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Cutting it Close or how much fuel at low fuel light

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Old 07-19-2005, 01:34 PM
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Red face Cutting it Close

I'm the type of driver that waits until the little yellow light comes on and says that I need gas. I'm rarely further than a couple miles from a gas station so I just wait. (Save yourself the time and energy of flaming. I've been told reasons why I shouldn't wait for almost 10 years and I haven't changed yet.)

I went to get gas today at lunch and I'm watching the gauge. 11 ... 12 ... 13 ... (here's where it usually stops) ... 14 ... 15... 15.044 gallons!!! I looked up the size of the tank to verify what I thought and sure enough, I had less than one gallon left of gas!!

Now in my mind, this is actually a good thing. I've secretly always wanted to see how far I could go on one tank of gas without actually running out. I think this is a new record. :D

I don't know exactly how many miles I had driven since my light came on (I had to disconnect the battery for a mod last night), but if I had to guess, I'd say around 25.

Happy Zoom-Zooming!!!
Old 07-19-2005, 01:39 PM
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It's a bothersome having to refill once a week, but the most I've had to fill thus far was 13.8 gals. I don't know if I could ever try for 15.
Old 07-19-2005, 01:39 PM
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tasty.

I start getting anxiety attacks whenever I see the light come on.
Old 07-19-2005, 01:41 PM
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Now you will push it more often. I predict you will run out of gas soon
Old 07-19-2005, 01:42 PM
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mines yellow right now and the needle is half way over the "E".
Old 07-19-2005, 01:45 PM
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^^ That's pretty much how I know I NEED gas. Just the light is fine. I have about 2 gallons left at that point, but when it's PAST "E," and looks like it's about to fall off, time to filler-up!
Old 07-19-2005, 01:46 PM
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One of the Calgary guys did a 58 L fill on a 60 L tank...now that's impressive!

I'm a wimp and have only done 53.
Old 07-19-2005, 02:23 PM
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lol... i fill up about 3 times in a week. But my needle usually doesn't drop below the quarter tank mark
Old 07-19-2005, 02:29 PM
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Isn't it better to wait until the tank is nearly empty...then you're not using old gas? I think I heard this somewhere.
Old 07-19-2005, 02:32 PM
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funny story about running out of gas

so my family and i were driving to denver this christmas. Well about 2 hours from denver there isnt a thing in site, so i was running low on gas and we passed a few gas stations becuase we wanted to eat also. So i started to get a little worried and my dad was like it will be fine so finally i say ah its not getting gas!!! Luckly as i say that a exit comes up over the hill i coast into the exit down the hill go through a red light to get into the gas station across the highway and stop at the pump. So freaking luckly i could have ended up 20 miles from anything in the middle of the night.
Old 07-19-2005, 02:35 PM
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lol! nice recovery...

isn't that bad for your engine though?
Old 07-19-2005, 02:36 PM
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ah it was my parents van
Old 07-19-2005, 02:41 PM
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Originally Posted by khtm
Isn't it better to wait until the tank is nearly empty...then you're not using old gas? I think I heard this somewhere.
If you're filling up once a week, the gas is never getting old. I've pumped 14.8 gallons once, but most of the time when the light comes on, I head to the nearest Arco.
Old 07-19-2005, 02:43 PM
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Yeah but what if you fill up when it reaches half-way every time? Then even years down the road there should be at least a little bit of gas from your FIRST fill-up in there...
Old 07-19-2005, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by khtm
lol! nice recovery...

isn't that bad for your engine though?
It doesn't hurt a gas engine to run it dry. Diesel's on the other hand are pretty hard to start after running out of fuel.
Old 07-19-2005, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by khtm
Yeah but what if you fill up when it reaches half-way every time? Then even years down the road there should be at least a little bit of gas from your FIRST fill-up in there...
yeah...I don't think so...lol
Old 07-19-2005, 02:59 PM
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Just think about it...the new gas gets mixed up with the old gas whenever you fill up. If you never completely empty out the gas tank there'll always be some old gas in there.

I'm just sayin'!
Old 07-19-2005, 02:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp
It doesn't hurt a gas engine to run it dry. Diesel's on the other hand are pretty hard to start after running out of fuel.
I didn't know that...ya learn something new every day!
Old 07-19-2005, 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by khtm
Just think about it...the new gas gets mixed up with the old gas whenever you fill up. If you never completely empty out the gas tank there'll always be some old gas in there. I'm just sayin'!
True. But. After say a half dozen half-tank fillups the percentage of gas from the first tank full is very small I would think. (Somebody do the math. )

However, there is another consideration. The more frequently you fill the tank, the higher the probability that you will get bad gas. So better to use up most of each tank and limit the number of fillups.
Old 07-19-2005, 04:43 PM
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I think 15.3 gallons is my largest at-once fillup in the 8 :D
Old 07-19-2005, 04:48 PM
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Originally Posted by khtm
Just think about it...the new gas gets mixed up with the old gas whenever you fill up. If you never completely empty out the gas tank there'll always be some old gas in there.

I'm just sayin'!
I think I would worry more about half the oil in your engine getting left in at each oil change.... :p
Old 07-19-2005, 05:08 PM
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it wont hurt the motor to run the gas tank d own to E, but what will happen is that you will end up clogging up the fuel filter and injectors much more quickly as you are not only pulling gas through the system, but also picking up more sediment the lower your gas level falls
Old 07-19-2005, 05:26 PM
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^ interesting...

So more sediments get into your engine the less gas you have in your tank? That can't be good, eh?

Sounds like there's pros and cons to filling up earlier or later...
Old 07-19-2005, 05:31 PM
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another good thing to do is to fill up in the morning, the earlier the better, cause when the sun comes up, the temp goes up, and as the temp goes up, the volume of gas increases, meaning you are actually getting less gas when it is warmer
Old 07-19-2005, 05:54 PM
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Have you ever had a gas tank apart? The fuel pickup is on the bottom of the tank (duh) and it has this fine mesh bag around it (on most cars). Sediment will get picked up no matter how much gas you have in your tank, unless the sediment is less dense than the fuel.

As for gas temps- fuel tanks are underground where it's a constant 58 degrees F. The outside temp makes no difference.


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