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which to trust more: fuel gauge or little orange 'low' fuel light...thingy

G

Goosemaster

Lifer
1. Needle is hovering above "E"
2. As I'm driving, the sign next to the last exit for about 6miles says "accident ahead, all lanes closed"
3. curse up a storm.
4. come to halt as I near the backup.
5. Needle goes past "E" and below, exploring depths of my dashboard that no Ford Engineer ever dreamed of.
6. curse up a storm
7. call people to make sure I can get someone to come out with gas if the worst happens.
8. notice that he only has one bar left on his phone's battery meter.
9. curse up a storm.
10. traffic starts moving and I make it to a gas station with the needle fighting tooth and nail to invalidate the laws of physics by heading towards the netherregions that are below my instrument cluster.


Basically, the 'low fuel' light never came on, and I am curious as to why. A few years ago a wayward pump at a gas station malfunctioned and continued to pump even after my tank was full, not only spilling a fortune all over the place, but rudely damaging my gas gauge. The result was a car that now took 11.4gal to fill where it used to take 9.3gal to fill up and whose needle goes about 5% past the 'full' thatch mark on the dash.

I can understand some engineers setting the gas gauge a little high for the sake of incompetent drivers, present company excluded, but isn't two gallons little much? In addition, what about the fuel warning light? Should I assume that it's busted too?


I gotta say, this is driving me nuts. Moments like these, where you are put in position where you have no choice but to wait patiently for your own demise to approach are becoming too much for me. On the one hand I have some glimmer of hope, in that the little orange light of death stays ominously silent, but on the other hand, it might already have been whacked by some over zealous mobsters ready for a hostile takeover and I might end up stranded in god knows where...hell Jersey.......:shivers;

I swear. I drove an eternity on 'E', and I can't stand it any longer


damn Colombianos....with their beans....


and yes I had a little too much tonight...


and yes, feel free to post generous misinterpretations about my "wholesome evening on 'E'"


*goes to bed*
 
You probably have anywhere from 1-3 gallons left in the tank even when your gauge just hits E. Thats been my experience with cars anyway...
 
What you need to do is fill up a gas can, then go and see just how far you can really get on "empty". We'll be waiting for updates.
 
Originally posted by: everman
What you need to do is fill up a gas can, then go and see just how far you can really get on "empty". We'll be waiting for updates.
Click to expand...

I've thought about doing that so many times....stressing my beater's fuel pump and having it swallow whatever crap is at the bottom of the tank is another story however...
 
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: everman
What you need to do is fill up a gas can, then go and see just how far you can really get on "empty". We'll be waiting for updates.
Click to expand...

I've thought about doing that so many times....stressing my beater's fuel pump and having it swallow whatever crap is at the bottom of the tank is another story however...
Click to expand...

Fuel pumps usually have the intake at the bottom so it's swallowing whatever crap is at the bottom everytime you turn the car on. The fuel is usually used to cool the pump though so it could possibly overheat and damage it, in theory.
 
Usually the light turns on when you hit 2 gallons (or 1 gallon if you have a really small tank). It uses an on/off switch which is more reliable than the floater that controls the gas gauge. So basically until the light goes on, you're good to go. Once the light turns on, you have between 10 and 60 miles left (depending on your vehicle's fuel efficiency).
 
97 jeep zj

needle hits E and fuel light come on at same time
owners manual says this happens at 3 gallons
seems to be right on the money.
its a 23 gallon tank but i'm sure its got a gallon or 2 of unstated reserve.

92 ford exploder

no low fuel light
gas gage will read low or high by 1/4 tank on any given day
best way to keep track of fuel is to use the trip meter

18 gallon tank
1.9 gallon reserve.
 
My truck has a 5 gallon reserve. Light comes on with 5 gallons left to go. It's a 22 gallon tank and I typically put in 17 when I fill up.

I've never let it hit the "E" on the guage. After a year of driving the vehicle I know pretty much when I'm at the limit of my distance. I track milage every tank. I know how far a tank of gas will get me given the type of driving I was doing.
 
I went by the Range meter in my M3 the other day. I got down to 1mile, then it went '----'. I was 0.5 a mile from a gas station. When I filled up it took 59.40 litres to fill it, and IFAIK it's a 60 litre tank. :shock;
 
How much fuel was your tank designed to hold?

Mine holds 13.2 gallons and if I fill up right after the light comes on it takes about 11.7 gallons to fill up.
 
I have had cars that have been when the gas gauge says empty it means empty and has left me on the side of the road looking sheepish because I ran out of gas. My current car the gas gauge hangs at empty anywhere between 60-90 miles before the low fuel light comes on, have never run out of gas with it.
 
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: Excelsior
You probably have anywhere from 1-3 gallons left in the tank even when your gauge just hits E. Thats been my experience with cars anyway...
Click to expand...

thanks.
Click to expand...

Yep, generally in most newer cars (I dunno, from the 80s onward) they do that. Wasn't that way in a couple of my older cars, E meant E.
 
If i'm low on fuel, My fuel light comes on at different times depending on if im on a hill or not, if i'm goin up a hill, it comes on early, then it doesnt go up if i get back on a level... its really annoying. :|
 
My low fuel warning has only come on a couple of times, and each time I already knew I was dangerously low, and was on my way to the nearest fueling station. The farthest I've gone under "low fuel" alarm was 10 miles... I think I had about a gallon left in the tank when I filled it up that time.

I think that my low fuel alarm kicked on right when it hit "E".

On a side note, my fuel gauge is very consistent, but very inaccurate. If I fill my tank up, it reads full + 1/4" of blank space (where the needle is), and it reads about 1/2 tank remaining when I really have about 1/3.
 
Mine comes on at about 40l in a 43l tank IIRC. (Might be 46l tank).
I usually fill up when the light comes on, which is about the same time it hits the empty zone (mine has orange markers towards E), so I fill up once the light is starting to come on.
 
My car has 2 stages of emptiness lol, first the low fuel light comes on for about 20 - 25 miles, then it starts flashing, i've driven on this for about 10 miles before, then i got worried and filled up lol
 
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