Out of gas right at freeway off-ramp
 

I got lucky. Coasted car to the beginning of the off-ramp. Pushed the car around 300 ft to the end of the off-ramp. Gas station right across the street but there is a center divider, street is slightly uphill, and can't do a legal u-turn at the intersection, so I walk across the street and buy a two-gallon plastic tank and fill it up to exactly 2.00 gal. I pour into my car and then drive to the gas station and fill tank completely [13.297 gal + ~1.8 gal (there was a little bit of drippage from the two-gallon bucket) = ~15.097 gal]. Trip odometer shows 315.3 mi at freeway offramp. The math indicates this is 20.9 mpg. This means I should be able to get around 332 miles on the tank. Instead, the engine died at 315.3 mi.

Based on when the yellow light went on, I had estimated (correctly) that I would get between 20.5 and 21.0 mpg and so I figured I'd be good for quite a bit more than 320 miles. Looks like I had about .9 gal left in the tank when the engine died and would not restart. Is it normal for cars of various makes for the engine not to be able to pick up fuel with .9 gal left?

I think that kind of sucks, but I hope this information might be helpful to others.

Rest easy ArXate, "..that kinda sucks.." is kinda harsh don't you think for not being able to extricate the last .9 gal of gas?

That amount is easily puddled to one side of your tank unless you happen to be on a *perfectly* flat and level place where your car ran out of gas. Were you? Of course not!

Let's give the 8 a little break ;) ArXate!!

PS Nice mileage, congrats! :)

I "always" fill up when I get to 3/4 tank but the weather's been sucky lately so I pushed it farther than I normally would. I drove about 8 miles after the light came on. The car held 13.45 gallons of gasoline. If mine is empty at 15.0-whatever, like yours, given the mileage I generally get, I had about 22 more miles left at the time of fill-up or 30 left at the time the light came on. I averaged 15.2 mpg on this particular tank. Obviously if you're getting 20 mpg, you have more "warning" when the yellow light comes on (PROVIDING that they are all set at exactly the same spot.) I'll keep filling up at 3/4 tank rather than chance it. :)

I just wanted to say that , I think you got excellent mileage for what you got already...

I also wanted to say.. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU ? " =) Dont you know thats bad for the engine, you never ever ever ever ever want to drive your gas tank to empty, please dont do it again for the sake of god !

=)

Zamen

It is not good for the engine or fuel injectors to let the tank go empty. I don't let my go below 1/8th tank before refilling....and haven't on any of my cars. Also...I've never run out of gas. With the proliferation of stations, there is just NO REASON.

ive only run out of gas once. me and my friends were out of money and about half an hour from home when the light came on. i made it home to get some money. as soon as i pulled into the gas station the car died and had enough momentum to roll up to the pump. this was in my corolla, not an rx8.

Huh?

Do you mean 1/4 tank?

or he meant 3/4 empty.. =)

Thanks for letting us know that ~15 gallons was what you found.

A related thread is here:

Everyone! How Many Miles Can You Go On A Full Tank?!?
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...run+out+of+gas

Ha Ha!

Trust me, from now on I'm going to be more conservative. But at least now I know I can't depend on the last gallon.

I was almost outta gas in my RX-7, and I was about 1/4 mile from the gas station. I had to go under an overpass and turn onto an access road to get to the station, but there was a 4-way stop at the top of the underpass, which is on a serious hill. My car died as I stopped on the hill waiting for the people in front of me (it was ruch hour). I had to wave the people behind me around, so I could coast back to the bottom of the hill. I got it started again, then waited till traffic was clear up top and smoked it up the hill and around the corner! Got to the gas station, though! Of course, being a guy, I felt proud of my efforts rather than feeling like the dumb-ass that I was for letting it get too low :D