Yeah, I'm an idiot. I got to within a quarter mile of the gas station. It was so close!

As someone said earlier, when that yellow light comes on, it means business!!

:)

so wat happened?, did u move the car by yourself? if u did u were making the rx8 look bad

I just walked the quarter mile to the gas station, got a gas can, and walked back.

I put two gallons in the car and the light didn't go out, so it must come on with slightly more than 2 gallons left in the tank.

Will that hurt the car?

Originally posted by LightEmUp
Will that hurt the car?


Running out of gas? Didn't seem to hurt anything. Started right up when I put the gas in and it was fine driving the rest of the way to work.

Embarrassingly enough, I ran out of gas one other time. That time it was my Miata. And it ran out in my own driveway! :p

Originally posted by LightEmUp
Will that hurt the car?

if u constantly run on low gas, then yes it will hurt the car. u will damage the fuel pump

Someone told me that in the tank at the bottom some debris builds up. When you make a habit to drive it all the way to empty (20 miles after yellow light comes on), then that's bad for the engine (debris gets in there).

I don't know enough to judge if this is true or nonsense.

Basically I was told it's better to fill up before yellow comes on.

-Peter

wow that sucks
I give myself about 10 miles once I see that light come on

I typically go up to 40 miles after my light comes on. I'm never able to stuff more than 15 gallons in my car even after extended gas light driving. No matter how drive it I get ~20 MPG.

I have NEVER run out of gas....how's it feel......Have you ever passed out from not eating???

Originally posted by ptiemann
Someone told me that in the tank at the bottom some debris builds up. When you make a habit to drive it all the way to empty (20 miles after yellow light comes on), then that's bad for the engine (debris gets in there).

I don't know enough to judge if this is true or nonsense.


I think it's basically true. Sediment gathers after a while, tho prob not an issue yet on our nice, new cars. I understand the fuel doesn't come right from the bottom of the tank in order to not draw out the sediment.

I don't understand how people can be so lazy as to let their fuel run completely out. This is my biggest automobile pet peeve. English summed it up well with his analogy. You're basically starving your car.
Also, it is true that at the bottom of tank you can pick up debri. This used to be more evident in older cars but it still happens. Probably not yet, but in time dust, rust, and most commonly water can build up in the bottom of your tank. Water doesn't burn so when it enters the fuel chamber your performance is going to suffer.
Seriously, how hard is it to fill it up when the light comes on or even, heaven forbid, at a quarter tank? Its not like a gas station isn't around the corner, at worst a couple of miles a way. What is the point to letting it go untill 40 miles past the light? You probably have passed a good 30-35 stations... Are you looking for that one station that will save you an extra 2 cents a gallon? If you put the fuel in the tank now or later your still getting the same miles per gallon so its not like your saving any money by waiting longer. All it comes down to is laziness. "Oh, its on empty. Should I fill up? no, the light still hasn't come on." "Oh, the low fuel light came on. Should I fill up? No, I have plenty of fuel left." "Oh, I ran out of gas." It is bad enough they had to put an idiot light in to tell you when your almost out of fuel, but its horrible that they are going to have to put in another one b/c everyone ignores the one there is now. Arhgh. Ok, I quit.

Ignore this please... sometimes you just have to vent.
It started out mildly informitive and just turned into this.

-JiM

Originally posted by j1mb0x99
I don't understand how people can be so lazy as to let their fuel run completely out. This is my biggest automobile pet peeve. English summed it up well with his analogy. You're basically starving your car.
Also, it is true that at the bottom of tank you can pick up debri. This used to be more evident in older cars but it still happens. Probably not yet, but in time dust, rust, and most commonly water can build up in the bottom of your tank. Water doesn't burn so when it enters the fuel chamber your performance is going to suffer.
Seriously, how hard is it to fill it up when the light comes on or even, heaven forbid, at a quarter tank? Its not like a gas station isn't around the corner, at worst a couple of miles a way. What is the point to letting it go untill 40 miles past the light? You probably have passed a good 30-35 stations... Are you looking for that one station that will save you an extra 2 cents a gallon? If you put the fuel in the tank now or later your still getting the same miles per gallon so its not like your saving any money by waiting longer. All it comes down to is laziness. "Oh, its on empty. Should I fill up? no, the light still hasn't come on." "Oh, the low fuel light came on. Should I fill up? No, I have plenty of fuel left." "Oh, I ran out of gas." It is bad enough they had to put an idiot light in to tell you when your almost out of fuel, but its horrible that they are going to have to put in another one b/c everyone ignores the one there is now. Arhgh. Ok, I quit.

Ignore this please... sometimes you just have to vent.
It started out mildly informitive and just turned into this.

-JiM


Glad I was able to serve as your whipping girl and let you get that out. :)

Look, I drive 100 miles a day. When I first get each new car, I go through a process of trying to figure out how far I can go between fillups. Otherwise, I'd be filling the thing up every day. If I had to fill the car up every day, I'd be letting Mazda buy it back from me.

I've been getting good gas mileage (22/23 mpg). Hey, I made a mistake and thought I could get back to town before filling it up. I got to within a 1/4 mile of the gas station. Oh well, I was wrong. It won't happen again. Sheesh.

Sometimes you people make someone feel like it's not worth sharing your experiences on this board.

I feel for you loco. I was the first to run out (search for the wonderful sentiments I received from our all knowing forum members). FWIW for you that think you're God of the automobile world and apparently have the extra time to follow each of us on our daily commutes thus giving you knowledge of how far a gas station is on my commute and how many I pass over my 45 miles.

Apparently I have terrible peripheral vision because I DO NOT PASS 30-35 GAS STATIONS IN A COUPLE MILES ON MY MOSTLY-INTERSTATE COMMUTE! IN FACT THERE'S AT LEAST A COUPLE STRECTHES WHERE EXITS ARE 5 - 6 MILES APART. BEFORE YOU GO PASSING JUDGEMENT ON OTHERS PERHAPS YOU COULD INQUIRE AS TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND EASE UP A BIT!

some jerks here kinda make you feel like why bother posting anything even slightly embarassing or that could cause wonderful convictive flames, doesn't it??

Hey English - wish I lived in YOUR perfect world. Perhaps you could throw together an early memoir type book for those imperfect mortals out here to follow your lifestyle to the 'T'?

Tribal - could your furnish more particulars on your post about 'running low will damage the fuel pump'?

FWIW and IMHO I don't think we have a tank prone to rust build up and many modern gas stations (Wawa for example that I know for sure) use plastic underground storage tanks that won't build up rust as in the 'old days'. IF your fuel pick up in our modern 8 does pick up some small amount of sediment from the tank, that's what the fuel filter is for - to filter out particulate matter that perhaps shouldn't make it to the engine. Yes, they need to be changed. If they didn't need changing then they wouldn't be serving any purpose, right?

As far filling up before the yellow light comes on, I call BS! That's what it's purpose is, to warn the driver that they are 'getting' low - it's not a 'fill up light'!?

The last time I ran out of gas. I was riding my ZX6R on the expressway and it just started going slower and slower. My bike has no gas guage so I had know idea until it rolled to a stop in the middle of nowhere. The nearest exit was 2miles away. I started pushing the bike and a fellow biker stoped and was kind enough to give me some gas (He was in his car at the time). I then told him to follow me to the gas station and I would fill his ride up to repay his kindness. He told me that was not nessary just make sure I repay the favor to the next Motorcyclist I see stranded on the road.

Now I never leave the house without checking my tank
It can happen to anyone

Originally posted by rx8daniel
Tribal - could your furnish more particulars on your post about 'running low will damage the fuel pump'?




i was taught in my auto class that the fuel acts like a lubricant for the fuel pump, so no fuel = no lubricant = broek fuel pump

Not sure about lubrication but FOR SURE the fuel in the tank serves as a coolant for the fuel pump. and Yes, you can damage your fuel pump if you make a habit of running to the last drop.

Thanks rx8daniel. I appreciate the kind sentiments. :)

j1mb0x99 i am so glad to learn we have a member that's perfect !! I for one am not perfect... ran out of gaz in 86 driving....my RX-7. New car, i was used to have about 60 miles of gaz when the light was on... turned out it was closer to 40 on the 7. I learned my lesson and never exceeded 35 to 40 m with the light on. Do i fuel at on quarter? No way, do i stop the second it's on? Not a chance. I always thought this light was doing exactly what it's supposed to do: Warn me that in X amount of miles i'd be empty. Car constructors are not stupid , the fuel pump will not be damaged if i run low. If i run empty more then once i can be called names but i NEED to know how far i can go with the light on in case i'm stuck somewhere with a few miles to go for the next station. You have a pet peeve about that, i have one about those who fill up at the quarter mark. at -25F in Mtl you just don't want to stop unless you really need to.

I never said I was perfect and I never said that running out of fuel makes you imperfect. I said it makes you lazy

--JiM

edit:

Oh, and if you need to find out how long you can go on a tank you don't have to run it dry. Find out your mpg. (miles travelled since fillup/gallons put in tank) then multiply by tank size. (mpg * tank size)
Again it could be said that doing all that thinking and math is too time consuming and hard. The lazy way out is driving till you run out of fuel.

We almost ran out of gas after Isabel. On our way home from VIR in Danville, my husband was driving and didn't get gas, even though were were at half a tank in Danville and 180 miles from home. By the time he thought to stop and get it, all the stations we passed were closed because they had no electricity. When we hit 270 miles on the tank, the light came on. We drove another 25 miles, praying that the car wouldn't decide to run out on us, and finally found an Exxon that actually had power. That was the closest we've come, so far.

Originally posted by f1michel
at -25F in Mtl you just don't want to stop unless you really need to.

In winter (ie really cold weather), you don't want to run a gas tank that low, especially if you have heated parking anywhere. When you have a gas tank with low fuel and mostly air inside it, the temperature changes will have the moisture in the air condensing on the inside of the gas tank, resulting in significant water quantity in the fuel tank. In the days of carburetors, this was the main cause of fuel lines freezing. Now with higher pressure fuel injection systems, fuel line freeze up isn't so much of a problem, but having water sitting in the bottom of the gas tank (gasoline is lighter than water, so the water settles and just sits) is not a great idea. The easy prevention is to keep your fuel tank above 1/2 to minimize the volume of air present in the tank at any time. This is especially critical, as I mentioned, if you drive in very cold weather and are going in and out of heated parking.

I never said I was perfect and I never said that running out of fuel makes you imperfect. I said it makes you lazy


I can vouch for the primarily-interstate people's views on not filling up with say, a 1/4 tank left every time. I used to live out in a newly-developed area where my main connection back to the city was interstate highway, and the nearest gas station off the highway was about five minutes away. I did not always have time to stop off going to and fro. I know I should have "made time", but consider the alternative extreme - taking every chance to fill up at any gas station you come across. Could be quite time-consuming, but on the plus side, you'd be proactive and would never run out of gas!

I agree you should start thinking about filling up at a 1/4 tank. Especially in winter.

I do take offense at the LAZY qualification. You may think it's lazy and i may think it's just common sense to wait until you NEED to fill up to do so. You may wanna work on your judgement.

I live in Mtl Gord and we hit very low temps here too. That's very true if you go from heated garage to -25C to heated place again, the condensation in the tank could make your fuel line freeze. I must say that in 28 years of driving it has never happened to me but it's true it's a possibility.

Originally posted by j1mb0x99
I never said I was perfect and I never said that running out of fuel makes you imperfect. I said it makes you lazy

--JiM

I call it common sense to fill it up when it is LOW. LOW means one or two gallons left, not 4 or 5.

It also saves TIME. If you fill up every 150 miles instead of 200 (as an example) you will fill up 20 more times a year with 12,000 miles of driving. I can think of a lot of other things I would rather do than get out of the car, pump gas, pay, back in car, merge back in traffic etc.

I think people who fill up with 1/2 tank or 1/4 tank are PARANOID that they will NEVER SEE ANOTHER GAS STATION.


:) :) :D

My preference is to fill-up once I receive the low gas light, which nets me ~ 300 miles a tank.

Never have ran out of gas with my own vehicle - did once with a company truck.

Lazy, but livin' right.

well now I have to admit running out of fuel has never happened to me. as you can see you brought this upon yourself. thanks for the warning about the yellow (IDIOT) light they call it that for a reason.

now i want to know how the heck is everyone getting such great gas mileage? mine has yet to be better than 24hwy and is around 15 in town. only getting around 169-220 miles per tank. i still love the car and yes i just admitted i have a rather heavy foot.

Ok... Perhaps lazy is the wrong term. Procrastination might apply better. Or Irresponsible.
It also saves TIME. If you fill up every 150 miles instead of 200 (as an example) you will fill up 20 more times a year with 12,000 miles of driving. I can think of a lot of other things I would rather do than get out of the car, pump gas, pay, back in car, merge back in traffic etc.
20 more times a year might sound like alot. Untill you think of it this way. Lets say an average fill up takes 15 minutes, and I am being generous here. That adds up to 5 extra hours per year wasted on getting out of the car, pumping gas, paying, getting back in car, merging back in traffic, etc. That is 5 out of 8742 hours wasted. Now sopose you run out of fuel on the interstate somewhere isolated (an extreme example I have been through is on I75 in florida some of the exits are a good 20 miles apart.) By the time it takes you to walk to the nearest station, get fuel, walk back it would most likely take a couple hours. Now sopose it was at night and you had your kids with you. Or sopose you run out of fuel and it is snowing or there are subzero temps and you didn't grab a heavy coat b/c you didn't want to "waste" the time it would take to dig it our of the closet. Or even if you did have some decent winter gear would you still want to spend a couple hours out in the cold? I would rather waste my 5 hours a year insuring that I will have enough fuel to get home than save that time taking a chance getting stranded in unfavorable conditions.

There, I'm done with this topic now. I've argued my point. If you ever get stranded on the side of the road from having no fuel in your tank I will still stop and drive you to the nearest station. I'll be the green Rx-8 with at least a 1/4 tank of fuel.

---JiM

it's painfully obvious that different circumstances dictate different filling habits. There's no one perfect solution to everyone's needs. Winter, esp -25F, is an extreme. If you drive in a city alot and pass a 2 or 3 stations every 1/2 mile that's an extreme. But I am not lazy, in general, and I did the math thing. I do the math thing a lot, whether running a marathon or timing how long it takes my car to go from 1 mile marker to the next in the nearest amount of seconds I can (like I did last night) [which reminds me, I'd like to know the *exact* RPM for the 6speed RX-8 in 6th gear. Mine is very close to say 4050 at 80 in 6th - but every radar-based speed readout warning sign I've passed so far has shown a speed of about 2MPH under my car's indicated speed]. The math thing is what helped me run out of gas. Our 8's seem unable to use the entire tank, so 21.8MPG * tank size does not = total distance of one tank. I made it about 42 miles from the lighting when I ran out. As a point of reference, that tank averaged about 21.2 MPG. It's not a dummy light. I believe that refers to lights that take the place of normal instruments. It's a 'low fuel light', I think...wait, let me get my owner's manual out tomorrow and check that.

Lesson learned from this thread: Never create a post about a mistake you made for fear that someone will feel the need to insult you (more than once.)

I have never run out of gas, but I got close once. I left work one day with about 1/4 tank of gas. Typically, that was more than sufficient to get me home, but this time I got stuck in a huge traffic jam. 3 lanes of interstate were condensed into one, and their was glass all over the one available lane. I couldn't shut my car off because we were moving, just very slowly. I was on fumes by the time I got to the gas station. Jeez, I am so LAZY. ;)

I typically fill up when I have a little less than a quarter tank left. Sometimes I go lower, like when I am late for an important meeting and don't have time to stop on the way.

Ok... Perhaps lazy is the wrong term. Procrastination might apply better. Or Irresponsible.

This is your reply... the more you try to save this the more you miss the point. Procrastination i must agree with... but irresponsible? In what way does it become irresponsible to fill up when there's 5 drops of fuel left? It is my business and no one elses and it involves only MOI !

Anyway i don't see how we can ever agree on that one but i would still stop to give you a lift if your car ever overflows because you filled it up twice in the same day . :-)

Originally posted by loco4rx8
Yeah, I'm an idiot. I got to within a quarter mile of the gas station. It was so close!

As someone said earlier, when that yellow light comes on, it means business!!

:)


that sucks! you were only 15 seconds from the gas station! so it turn out to 15 minutes:p

Ok enough is enough... SO WHAT YOU RAN OUT OF GAS... Next time hopefully one of us RX-8 drivers will pass and give you a hand. If you see one pass and laugh you know who they are for they have made it obvious how they feel in this forum.

Now for another question has anyone else noticed that when you start up your car and put it in reverse or forward something grabs. Took mine to the shop and we drove another one and "Yes it wasn't just mine that has the problem" the machanic didnt even know what it was who could figure that one.

Can't we all just get along. I will continue to pimp my ride at the gas station with a quarter of a tank or if there is a hot little lady I might only throw in a dollar or two.

wait
your car graps when you reverse

My response was tongue in cheek....


I was getting on the person who is saying that we are lazy, irresponsible etc etc. for actually using MOST of the gas in our tank. As long as you do not run out of gas, you are not. Since I ran out ONCE in my life (more than 20 years ago when gas gauges were not as good) I do not put myself in those categories. I do fill up when I am going on a trip etc no matter where my gauge is.

I can give another example of these kind of people. They buy a loaf of bread, and with 8 slices left they buy another. No good reason, just something that happened when they were a child.:D

Originally posted by 1/2LiT
Now for another question has anyone else noticed that when you start up your car and put it in reverse or forward something grabs. Took mine to the shop and we drove another one and "Yes it wasn't just mine that has the problem" the machanic didnt even know what it was who could figure that one.

It's the ABS start-up test - when you first move a few feet after starting up (either forward or reverse), you'll feel and hear a clunk. It's normal for the RX-8.

Regards,
Gordon

How about everybody fills up whenever they want to? If you want to fill up at half of tank, that's fine. Or if you want to wait till the last gallon, that'll be fine too. It's your personal opinion.

OK, let me take some of this heat...I've run out of gas 3 times in my life. Give it to me with both barrels, Jimbo! I can take it!

i've never run out of fuel.

Originally posted by RX-GR8
i've never run out of fuel.

but you do bump old threads

PS - good you did though because i've always wondered what that "grab" was when you first move your car when starting cold

Originally posted by BRx8
but you do bump old threads

PS - good you did though because i've always wondered what that "grab" was when you first move your car when starting cold

see?

That will definately damage the fuel pump. Happened to my friends Accord twice. FP shat the bed soon after.

RENE

Ordering super-decoder ring to decode "FP shat the bed..."

Running out of fuel won't ruin the fuel pump. Trying to start it a couple dozen or more times in succession when there's nothing to pump [or your diesel fuel is jelled, say like in your '84 diesel-engined Escort in 20 degree weather] certainly, although not 'definitely', can damage it.