Running on fumes
Discussion
Yesterday, for a variety of reasons, I drove to work with the fuel light on and didn’t fill up. It’s only about 15 miles to work, so no problem, I’ll just fill up on my way back. Trouble is I’m a fuel snob- it has to be Super Unleaded. There’s a BP and a Tesco in close proximity on my way home though so I’m ok there.
I got in the car in the evening and started the engine. The fuel warning buzzer did its impression of a self destruct siren and I’m sure the fuel gauge has dropped during the day, it’s now over half way down the red line. The trip computer’s no help, it says no range once the light is on. But never mind, it’s only a few miles to the petrol station, so I pull out of the carpark and see a line of stationary traffic on the road outside. We then crawl out of town to the junction towards the bypass, seemingly taking an age, and every time I look at the fuel gauge it seems to have moved.
Once at the bypass I’m now sweating, and not just because I’ve turned the aircon off. The fuel gauge is now poking the bottom of the red line and I’ve never had it so low so have no idea how much fuel I have left. The world seems to be doing everything in its power to slow me down- every light is red, every queue a dozen cars longer than usual. And then of course there’s the fleet of lorries and OAPs that appear to have decided that today’s the day to take to the road. Half way to the petrol station and the needle now has space between its tip and the bottom of the red line- I’m now considering whether I should switch off the radio or even stop the engine at red lights.
Of course I make it, and the relief is palpable. I’ve no idea how big my fuel tank is but I’m guessing that with the pipe it’s probably about 57 litres. 53 ½ litres go in and I start to feel a bit silly about the preceding half hour, as I’d probably got enough left to get home…
Am I the only person in the world that hates running so low on fuel? In my youth I used to know people who never had more then a quarter of a tank as they said it blunted their acceleration, although I think the real reason was finances. I also used to know a girl who never let her car drop below quarter of a tank as she’d run out once and the experience had scarred her for life.
I got in the car in the evening and started the engine. The fuel warning buzzer did its impression of a self destruct siren and I’m sure the fuel gauge has dropped during the day, it’s now over half way down the red line. The trip computer’s no help, it says no range once the light is on. But never mind, it’s only a few miles to the petrol station, so I pull out of the carpark and see a line of stationary traffic on the road outside. We then crawl out of town to the junction towards the bypass, seemingly taking an age, and every time I look at the fuel gauge it seems to have moved.
Once at the bypass I’m now sweating, and not just because I’ve turned the aircon off. The fuel gauge is now poking the bottom of the red line and I’ve never had it so low so have no idea how much fuel I have left. The world seems to be doing everything in its power to slow me down- every light is red, every queue a dozen cars longer than usual. And then of course there’s the fleet of lorries and OAPs that appear to have decided that today’s the day to take to the road. Half way to the petrol station and the needle now has space between its tip and the bottom of the red line- I’m now considering whether I should switch off the radio or even stop the engine at red lights.
Of course I make it, and the relief is palpable. I’ve no idea how big my fuel tank is but I’m guessing that with the pipe it’s probably about 57 litres. 53 ½ litres go in and I start to feel a bit silly about the preceding half hour, as I’d probably got enough left to get home…
Am I the only person in the world that hates running so low on fuel? In my youth I used to know people who never had more then a quarter of a tank as they said it blunted their acceleration, although I think the real reason was finances. I also used to know a girl who never let her car drop below quarter of a tank as she’d run out once and the experience had scarred her for life.
I like to fill up when my light comes on, or when i know its going to come on very soon. I feel the cars quite sluggish when i let it be with the light on for anything more than 10 miles... I prefer having my car full or near full! car seems to run better and for some strange reason give me more MPG... could just be the fuel from the pipes making its way down and being used....
Back in the day (circa year 2000) the 1st of my mates passed his test and we used to go out in his 1.2 Nova Saloon every night, although we never seemed to go far. So, the start of most evenings would be to follow the normal ritual. Scrape the schrapnel out of pockets, from down the back of the sofa, etc etc and go to tesco petrol station and fill up with....... £2.50! - We all skint students once!
I dont know if the car ever moved out of the red mark on the fuel guage the entire time he had it.
It got to the point where even the till bloke in the kiosk would take the piss everytime so after a while I would refuse to be the one to go in and pay.
Also, when I had my first car - ford escort, the fuel guage was f
ked pretty much from the word go so I could only really guess how much fuel I had by the amount of miles done since the last fill up. I got this wrong quite often. So the only way to survive after my dad got fed up with coming to the rescue with a Jerry can was to carry the Jerry can around in the car at least half full all the time.
Ahhh, great memories!
I dont know if the car ever moved out of the red mark on the fuel guage the entire time he had it.
It got to the point where even the till bloke in the kiosk would take the piss everytime so after a while I would refuse to be the one to go in and pay.
Also, when I had my first car - ford escort, the fuel guage was f
ked pretty much from the word go so I could only really guess how much fuel I had by the amount of miles done since the last fill up. I got this wrong quite often. So the only way to survive after my dad got fed up with coming to the rescue with a Jerry can was to carry the Jerry can around in the car at least half full all the time.Ahhh, great memories!
It may be a myth, but it was always ingrained in me by my dad that if you let the fuel run too low, you'd risk getting crap that may have settled at the bottom of the tank into your fuel system.
It doesn't quite stack up these days when I think about it, but I still don't like the thought of running it too low to this day. I'm still a little paranoid.
It doesn't quite stack up these days when I think about it, but I still don't like the thought of running it too low to this day. I'm still a little paranoid.
Edited by useyourdellusion on Wednesday 26th May 15:49
Was driving on the autoroute in france last summer - sign says 70k to the next fuel - car says its got 60k left, will make that easy I thought.
I stopped having this thought 2k from the petrol station when I got a bump, a lot of warning lights and coasted onto the hard shoulder.
Turns out the range to go in a Mini is remarkably accurate, and cost me a couple of hundred Euros to find out.
I stopped having this thought 2k from the petrol station when I got a bump, a lot of warning lights and coasted onto the hard shoulder.
Turns out the range to go in a Mini is remarkably accurate, and cost me a couple of hundred Euros to find out.
Unfortunatly I find that, when below quarter of a tank, the digital gauge in my cheapo ford bears next to no resemblance to the amount of fuel left in the tank. Cue lots of 'oh i've got quarter of a tank left, don't need to worry about filing up', usually followed swiftly by 'ah, nothing left' - usually miles from anywhere or on a motorway. Takes some getting used to and it infurtiating when you think there's nothing left only to pull up at the pumps and find there was still a good gallon to go.
soad said:
Run out of fuel once, on a hill too - wasn't best pleased... 
Ha ha! I ran out of fuel once at the top of a massive hill in Australia. I coasted down the hill and arrived at the petrol station forecourt as I rolled to a stop. I asked where the next petrol station was and got told 50 kms!!!Alfa numeric said:
Yesterday, for a variety of reasons, I drove to work with the fuel light on and didn’t fill up. It’s only about 15 miles to work, so no problem, I’ll just fill up on my way back.
One possible problem with this plan is that, while cars will go until they run out of fuel, some won't restart with low fuel if the engine is stopped.One of the car mags got caught out by this when testing a Jag XF - it's done to prevent damage from unburnt fuel getting into the catalytic converter.
I tend to let the car get onto the reserve light before I fill it up. I've done 15 nervous miles in the car (Impreza, so not exactly sparing on the juice) and the car only took two litres more than a normal fillup from just on the light. My tank is 55 litres and I usually get 48-50 in there before it starts pissing out all over the floor - the anti splash doesn't seem to work on my cap.
Normally I dislike doing it and top up around the 1/8-14 of a tank mark. I have however got 67l into what i'd thought was a 60 l tank (i could hear the pump whining). More recently I was setting out from London back to leicestershire with about 1/4 of a tank left and didn't fancy paying london/motorway fuel prices...made it back with a few litres to spare as well which just goes to show i shouldnt worry as much as i do.
the gauyge on my bmw might not be too accurate, but the range is very accurate. If it says 0, i stop
havign said that, most iof my cars have been classics and I have developed the habit of never letting the fuel get too low- less then 1/4, say. In a clasic, there might be a lot of rust which gets sucked up into the carbs and block them with low fuel in the tank. With lots of fuel, this is less likely to happen.
havign said that, most iof my cars have been classics and I have developed the habit of never letting the fuel get too low- less then 1/4, say. In a clasic, there might be a lot of rust which gets sucked up into the carbs and block them with low fuel in the tank. With lots of fuel, this is less likely to happen.
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff