Almost ran out of petrol..
Discussion
I had a horrible moment "touching cloth" with the petrol gauge on my Z4.
One of those rushed, frantic days, and a rash decision resulted in me deciding to do a 25-ish mile motorway journey with 35 miles left showing on the digital fuel gauge. Not the best advised move, and little margin for error. Like I say, I was in a hurry and had a million things to do.
Anyway, I was watching the gauge like a hawk the whole way down, and with about 5 miles to go, it just went from 5 to "----".
Oh sh*t...
Long story short, I made it, but I've never been so close to running out in my life and will never do anything like that again. What I'd like to know is just how close was I to running out? I've never seen the gauge show "----", and I assume it's not good. I've read that some cars will do "a few dozen" miles when showing empty. Surely it can't be that many?
Seeriously chaps, don't f
k about with fuel pumps and running out.
I recently learned the hard way.
Especially on BMW's, the fuel pumps are lubricated by the fuel itself, and if you run it on fumes or close, it'll overheat the pump, and can cause it to fail prematurely.
I learnt the hard way whilst in Tuscany in the M5. Cost me a grand to put right.
k about with fuel pumps and running out.I recently learned the hard way.
Especially on BMW's, the fuel pumps are lubricated by the fuel itself, and if you run it on fumes or close, it'll overheat the pump, and can cause it to fail prematurely.
I learnt the hard way whilst in Tuscany in the M5. Cost me a grand to put right.
I used to hire vans a lot, they were rented empty of fuel and so I tried to return them empty!
I found that the best thing to do is cover up the fuel gauge/range light, that way you don't worry about it!
Never failed to get back, but did once have a van splutter to a holt on the hire companies forecourt - that was my best effort!
I found that the best thing to do is cover up the fuel gauge/range light, that way you don't worry about it!
Never failed to get back, but did once have a van splutter to a holt on the hire companies forecourt - that was my best effort!
Once ran out of gas at 1am on a section of road that ran through some woods (A611 in Nottinghamshire). This was just after the Blair Witch Project was released. Don't recommend doing that...
It was a full moon as well!
Anyway, recently got real low on petrol in my current car - it's a 60 litre tank and I managed to squeeze 58 litres in!
It was a full moon as well!
Anyway, recently got real low on petrol in my current car - it's a 60 litre tank and I managed to squeeze 58 litres in!
I had to pick some parts up from LAX and return them that day to El Centro. Instead of sticking to the interstates we went the shortest route saving us a couple of hours.
We made notes of petrol stations along the way seeing it was pretty rural (cow skeletons and tumbleweed)
Made it to LA completely fine and picked up several thousand pounds worth of aircraft spares. On the return leg it was still bd hot (45oC+) and once off the interstate we had between 1/3 and 1/2 a tank. All going fine as we knew there was a rest stop about 80miles away.
The trip went past 110miles and the gauge was reading under 1/4 now- no fuel stop.
The part time bds had closed for the night...
We were still 40miles out from the next town in an automatic minibus. We turned the aircon off in a bid to aid fuel consumption, in the process stripping off to our shreddies. It was like a frikkin over in the car
Anyway the light came on and we had to make a choice, find somewhere safe to leave the car with MoD spares and flag down help/walk the rest and return late back to base where the entire exercise was awaiting to fit them (grounded aircraft) or see how far we could get and deal with it at that point.
We decided to carry on seeing we'd be in the st either way. In the end we made it to the town, fueled up and returned to base smelling quite badly.
We made notes of petrol stations along the way seeing it was pretty rural (cow skeletons and tumbleweed)
Made it to LA completely fine and picked up several thousand pounds worth of aircraft spares. On the return leg it was still b
d hot (45oC+) and once off the interstate we had between 1/3 and 1/2 a tank. All going fine as we knew there was a rest stop about 80miles away.The trip went past 110miles and the gauge was reading under 1/4 now- no fuel stop.
The part time b
ds had closed for the night...We were still 40miles out from the next town in an automatic minibus. We turned the aircon off in a bid to aid fuel consumption, in the process stripping off to our shreddies. It was like a frikkin over in the car
Anyway the light came on and we had to make a choice, find somewhere safe to leave the car with MoD spares and flag down help/walk the rest and return late back to base where the entire exercise was awaiting to fit them (grounded aircraft) or see how far we could get and deal with it at that point.
We decided to carry on seeing we'd be in the s
t either way. In the end we made it to the town, fueled up and returned to base smelling quite badly.Edited by Vidal Baboon on Monday 6th September 21:58
I once ran out waiting to pull onto a roundabout, the other side of which was a petrol station. Hazards on, got out and pushed the car back off the side of the road into a gateway and rang dad for a tow. After sitting there for a couple of minutes twiddling my thumbs, I thought I'd see if the car would start again, and it did. I got around the roundabout and the car spluttered to a out as I pulled onto the forecourt and coasted up to the pump.
OP, you need to try harder.
OP, you need to try harder.
neil_bolton said:
Seeriously chaps, don't fk about with fuel pumps and running out.
I recently learned the hard way.
Especially on BMW's, the fuel pumps are lubricated by the fuel itself, and if you run it on fumes or close, it'll overheat the pump, and can cause it to fail prematurely.
I learnt the hard way whilst in Tuscany in the M5. Cost me a grand to put right.
just blows the fuse on a Lotus k about with fuel pumps and running out.I recently learned the hard way.
Especially on BMW's, the fuel pumps are lubricated by the fuel itself, and if you run it on fumes or close, it'll overheat the pump, and can cause it to fail prematurely.
I learnt the hard way whilst in Tuscany in the M5. Cost me a grand to put right.
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