Driving on empty

Is it bad for a car to drive near empty? I was cruising down the highway Saturday, 20 miles from the town with the cheapest gas around, in a Taurus whose digital display said I could go 22 miles before running out of gas. I chickened out and pulled off at a nearer town because I was afraid that 1) I'd get an expensive ticket if I actually ran out of gas before I reached the station and 2) driving with that little gas might be damaging to the engine. True? And do those displays err on the side of caution, by any chance?

RW

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Reply to
Rebecca Webb
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The high pressure fuel pumps on fuel injected vehicles are frequently cooled and lubricated by the fuel. Running them dry will wear them out quickly.

Reply to
Thomas Tornblom

I have only ran out of gas twice in my life before.The first time was back in the 1960s when my 1963 Volkswagen beetle ran out of gas about

100 feet from a Citgo gas station.The car didn't really completely run out of gas because I knew about that little L shaped one gallon reserve lever up under the dashboard, good for another thirty/thirty five miles.I figured it would be fun to let my old buddy get out and push my car to the gas station. cuhulin
Reply to
cuhulin

Gas is lighter weight than water, if there is water in your gas, that water will be at the bottom of the gas tank.Some gas station tanks do have water (condensation) in the gas.It is best to keep your vehicle's gas tank at least mostly full.Also, mostly empty, most of the time, can, and usually does, lead to rusting out gas tanks. cuhulin

Reply to
cuhulin

  1. Running dry may damage modern fuel pumps or fuel injection systems. But no component can tell if you are going to run dry in 1 mile or 100 milles: so it is not harmful to drive near empty -- only to drive until you run dry and stop.
  2. You have our sympathy that cars stopped out of gas are ticketed where you live. Perhaps this was why In earlier days auto club patrol vehicles carried extra cans of gas.

In your case you did the right thing.

Reply to
Don Phillipson

Mosern fuel injected vehicles have the pump in the tank. It is cooled by the fuel flow thru it and around it. Low fuel levels can result in pump failure. The pump pickup is about as close to the bottom of the tank as it can get. A small amount of water will be picked up early and sent to the filter. Most filters these days will trap a small amout of water if it has been saturated with fuel before the water gets there. Once the filter is sufficiently loaded with water, it will greatly restrict or stop fuel flow.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

I think it is good to replace the fuel filter at least twice each year.My new old 1983 Dodge rv conversion van I bought a few weeks ago, I am thinking I will take off those two long running boards, and those two captains chairs and that rear bench seat that converts into a bed.I don't need, nor want that junk in there. cuhulin

Reply to
cuhulin

Incredibly helpful info, thanks everybody!

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Reply to
Rebecca Webb

If you are fat like I am, you would dred crawlin up under a big old van.

The yearrrrs go by,,,,,, quicker than a wink,,,,,,,, enjoy yourself,,, enjoy yourself,,, while you are still in the pink,,,,, cuhulin

Reply to
cuhulin

Rebecca Webb wrote in news:webbrl- snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com:

1) I've known of people who have actually been ticketed for obstructing traffic after running out of gas in the wrong place. 2) Running out of gas will do no damage to the engine, but it is very damaging to the catalytic converter (which is very expensive!).

The displays are supposed to err on the side of caution, but it's unwise to depend on them. You did the right thing.

Reply to
Tegger

Running low on fuel can cause undue anxiety in your car's computer. Your car may feel unloved or neglected or afraid of being abandoned.

The anxiety may be manifested in many ways, most commonly as hard starting, poor fuel economy, stumble on acceleration, or false error codes. Therefore it is good practice to keep the fuel level above one-eight (preferably one-fourth) of the tank's capacity.

If running low is a common situation for you, it is a good idea to keep a bottle of a commonly-available SSRI such as Paxil or Prozac handy. Tests have shown that one or two tablets dropped in the tank when the level is low gives considerable relief of symptoms until you can get more fuel.

Reply to
Matt

LOL at the thought of feeding Prozac to a car!

I've heard it said that when you run very low, you start to draw in any grot that has accumulated on the bottom of the tank, which can block fuel filters and injector nozzles.

It's also a Bad Move to run out of fuel in a vehicle with a diesel engine as some arn't self-priming and require a lot of coaxking to get the fuel to flow again even after you've refilled the tank. My old Peugeot had a rubber bulb which you squeezed to suck fuel through if you ever ran out, though I always chickened out before running out of fuel. Mind you, I got close: my tank takes 60 litres (nominally) and I once put in 59.3 - a bit close for comfort!

Reply to
Mortimer

That's why modern computer chips are made by using angst-ROM lithography. It gives the computer a place to store these anxieties.

All seriousness aside, running the tank very very low is a good way to suck up any contaminants (though that's less of an issue in the age of poly tanks than it was in the metal-tank days, modern designs with a pump buried in the tank may have increased the sensitivity. In the old days it was like cleaning the gravel in the fish tank. This might be a good time to change the fuel filter(s).

If you want to get mechanics arguing, ask whether this is an especially good way to make late model GM fuel pumps die young (albeit probably not right at that moment). At which time you discover that they're expensive to buy and a pain to install.

A habit of playing it down to the last bit of fuel is also a timeless way to learn how to hitchhike no matter what you're driving.

It's hard to say just how low the fuel really was without knowing some facts about the car and how much gas it took to fill it back up. There's always *some* reserve, as well as a non usable amount -- it's there, but it's below the pickup tube. I've had some decently accurate gas gauges and some that should have been labeled, "Amusement device only, not intended for gambling." Or maybe the errors and nonlinearities toward the bottom of the range are in your favor on that model, or that particular car, and you had more gas than the computer knew about. If the computer thought you only had 22 miles left, though, we can probably all agree that it was pretty low.

Cheers,

--Joe

Reply to
Ad absurdum per aspera

Before you buy fuel, stop into the restroom of the gas station. If the floor and sink and urinals are filthy, or they're out of paper towels or toilet paper, you can guess that they haven't changed the filters in their gas pumps either.

Reply to
Matt

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