian then. You cant blame the measurement
systems.

but almost no one noticed because of

Well me too! Thats why I started it. I find it frustrating...

 

I stand corrected! But how do I convert the Dodge Caravan to real (ok
British!) Gallons!

Anyone???

 

Have you checked with a dealer? If they sell the car in the UK then there
must be UK firmware, I doubt they have different electronics but they
would have different firmware.

 

I'm not sure it is possible. Our 2001 UK spec Grand Voyager has a
sticker in the manual telling you what to multiply the mpg reading by to
get the correct value. I'd have thought that it would be better to
reprogram it than put a sticker in the manual if it was simple to do.

It doesn't bother me particularly as we run on LPG, so the fuel
consumption figures from the computer are meaningless - but if anybody
does know a way I'd be pleased to learn it.

Matt

 

Where's the steering wheel in your Voyager? It's hard to believe that
they would go to the trouble of moving the steering wheel but they
couldn't be bothered to change a single constant in the firmware for the
trip computer.

 

In the correct place, where any civilised country puts it <ducks>
It is on the right hand side, i.e. this really is specced and built for
the UK, not a simple import from Europe or the US. (FWIW it is built in
Austria).

Car manufacturers move in mysterious ways...
The sticker in the manual set looks "official" - i.e. very nicely printed.

Matt

 

Yes, thank God the USA didn't change everything.
The smaller USA quart and gallon was probably a typical big business
marketing decision to short change customers.

The USA is metric in many ways. For example new USA vehicle designs
since about 1980 have been metric dimensioned.
I've even bought gas in liters in the Mammoth, CA area, in the early 80s.

So much was made in a negative way in Canada when we went metric in July
1981. Many said it was horrible that we left the Queens measurement
system.
Well in August 1981 I visited the UK and had a chuckle when I saw they
went metric for gas (petrol) a few months earlier, in the spring!
I applaud the metric system, but I'm horrified that many grocery goods
are sold in both measurements, with Imperial being the most prominent.
School students in CDA have been on metric since 1981, so many no little
of the out of date Imperial system.

However thank goodness we didn't mix up the measurement systems as the
UK did.
The UK really screwed up their weather maps. Celsius for temperature
and MPH for wind speed. Very confusing for visitors, with this mixed
system.
Since in the UK petrol is sold in liters and distance is in miles; a mix
of measurement systems here as well!

There may be a way to change your display to Imperial.
My wife's 2001 Sebring allows one to select Imperial or Metric for the
computer display, simply by scrolling to the selection.
However it may not handle the UK mixed systems, unless the ROM is
changed.
Have you called Chrysler UK technical assistance?
You could ask here: http://www.allpar.com/model/m/minivans.html

 

Are you sure about that? According the numbers you used above, a US
ounce is 29.53125 ml, while the Imperial ounce is 28.375 ml.

This is reasonably consistent with Wikipedia, which states a US fluid
ounce is 29.5735295625 ml, while the Imperial ounce is 28.4130625. ml.

 

In the US it is legal to sell fuel under the metric system, depending upon
State regulations. It is legal to do so in New York. Several chains tried
this when gas went over $1.00 per unit and the mechanical pump meters could
not go over $1.00 per unit. Public reaction to this was not positive and I
have not seen a metric sales setting on a pump in a very long time.

Richard.

 

Exactly. Whatever arguments one may evince in favour of a duodecimal (based
on 12) or binary system the most practical from an everyday point of view is
the decimal. So I say, thank goodness the UK DID change to decimal/metric,
even if it did not change completely when the currency went decimal in 1971.
Weights are now decimal, too, but legal distance isn't. Still, I bet not a
lot of British school children know how many inches or feet there are in a
mile.

In the eurozone countries many businesses, especially smaller,
uncomputerised ones, took the opportunity of the currency change to raise
prices. It was a once-only effect, though. (As they did in the UK when the
currency was decimalised.)

I wonder how many of the proponents of non-base-10 systems would like to see
their currencies revert (as in, e.g. AU, NZ, IN, GB) or go to non-decimal...

I grew up with 20 shillings in the pound and 16 ounces to the pound, but I
don't miss them, even if it's more convenience to say "a couple of feet"
that "several decimetres"...

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling
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You have to appreciate our muddling-through ways...

However, there is a background as to why two weights were/are shown on,
e.g., food packaging. The obvious one is 1 lb and 454 g.

Up to our recent change the LEGAL weight was 1 lb, with the metric being
indicative. Now the LEGAL figure is the metric one.

Although I can't prove it at the moment I reckon that the reason fuel
pricing changed to pence per litre was because the price was going through
GBP 2 (or was it 1?) per gallon, a politically 'explosive' number. Easy
side-step: charge per litre. Now that we are close to GBP 1 per LITRE how
will they re-price to hide that...?...

Changing distances to km could be hugely expensive as all the road signs
would have to be changed. The Irish did it, but it's a much smaller country
with, I think, proportionally less traffic than the UK. Needless to say,
for quite a while signs in miles and km were up at the same time.

Interestingly, the use of litres per 100 km is not used here. Occasionally
one hears of miles per litre (now that IS mixed) but I think that (or km/l)
makes more practical sense than the very common l/100 km.

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling
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"Not small" Canada changed from miles to KM in 1981.
Perhaps the UK is waiting the change to KM for when they start driving
on the right side. <

L/100 KM is the standard, although I feel KM/L would make more sense.

 

The changeover was September 1977. In Ontario it was September 6,
1977 as you can see here: http://www.thekingshighway.ca/faq.htm.
There's also a sign on westbound Highway 3 in Fort Erie that
advertises the metric changeover date.

My 1978 car was the first model year with km/h speedometer.

Shrug. I can deal with either MPG or L/100km. MPG is more confusing
because in North America you never know if it's an Imperial or US
gallon under discussion.

 

By "small" I didn't mean in physical size but quantity of traffic and
density of signs. The UK has nearly twice the population of Canada.

And Sweden changed from driving on the left to right (was it 30 years ago?).
Not so difficult. Physically big country but very small population. And a
lot of Swedes had LHD cars anyway.

Plus it made some sense, given the long land borders with LHD countries.

The only country with which the UK has a 'proper' land border is Eire, and
it drives on the left, of course.

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling
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Well I think I figured out now that you cannot do it...
Oh well.