Tempting fate...Low fuel light

[notyourmomslx450]

hey all,

Well, I did it at last. The low fuel light came on, and I politely told it to go to hell. I passed gas station after gas station, staring defiantly into the soft orange glow resonating from below the fuel gauge. Finally, after many scary in betweens, I succumbed and pulled into a gas station, sure to pay for a full tank.

23.8 Gallons!!

I thought for sure that I'd about run it dry, but she still had a little left in her.

What's the lowest you guys have dared to take yours without running out?

 

[firetruck41]

24 gallons. The light usually comes on with 4-5 gallons left.

 

[LX_TREME]

Any dirt, condensate or whatever is going to be in the bottom of the tank. The lower your run the tank, the higher the concentration of contaminants so if you run low on fuel better fill-up than suck' in all the dirt.

 

[OLDGOAT]

You've got some balls, I break out in a cold sweat after about 30 miles with the fuel light burning a hole in my retina!

I've only dared to use about 21.5 gallons before my own whimpering and the sting of sweat in my eyes becomes too much and causes me to yank the steering wheel over into the nearest gas station.

 

[cruiserman]

Been watching Seinfeld re-runs?

23.x gallons is as far as I've gotten.

 

[alkaline747trio]

24.2 gallons is my best, rode a whole 2 days with it on (about 35+ miles), it started to stumble from a stop so I pulled in a gas station and filled her up, $68.75 worth!

 

[OLDGOAT]

Been watching Seinfeld re-runs?

Hehehe, yeah, I remember that episode.

 

[NorCalDoug]

so...I don't normally play the "how low can I go" game, but let's turn this a bit more techy than it seems to be right now...


Does anyone think running on a low tank can damage the fuel pump? Any evidence of this happening? Real life experience?


Those following my EFI thread will know why I'm asking this.

 

[cruiserdan]

Gasoline cools the pump. Logic dictates that if the pump is not imersed then it does not get full cooling. On the other hand I do not recall ever seeing a printed warning suggesting a low fuel level will damage the pump. The only warning I remember is that running out of fuel causes mis-fires which overloads the cats with un-burned fuel.

 

[firetruck41]

My wife has ran a 98 jetta, and a 92 BMW 525 out of gas numerous times, and I ran a 93 4runner out of gas once, all are fuel injected and no damage noted, they all ran fine afterwards. Best thing is, the 525 had a onboard computer which would say how many miles were left based on fuel in the tank, not sure exactly how far she drove with it reading ZERO!

 

[C6H12O6]

I remember hearing something when I was a kid about how you shouldn't run out of gas in her EFI car because you had to have the fuel injectors primed if you went dry.

I've never forgotten that, but I've also never heard a shred of support for that warning.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

What great timing on this thread! I ran out of gas this morning! LOL. I got back into town at around 1am last night, having run the last 40miles of interstate with the fuel light on because I just wanted to get home, and don't feel comfortable stopping in the middle of nowhere at 12am for gas. Anyway, get back to town, and not a single station was open. Not even for credit card sales. So on my way out of the parking lot this morning the cruiser stumbles and dies. I managed to drive it a mile further to the closest gas station and she took on 24.3 gallons. She died 3 more times between my apartment complex and the gas station, but she did make it under her own power eventually!

Ary

 

[notyourmomslx450]

I remember hearing something when I was a kid about how you shouldn't run out of gas in her EFI car because you had to have the fuel injectors primed if you went dry.

I've never forgotten that, but I've also never heard a shred of support for that warning.

I thought that applied to diesel engines. I've never heard that about gasoline engines.

 

[Pete483]

The bottom of the tank is where the condensates and water will be, but that is also where you always draw the fuel from, using the gas at the bottom of the tank shouldn't make a difference at all as far as contaminates/quality of fuel.

 

[Pete483]

Any dirt, condensate or whatever is going to be in the bottom of the tank. The lower your run the tank, the higher the concentration of contaminants so if you run low on fuel better fill-up than suck' in all the dirt.

The bottom of the tank is where the condensates and water will be, but that is also where you always draw the fuel from, using the gas at the bottom of the tank shouldn't make a difference at all as far as contaminates/quality of fuel.

The dirtiest fuel you'll suck up would be filling up with bad gas and then letting the car sit with a full tank. The particulates will sink to the bottom and then on start up, with a full tank, you'd be sucking up all that junk at the bottom.

 

[LexissLX470]

24.2 gallons is my best, rode a whole 2 days with it on (about 35+ miles), it started to stumble from a stop so I pulled in a gas station and filled her up, $68.75 worth!

Same here but I coulda sworn that the pump said 24.5-24.6 but i filled up just shy of $70

 

[tarbe]

I usually fill up with 5 gallons left in the tank to keep the pump cool. Maybe a bigger deal where much of the year our low temp is in the mid to upper 70's

 

[RavenTai]

Fuel pumps motors are defiantly fuel cooled, but some are cooled by the fuel that travels through them, others by the fuel surrounding them. I do not know what kind is in the cruiser IF it is the former style then as long as it has fuel to pump it should be OK,

anyboady got a pic of a FZJ80 fuel pump?

Running out of gas is going to be hard on the pump, both for cooling and lubrication.

I generally fill up next convenient time after the light comes on, usually max 35 miles,

I have not kept track of fillups gut generally they are in the 19-22 gallon range

 

[notyourmomslx450]

Don't get me wrong. I usually fill up a max of 19 gallons. I just figured I'd let it ride, to see how close I could comfortably get to the 5 reserve gallons once the ol' light came on. I was actually hoping that gas prices would drop back a little before I HAD to fill it up...heehee. (didn't happen)

 

[TommyBoy]

Fuel pumps motors are defiantly fuel cooled...

They are 'defiantly' fuel cooled? You mean they don't like being cooled by fuel? Mine has yet to be so defiant that I couldn't get to where I wanted to go!