LambertRX8

Anyone else run out of gas yet? It looks beautiful on the console when all the lights come on and the engine stops, especially around the holidays.

I also found out that when the yellow (better get gas) light comes on you better be careful when you say "next gas station I will stop". For some reason that station never seems to be quite so close.

None the less now I know how much fuel actually goes into the tank and how far I can go.

Happy travelling........

RX-GR8

at least you didnt flood it.

Positron

So when you were completely empty, how much fuel did you get in the tank. This is a question many have asked! And did you have any problem starting from empty? Thx for the info. Sorry you had to find out the hard way.

i3man

Thanks for the good laugh but sorry you had to find out the hard way :p So just how much gas do our 8s take?

khoney

Supposedly 15.9 gallons, but I find that hard to believe - I've never even put in 14, and I've driven at least 30 miles with the yellow light sometimes.

i3man

Then you're not driving far enough with the yellow light on. Try driving another 35 miles then let us know :p

colin204

I ran out of gas about a month ago. I had no problem starting from empty. The RX8 was the first time I had ever ran out of gas.

JimW

Every time I filled it when the light comes on, I put about 13.2-13.5 gal. averaging 20 highway. I guess It's good to know I can squeeze another 40 miles if I had to.

loco4rx8

As I've mentioned before, I ran out of gas myself. I squeezed 15.3 gallons in the tank. I MAYBE could've squeezed another .1 in, but that would've been it.

So, there's your answer. 15.3-15.4 gallons.

rx8ntexas

I remember hearing that running out of gas would damage fuel injectors...anyone know if this is this true?

idle0ne

LambertRX8

do you have a friend that works for geico lol i called for a quote and he told me about his friend that was driving to work and ran out of gas in his new RX-8

Superfan

I was able to put in 15.2 gallons when i ran out of gas a few weeks back. I had to push the car out of traffic then walk about 2 miles to the gas station. I felt like a complete moron

241Commuter

I haven't run out of gas but I once put 15.1 gallons in the tank. I THOUGHT I had .8 gallons plus the filler neck content still to go. You mean I didn't???? You mean Mazda lied (again)? Since the last couple of miles was off the highway, it looks like I had about 1.3 miles to go before I was sunk.

I'll tell you what. That needle travels south awfully fast after the yellow light goes on. Or maybe it's just my imagination.

Magnesium

That was an old myth of when injectors first started being used. Running out of gas will not damage injectors.

loco4rx8

My assumption is that the tank size is 15.9 or whatever the manual says, but that the usable amount of gas in the tank is in the 15.3-15.4 range. I suppose it's a bit deceiving, but maybe all cars are like this??

241Commuter

I once owned an '86 Cougar, essentially a rebadged Thunderbird by the same Ford folks who control Mazda. Some things didn't add up in my mileage calculations. I also noticed that sometimes after a fillup the needle came to less than full, sometimes more than full. I finally figured out that the amount of gas that I could add to the tank depended on slight changes in the slope of the cement pad I was parked on. If the pad sloped down towards the passenger side so that the filler was elevated a bit, I could get a couple of gallons more in the tank than if it were tilted down towards the driver side.

That was pretty extreme, but you got me thinking that the filler configuration on the 8 might be doing something to trigger the shutoff prematurely. Just a thought. Next time I fillup I'm going to try to spoof the pump into shooting more gas into the tank.

The other possibilities are, the fuel suction inside the tank doesn't draw from a low enough elevation, or that equipment inside the tank occupies volume not accounted for.

In any event - Memo to all motor vehicle manufactures: The stated fuel capacity needs to be the amount of fuel you can put in the car on a flat pad using a normal pump shutoff after running out of gas. Counting that air pocket that never fills because of bad design, or the puddle at the bottom that the fuel intake can't pick up is dishonest.

FirstSpin

Uhhhh, call me old-fashioned but I fill up at 1/4 tank. Don't have to worry about the 15.1 vs. 15.75 gallon issue. It may be 'nerdy' but I haven't run out of gas in over 20 years.....

Shocka

im one of those 1/4 tank people also. the gas light went on the other day i almost fliped ive never seen it before! in 6 years of driving ive never seen a gas light in any of my cars.

loco4rx8

Yeah, that's nice if you don't have a long commute. I drive 100 miles a day. I try to get the most I can out of a tank. Without any extra trips, I can fill up every third day, which is fine with me. If I had to fill up every other day, I'd have strongly considered selling the car back to Mazda.

241Commuter

OK, I run it closer to the edge. With half a brain and armed with knowledge of how things work you don't have to run out of gas either even if you regularly see the low-fuel light. The only time in my life that I ever ran out of gas was on a date, 34 years ago. And that was semi-on-purpose.:D

mngpao

The manual says to fill it when it gets down to 1/4 and that's what I always do. I once ran out of gas about 20 years ago on the freeway and vowed "never again".

idle0ne

lol semi-on purpose

rx8daniel

I started a similar thread back in August. When I ran out, I barely got 15 gal in it. It is most certainly not a usable 15.9. I had added over 15gal to my VW TDI (takes a while w/ diesel) with a 14.5 gal tank (never ran out in that car). Have put over 10 in my 10 gal Miata tank.

guy321

I fill up when I get to 1/4 tank. I LOVE frappuchinos (or however you spell them) and talking to gas station employees!!!!

Go4It

I'm in trouble. I've used the distance to empty computer in my Intrepid for fuel stops. It would take me to 1 mile. I'll have to clean up my act. You 1/4 tank fill folks are my new guage.