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How many miles do you really have when your gas gauge light comes on?

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quakefiend420 said:
the harleys don't have a fuel gauge, much less a light
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*sputter-sputter-die

/turn reserve petcock, pop clutch

good to go! hehe.

my truck has about 30 miles left when the light comes on. well, probably more, i havent ran it to the point of needing a gas can yet.

my mc depends on how i ride it. i can squeeze about 50ish when it hits reserve. crappy thing is forgetting to take it off reserve and really being out of gas.
 
JulesMaximus said:
Most older bikes, carbed bikes, have a petcock. You turn it on to allow fuel to the carbs and when it starts to stumble due to low fuel you can turn it to reserve to get that last gallon or so of fuel into the engine. This is your warning that you should get fuel before long. Riding a motorcycle you should really know the range of the bike and reset the trip meter at every fill up so you'll know when you need to get fuel next.
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And God help you if you forget to flip the valve back after you fill up.
 
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Roughly 50 miles for mine (Lincoln LS). I rarely let it get that low though (on any car I drive). Bad for the fuel pump.
 
I've never tried running to empty.. but I usually do another 30 or so miles when it lights up before filling, and then it takes 16ish gallons. Apparently the tank size is 20.
 
For my 08 Tundra, either 35-40 miles or whenever it decides to spontaneously slam me into a telephone pole (whichever comes first).
 
SooperDave said:
And God help you if you forget to flip the valve back after you fill up.
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I never did that thankfully. I used the trip meter for the most part. Ride 100 miles, refill the tank, reset the trip meter. Ride 100 miles, refill the tank, reset the trip meter.

I still do that on my current bike too except I go 120-130 miles between fillups. Most I got was 200 miles and I ran out of gas. Tank holds about 4.5 gallons of fuel.
 
The needle hits E and I have another round trip to work in me so about 40 miles. Then the needle is dipped way below the E and I fill 'er up. I still have at least half a gallon left in it too.

Of course, even if I have half a tank and I make a highway speed left bending turn, by the time the turn ends the needle is pegged past empty.
 
JulesMaximus said:
I never did that thankfully. I used the trip meter for the most part. Ride 100 miles, refill the tank, reset the trip meter. Ride 100 miles, refill the tank, reset the trip meter.

I still do that on my current bike too except I go 120-130 miles between fillups. Most I got was 200 miles and I ran out of gas. Tank holds about 4.5 gallons of fuel.
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i was really spoiled with my 5.4 gal tank. id get about 250 before reserve hit me, unless i was showboating it. then id get about 70 miles out of a tank.
 
Depends on the car... the "range" (miles left) on mine averages the last 20mi to come to that number. With that said, on local roads, I've driven it a couple miles past 0mi. range left and it was fine. Don't make a habit of it anymore though. Even though after 15 years I've not had a problem with my other car doing that, people say anything under 1/4 tank and you're playing with the potential of gunk getting in the filter, etc... who knows best?

LTC8K6 said:
The Hemi starts a 60 second countdown...
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haha
 
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My mpv and maxima have 18.5 gallon tanks I believe and the light generally kicks on around 15 or 15.5 shy of running out so I figure on highway I've got a good 75 miles left. I've never had to put in more than perhaps 16.8 gallons, though. I always run my cars quite low but once the light goes on I start getting a bit nervous.
 
The first warning comes on at about a 1/4 tank. Around 80 miles. I can clear that one off the hud and the display.

Once I get under 40 miles range the warning persists and it just comes back if I clear it, so I just fill up to clear the annoyance.
 
Most modern cars have at least 2 gallons left when the light comes on, so do the math. They used to tell you how many gallons were left when the light comes on in the manual. Do they not do this anymore?
 
F1N3ST said:
I've only run below 1/8th of a tank twice in my car, and both times I've gotten gas ASAP. Stopped in the ghetto once D:, was all white with my moderately nice car, like 5 scary black people getting gas, and some gangster lookin arab guy teller.

Wasn't a fun experience.
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Where were you? Dearborn, Pontiac, Flint, Detroit, Benton Harbor?

I got really close to running out like 4 months back.. I was going to a Dodgers game (and still getting used to my new car) I didn't realize that it takes like 8 gallons to get down to the 3/4 line by that time.
So I was stuck in traffic with like 1/4 of the tank showing.. and it started dropping fast.. I think the tank holds about 18 gallons and when I got it to a gas station it took ~17.8 😀

So, the answer for my car is.. in L.A not many.
 
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