2004 mustang and 1999 chev blazer

[CandyPam]

To you experts, can anyone tell me when a fuel gauge reads low fuel or on e what the amount of gas and approx. mileage is in reserve

Thank You

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'd guess maybe 1-1.5 gallons? What on earth do you need to know this for? Do you own these vehicles? If so, look in the manual and see what the size of the tank is and run them until the light comes on, then fill up and subtract the tank size from the amount of fuel you added to fill up. That is your reserve (approximately).

 

[SparkyJJO]

Don't do that unless you're trying to burn up your fuel pumps.

 

[NutBucket]

Its different for every car. Sometimes the info is in the owner's manual.

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, what Jules said. Note your tank size, and fill up as soon as low fuel is indicated, and subtract.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Don't do that unless you're trying to burn up your fuel pumps.

That is complete and utter nonsense. I've run many cars down until the low fuel light comes on and never ever had to replace a fuel pump. Some of those cars I put well over 100k miles on.

 

[tortillasoup]

low fuel light is based upon percentage in the tank, 5%-10% remaining. larger tanks have larger reserve (since 10% of 25gal is more than of 12 gallons).

 

[tortillasoup]

That is complete and utter nonsense. I've run many cars down until the low fuel light comes on and never ever had to replace a fuel pump. Some of those cars I put well over 100k miles on.

yeah unless the pumps are run dry (which means car no workie) then yeah if a fuel pump is going to burn out, it's far more likely caused by corroded electrical grounds (volt sag, amps increase, burn out motor). That's usually why fuel pumps go.

 

[BUTCH1]

That is complete and utter nonsense. I've run many cars down until the low fuel light comes on and never ever had to replace a fuel pump. Some of those cars I put well over 100k miles on.

Depend's on the car, when mine comes on I've got at least 50 miles left, if anyone is stupid enough to completely run out of fuel though it's VERY tough on the pump...

 

[Meghan54]

To you experts, can anyone tell me when a fuel gauge reads low fuel or on e what the amount of gas and approx. mileage is in reserve

Thank You

The Blazer is probably at 2-3 gal. of gas when the low fuel light comes on. That's what our '02 Blazer's owner's manual stated for ours and cannot imagine yours being vastly different.

 

[SparkyJJO]

That is complete and utter nonsense. I've run many cars down until the low fuel light comes on and never ever had to replace a fuel pump. Some of those cars I put well over 100k miles on.

Only running it to the low fuel mark is fine, yeah, but I got the impression he wants to push it that last X miles which could be bad.

I've run mine to the low light a few times (I prefer not to) and have nearly 190k miles on the original pump so I know that isn't going to kill it

 

[Arkaign]

An old mechanic told me once 'a quarter tank is empty!' for older vehicles. I've lived by that over the years, because that guy spent half his life wrenching, and who am I to argue.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Only running it to the low fuel mark is fine, yeah, but I got the impression he wants to push it that last X miles which could be bad.

I've run mine to the low light a few times (I prefer not to) and have nearly 190k miles on the original pump so I know that isn't going to kill it

I ran my Maxima down to the low fuel light many many times and I ran it lower than that a few times as well. A couple summers ago I was driving to work and the fuel light came on about 15 miles from work. I figured I would just fuel up on my way home, I had done this many times (filling up every 4 days you start to stretch those fillups as far apart as you can). Well, that was the day we had a county wide power outage that lasted for almost 12 hours.

I hit the roads that evening with my computer saying I had about 40 miles until empty and I had about a 30 mile ride to get home and traffic was gridlocked. It took me over 2 hours to make that drive and I had no choice but to run it down to the last drop. It was a hot summer day and I didn't even run the AC because I was afraid I wouldn't make it. When I got home the computer was saying I had 6 miles until empty. I made it home and parked it, started it up the next morning after the power was back on and drove straight to the nearest gas station. I drove that car for about another year and 20,000 miles after that with no trouble.

That's the closest I've come to running out of gas since I was in high school. No way would I do that regularly but running it down until the fuel light comes on isn't going to kill your fuel pump. That's just nonsense.

 

[Vaux]

I have heard that running your fuel tank until it's just about empty could cause any sediment that is in your tank to travel to the fuel filter and pump, which I would think would be harmful. Should that be a concern?

 

[SparkyJJO]

I have heard that running your fuel tank until it's just about empty could cause any sediment that is in your tank to travel to the fuel filter and pump, which I would think would be harmful. Should that be a concern?

Well, sediment usually sits at the bottom, and that is where the pump is, so, if sediment was an issue it would happen regardless of how full the tank is. That said, how would said sediment get in your tank anyway unless you're dumping dirt in your tank?

 

[Kelvrick]

Well, sediment usually sits at the bottom, and that is where the pump is, so, if sediment was an issue it would happen regardless of how full the tank is. That said, how would said sediment get in your tank anyway unless you're dumping dirt in your tank?

I always thought the using that argument, you'd have to keep filling up sooner as the car got older. With say a 20 yo car with 250k miles, would you have to start filling up once it hits 1/2 tank because its so full of sediment?

I try to fill up at 1/4 or above in my cars and the best I can come up with is that some cars have the pumps inside the tank and the fuel is used to cool the pump. In reality, I don't want to be in a hurry and have to stop at a gas station somewhere.

 

[LTC8K6]

I have heard that running your fuel tank until it's just about empty could cause any sediment that is in your tank to travel to the fuel filter and pump, which I would think would be harmful. Should that be a concern?

You mean the low fuel level causes sloshing which stirs up the sediment?

The fuel pickup doesn't move. I'd think if there were enough sediment in there to be a problem, then it would be a problem all the time.

 

[nerp]

Sediment in the tank only happens with really old cars or a lifetime of really bad gas going in the tank and this is very rare. I wouldn't worry about sediment in the tank unless you're talking something that's more than 20 years old. And the solution to sediment is to replace the gas tank, not keeping the tank full all the time. Sort of like the solution to a stalling engine is to get it to stop stalling, not floor it with the car in neutral at traffic lights.