Old Mechanic's post about his
recent road trip in his $300 Nissan Sentra got me rememberin'...
Quote:
I refilled before I hit the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I might have been able to make it but that last thing I wanted to do was crawl through 2 hours of atrocious rush hour traffic with the gauge close to empty. It was reading 1/8th ... it would have made it easily ... but pushing it is not my style.
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That last bit got me wondering, is pushing it
my style? Yeah, probably. I tend to push E more than most people do.
I've run out of gas twice, both times in my 1989 Honda Accord (RIP):
(Yup, VX rims!)
The first time, I was aware the end was near, based on both my familiarity with the gauge and the trip odometer. I knew I was pushing my luck, and literally coasted into a gas station after the engine quit. (The engine gave me a couple of warnings.)
Yeah, yeah, I know running it low isn't supposed to be good for the fuel pump.
The second time I was caught way off guard, and was in the U.S. of A. I was headed north on I-95 somewhere in Virginia and the engine quit literally right after I glanced at the gauge and thought to myself that I would turn off at the next exit. The gauge was way freaking off! Never so far off before or after.
So I coasted to a stop, grabbed the little jerry can I had in the trunk and stuck out my thumb.
Within 2 minutes a nice lady pulled over and took me to the next exit to get some gas. She said "I never stop in situations like this -- but you look like a nice guy ... and I noticed the Candian plate." And she wouldn't take a dime for her trouble. A big win for international relations!
Ironically, when we got back, there was a highway service patrol truck (what the heck was that, anyway? State service?) just pulling up behind my car and the guy said, "we patrol all the time and would have given you fuel from the back of our truck! Also, you should have tried to pull further off the highway."
VA: nice place to run ot of fuel!