Have you ever run out of gas? And did you know you were going to?
 

Old Mechanic's post about his recent road trip in his $300 Nissan Sentra got me rememberin'...

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):


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! :D

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!

Try it in an F350 car hauler after one of your "friends" borrows the truck and brings it back, so low on fuel, you can't make it to a gas station a mile away.

After I got some gas, from that point on when I was not driving the truck, I pulled the wire off the sending unit (tank was behind the seat, in the cab!). People would come back and complain about the gas gauge not working. :D

Now if you have to run out of gas, there is no better car than an original 1937
Ford 5 window coupe. Before I fixed the sending unit I ran out once and had fuel in the car in maybe 10 minutes. I could probably have driven the car to a gas station with the scowl on the wifes face. :eek:

In the mustang, I died while pulling up to the pump. The Insight I should have run out of has, I put 10.524 and it's only supposed to have a 10.6 gallon tank, so who knows. Back when I used to drive a 1987 Toyota Camry, the gauge read 1/4 a tank and I ran out of gas. Turns out it broke after my dad got gas somehow, and read 1/4 of a tank off. Oh well.

Nope, I don't push it that far. I've had my Prius tell me twice to fuel up, both times as I was pulling into the gas station. I usually fill up with 1 or 2 of the 10 fuel lights left, mainly for the increased accuracy of large tanks.

I have, only one time. It's towards the beginning of when I was driving the Echo. I had had some trouble and was just getting it back on the road. I knew the guess gauge would read 1/4 tank when it was empty, but figured I could push it just a little... And a little more...

Then, one day, there was silence. Luckily it happened so close to my wife's work that I coasted in. A co-worker of hers hooked me up with a fuel can, I walked about a block to the gas station, yadda yadda. It even started up again right away!

I have only run out once, I picked up a Porsche at the auto repair shop and literally made it about 100 yards before it ran out. needless to say I was pissed because I dropped it off with like 1/4 tank. (someone must have taken it on a date night), on the other hand I have noticed that most cars can go for quite a while after it "appears" to be empty. I have put 10.73+- in the insight before and I dont think I even topped off if I remember correctly. I am not quite sure how that worked, I drove about 30 miles after the the last bar went out. I have put in 10.56 one time before too. There are people that shoved over 13 yes 13 gallons into the insight tank, it overflows into the vapor canister and other areas apparently. Search on insight central for diamond larry's 1600 mile tank.

Never. Ive been close and I drove 45mph in a 55 for 45 minutes just to be safe. But I do generally push the gas limit. I never fill up before the warning light unless I forsee a long drive or if gas is particularly cheap and increasing soon.

When I get a vehicle that is new to me, I put a full gas can in the trunk and run 'er dry. That way I know how the gauge behaves- they are different for every car, even cars of identical make, model, and year. Of particular interest to me is how the gauge behaves near or at empty. On one of my cars, when the needle hits "E" IT MEANS IT. On most of the others when the needle hits "E" there is still quite a bit of fuel in the tank and I want to know if it's good for another 20 miles or 60, hence the test.

Speaking of gas gauges, I also note how many miles it takes to go from "over full" to "F", and how many more to 3/4, and so on. I can tell early on if a tank is going to be a good one or not (provided I used consistent top-off method each time).

I once ran out in my Prelude.

Or twice...

Three times?

Oh, once in a work van...

Then there was the time in Afghanistan...

I did it once in Afghanistan. A friend had married and moved away, but was back in town, and when I mentioned that I was moving, she offered to help. I had all of my belongings in three huge duffel bags and she had her son. I doubt that she could have moved the bags if she wanted to, but she was busy most of the time with her son. My gas gauge was low, but she made it difficult to think about it. I was supposed to drive several miles to drive my nephew two miles to his swim lessons. It was supposed to be so that I could see him, but I spent more time driving without him than interacting with him, and he never behaved well. I was trying to leave on time to pick him up, but my friend kept talking, so I was already running late when I got to my car, and then I saw that I was on empty. I lived extremely close to a gas station, but I still did not make it. I jumped out, told my friend to steer. She freaked out and I started pushing the car. Some gentleman helped me.

I was in serious trouble with my sister. I often am. Last week she asked me to take him to his orthodontist appointment. Now I live half an hour away. I kept telling myself to give myself extra time for traffic, Armageddon, magnetic pole reversal, and whatever else, but as I was leaving I realized that she probably told me when the appointment was, not when she wanted me to pick him up. I looked at my phone and saw three new messages from her that were marked as "read." One told me to pick him up half an hour earlier. I called the office and the lady kept telling me that I needed to cancel. While I looked up how long it would take me to drive to his house and then to the office, she kept asking how long it would take. Google Maps said that I would be 5-10 minutes late and the lady said they could not wait.

I've run out of fuel in every gas operated thing I've owned.

I once calculated that I could go 500 miles on a tank of gas in the Camry. On my commute from Salem to Portland, the gas light came on. Knowing that I should be able to go 500 miles, I decided to drive all the way back ~50 miles to the Fred Meyer in Salem. The engine died as I turned the corner to the gas station, and the odometer turned over exactly to 500 miles as I coasted to the pump.

With friends like that, you don't need enemies.

Precisely once.

Motorcycles typically don't have gas gauges and my old ZX6R Ninja was no exception. They just have a petcock valve with three positions: off on and reserve. Reserve just pulls from a lower point than on does so you switch to reserve when it sputters and head straight to a gas station.

I was riding in lots of heavy traffic so I used fuel faster than normal and it started sputtering. No problem, switched from reserve to on... and nothing. The seal in the valve let fuel leak past the valve so it always acted as if on reserve. It was bone dry!

And I was stuck in the middle of a major interchange. Couldn't walk anywhere and nobody would stop. Called a tow truck company who kindly delivered the worlds most expensive gallon of gasoline.

I ran out once in the Black Widow, in rush hour traffic in the middle of town, and had to coast into the nearest parking lot (Bail Bonds place) and walk to the nearest gas station to buy a gallon of gas and a twenty dollar gas can.

Yeah, the gas gauge read empty, but I had pushed it there before without actually running out. In the car's defense, it warned me, I just didn't speak its language at the time! I had begun hearing a buzzing noise (in retrospect, the starving fuel pump) about a mile before it died, so after that day, I knew if I heard that buzzing noise, the gauge was really empty.

Ive had a few electric wheelchairs and scooters run out of power. When they do, they just go really slow at full throttle and you get a low battery indicator.

One chair I had the wires come unsoldered from the motor. I drove it in arcs by pushing the joystick forward, then jerking it in reverse quickly.

Another I had the charger socket come unsoldered. I cut the connector from the charger and hooked up 2 alligator clips. I then tested the batteries to find the 2 24 volt leads as it took 2 batteries and matched it up.

I've run out of gas once, and it was about 2-3 months ago. I was on the way home from a wedding in the Sunfire and just got off on the exit ramp and the engine died. My wife was behind me in the Prius. We just ran and got gas quick. Besides having to buy a ridiculously overpriced gas can, we were on our way again shortly and without much hassle.

I did not count the time on my Prelude that I coasted into a gas station after driving 600.2 miles.

That was beautiful and it is frustrating that I do not know what I need to do to hit 600.3 miles in my HX, although the Prelude reached 37.75 MPG and my average is 42.9 in the Civic.

So, due to popular demand (of the voices in my head).

There I was, in a rock-covered motor pool in Afghanistan! My Sergeant yelled at me to hurry up and bring a truck to the front gate. I asked which truck and he threatened physical, emotional, career, and psychic harm if I did not drive a truck to the gate impossibly quickly. I complied as quickly as I could and he yelled at me to take it back and bring another. We rolled out the gate and I realized that we were below half a tank. We drove further than we usually did, stopping at several small bases. I was not very familiar with each of them, trying to remember which ones had fuel points and where they were. At one, while some dog tried to dominate my leg, I asked our Soldier to start his fuel truck, and he said he was empty. At another we had just barely finished with our cargo when someone shouted that our escort was leaving, so we ran to our trucks and I donned my body armor as I drove out the gate.

I looked down and I watched our fuel gauge drop from 1/4 to empty. I looked back and forth from it to my Lieutenant and finally told him about it. He said that we would be fine. I asked if he thought it would hurt to stop at the next base and put in some fuel.

"We will be okay."

"Can we just borrow one can of fuel from a gun truck?"

"Xist! Lock it up!"

So, we passed the last base and were headed back, but still an hour out when my truck died. Our fuel cans do not have nozzles, I guess that we use so many that it makes sense to have the nozzles separate. Nobody calls them "nozzles," though, and I refuse to tell you what they do call them. We found the nozzle and they poured in one can, a second, and then a third, but the truck would not start. We kept trying to figure out what was wrong, but did not have any idea. Our Motor Sergeant was at the other end of the convoy, the head mechanic, responsible for all of the vehicles in our fleet.

He refused to get out of his truck or even talk to any of us.

So, we dropped the trailer, one gun truck towed that, and they connected our truck to the back of another gun truck. Gun trucks are equipped with tow bars, but someone thought that it was a good idea to have collapsible ones, which immediately broke, so we hooked up a chain or cable. I insisted that it was my responsibility, I needed to ride in the truck, but another Soldier refused, and LT told me to get out.

That hour drive multiplied as we crawled back at 7 MPH, while our truck repeatedly bounced off the back of the gun truck.

The only time I ran out of gas was after I picked up my 68 bug from the repair shop. The tank went from 1/4 to empty in the course of driving 2 miles. The engine died in the middle of an intersection as I was trying to make it back to the repair shop (no gas stations in the area) after starting up from a red light. I used the starter motor in 2nd gear to move the car out of the intersection and off the side of the road. It turned out the metal fuel tank had rusted through and emptied itself onto the road. The repair shop's movements/vibrations on the car must have caused the leak to break loose.

Xist - good story!

I forgot about the ForkenSwift! Believe it or not, in 6000+ km of ~15-25 km charge cycles I never ran it "empty". You tend to pay a bit more attention in a lead sled EV because the "performance" would drop waaay off as you ran the batteries down, and continuing to drive them down further would create an expensive situation (battricide).

deja vu!
 

HA! You just reminded me I had something very similar happen... also in a VW.

OK, so that makes it 3 times I've run out of fuel...

Car was an '81 Rabbit, and it popped a leak in a neoprene fuel line while I was driving it. The engine had enough juice to keep running fine, so I didn't know about it while I left I very lengthy trail of gas on the road. Fortunately nobody threw a match, because I don't think that car could have outrun the flame front.

Bought a used 79 Ford half ton truck with almost no gas. The dealer was a cheapie and would not put any gas in it at all, just said to go to the nearest gas station. Headed in that direction but only made it a half mile, still a half mile from the station I was headed towards. Never went near that Ford dealer again.

Dad bought a new International1/2 ton truck in 1970. He was on vacation in 1971 and told me to drive it now and then to keep it from sitting too long. I drove it to work one afternoon and on the way home, the 1/4 tank on the gauge was not even fumes. It was dark and the nearest station was two miles away on a lonely road. I got there just as the guy was closing. he closed up and gave me a ride back to the truck with enough gas to get me to the nearest station 5 miles away. Never trusted that truck again.

I ran out unexpectedly last year.

Driving on the motorway, Baa suddenly spluttered, then died.
I knew I was low on fuel, but should have still had 30 of 40 kilometres to go.

I pulled off to the side, restarted the car, it ran fine so I took off again.

Within seconds, it died a second time. :confused:

Pull over, restart, rev for a while, take off and die a third time. :mad:

That's when it dawned on me that the camber of the roadway was tilting the fuel in the tank away from the pump pickup. :eek:

I don't try for "big" tanks anymore. :thumbup:

Must go faster! Must go faster!
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp...mpuho1_500.gif

I'm guessing the truck was diesel, and it needed to have the fuel lines bled (primed) to run.

I've run the Dodge out of fuel twice, and both times were actually a stroke of luck in disguise. The truck has an inexpensive low pressure fuel pump, and an expensive high pressure fuel pump. The high pressure fuel pump will eventually die if the low pressure pump doesn't feed it fuel. I found out both times I ran out of fuel that the low pressure fuel pump had died because it failed to bleed the fuel system. This alerted me to the failed low pressure pump, and I was able to replace it before loosing the expensive one.

Now I run a fuel pressure gauge, and have a quality low pressure pump installed.

...and I ran Lafawnda the Honda motorcycle out of fuel twice in 2 weeks during the summer, about 1/4 mile from the same gas station. I know just how far she will go on a tank, but always guess slightly optimistic.

I ran my Civic out of fuel several times. Each one was a new tank distance record... that I kept breaking and going further the next time.

I've run my Fit out once. Now I know how low True Empty is, and set a nice distance record. I'll only do that again if my average suggests I'll beat that distance. That can only happen once a year in the middle of summer, so it's rare.

Edit: with a measured can of gas in the back ready and waiting.

Ha! So can we assume you drove on the wrong side of the road the rest of the way to the next gas station? :)

When we got back, after my Sergeant had me sign a counseling statement, I talked with the junior mechanics who showed me a black button behind the driver's side of the cabin. Push it three times, prime the pump, and start your engine. I try to make sure that other Soldiers know that, but when I try to tell them, my current Sergeant shouts "This is not story time!"

Yet I am told that I need to share my experience...

I've run cars dry 5 times.

Twice in a beater that I was reluctant to overcapitalise by filling the gas tank. One of those I was lucky enough to coast a block into a gas station. The other time I walked - ~40 min round trip - to get fuel only to realise back at the car that I needed a funnel to transfer it into the tank. Fortunately I found a discarded (glass) soda bottle that with the bottom knocked off it could be used for that purpose.

Twice - in two different cars - I've run out after an instrument repair where the gas gauge needle was moved. The difference in each case was only about a needle width, but that was enough. One was another coast into the gas station. The other one I had a 15 min return trip run (I had people I was chauffeuring to our night out waiting with the car).

The 5th time was while as a professional driver where my partner and I were trying to finish the day's driving before refuelling. We ignored the flashing fuel warning light and low gauge and got caught. Another walk but with a lift from a passing Good Samaritan for part of the way.

I don't know if it counts as me running out of fuel but I was on a chartered tour bus (college field trip) that ran out. As a Diesel, that did require bleeding of the fuel lines after fuel was put in the tank.

In case anyone's counting, that's 4 people who have coasted into gas stations with no fuel in their tanks. :D

Add another. I was towing a mobile home cross country when the truck ran dry. I was able to coast into a gas station like I meant to do it that way.

P.S. I just remembered a good running-out-of-gas story. About a half-dozen guys from the Engineering Dept. went on a motorcycle ride. We were on our way back to town when the guy to my right ran out of gas. We were still rolling when he said it was already on Reserve so without skipping a beat I told him to flip his left side passenger peg down. He did and I pulled in close enough to put my foot on it and thus kept us both going that few miles to the nearest gas station. We made it just fine although my right leg felt like it was about twice as big as my left by the time we got there.

I had a Cherokee with 180k miles on it that was very hard to start. I ran dry as I pulled into my driveway. That finished off the pump but being out of gas made it easier to drop the tank to replace the pump. I also had a bent rail and leaky injector which added up to low fuel pressure. That was why it was hard to start. Worked out pretty good for me except for the $$$ I had to spend on parts.
My 1st VW diesel ran out right in front of a gas station on our way home from a long distance trip to specialist for my oldest son. I kept thinking man this thing is getting great mileage the needle hasn't moved off of 1/4 tank in forever. I was at 596 miles on the trip odometer. I think the level indicator got tweaked during a pump replacement by PO.

Grrr. I understand the importance of the chain of command and how it's designed to protect the safety of the soldiers, but unchecked pride can be just as dangerous as an unheeded command. A great leader would allow others to learn from their mistake.

My 2000 Focus had a 13-some gallon tank but it could only use 11-some gallons in hot weather. It started sputtering for a few miles then died on a road trip to New Mexico. That was not a fun walk to a gas station.

If anybody can explain why, especially the hot weather part, I'm curious.

Oh, and my dad owns a 67 Jeep whose fuel gage swings from full to half to full again. The only time you can be sure you have fuel is when it says half a tank. Lol

Ran out of gas twice in my first year of driving. The first time was in in 64 Fairlane 500. It had all requirements of a first car, rusted out floor pans, week battery, poor brakes and the require funky gas gauge. The gas guage would work or not randomly. It was still showing 1/4 tank when it quit. The second time was with my 73 Triumph. When that gauge showed empty it meant it. Yep, rolled it up to the pump no pushing required.

I've put 26 1/2 gallons in a 26 gallon tank. So stretch it, yes.

Sold a 65 Lincoln Continental to my oldest brother. He drove it until the low fuel light came on and it died less than half a mile later. Of course he called me to complain about the defective light. I laughed at him and told him it wasn't a "low fuel" warning light, but a youre out of gas dummy light.

:D

regards
mech

This reminds me of how uninformed the general public is about the oil light. For some reason, most people are under the impression that the light means the car is a little low on oil, and should be topped up sometime in the next couple weeks.

I have a friend that had a Pontiac Grand Prix with a coolant leak. He would regularly drive the car with no coolant at all, and allow the temp gauge to rise all the way into the red. I told him to stop driving it when it gets that hot, but he always made the excuse "well I didn't have much further to drive, so it wasn't hot for very long". Of course, his engine died after a month of abusing it.

Professional drivers education seems to be the norm these days, so I would expect part of the training to include a brief rundown of the warning lights that cars have, and the proper response to those lights.

Driving with the oil light on or the temperature gauge in the red; don't do it.

I couldn't even estimate how many times I've run out of gas in 50 years of driving, mostly with a reserve lever instead of a gauge. Which you have to remember to reset when you fill up. :( How about the last few times:

• Died on the uphill exit ramp off I-5, rolled through a right turn and downhill into a station and up to the pump.
• Ran out in town, three block short of a gas station. They didn't have clear premium so I only put in one gallon and then topped up with clear. The car ran poorly for the next tank or two. (Water in the bottom of the tank?)
• I got 2 NATO 20-liter cans as a range extender. One the road trip to Bonneville Salt Flats, I let it run dry and refilled to find the 'bottom' of the tank. The gauge never goes above 3/4 tank, and when it's on no-more-reserve then 4 gallons remain.

redpoint5 -- In high school I had a friend that bought a '53 Ford, didn't check the oil, and burnt the motor up in 75 miles. So he got a replacement engine from the junkyard and put it in. Didn't check the oil! He was on his 3rd engine at 150 miles.

So far I haven't run out in my '61 dispite not having a gauge or the origonal reserve tank in it. I had more than a few horrified stares when I had several plastic 2.5 gallon gas jugs bungeed to my roof rack. Just stretching its legs to get some fuel for the mowers. I never passed a gas station when it was getting 9 mpg. Now it gets 19 on premium. I should be proud of the 110% improvement right:o

Almost... but not quite
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1417449041

I took the '07 Civic into no-man's territory on Friday: zero bars showing, and the low fuel light had already been glaring at me for ~50 km.

Turns out I could have made 1000 km (~600 mi.) on the tank... JUST... but I only confirmed that by chickening out and filling up! At 972 km.

Now I have a better idea of where True Empty is. :D

.

I LOVE the dash on the newer civics. I totally wish I could put one in my insight lol.


I was under the impression that once the oil light came on, you had NO oil pressure, A.K.A no oil at all.

Eek, the digital stuff is one of the reasons I won't even consider a Civic...how come it's cool when Honda does it but when Cadillac and Lincoln did it, it was lambasted and regarded as something for old people?