[raitchison]

The answer for me today was ~60 miles, about 1/2 of it in stop & go traffic. It started to stumble on hard acceleration (is there another kind of acceleration?) so I decided it was time to get gas.

Incidently, I got 330 miles out of the tank, including racing it and towing with it this weekend so thats not bad.

 

[mazdaspeed3]

Wow, 60 miles??? I'm lucky to see a light in my camaro before it goes out of gas...

My fiancee's focus gets bout 40miles.

 

[rpc180]

Light comes on around 11.5 gallons gone (~3 gal left). Average mph is about 20-25. So 60 is about right.

 

[ZeR0c0oL5]

If I were Moderator for a day..........

I'd move this topic to the right place

Other than that, I'm glad someone out there was brave enough to drive around and wait until his car ran out of gas, so I wouldn't have to do it. *makes a note*. I will now set trip meter B to 0 when my light comes on and fill up at 59.9 miles. :wink:

 

[dinu01]

Powerplant perhaps?

 

[icecube]

60 miles? are u sure,

i did 40 KM when my light came on, next tiem i will go for more hahaha

 

[turtle]

u ppl r crazy......i've only had the fuel light go on once in my car and i was so freaked out already

i heard tho that it's bad for the car to run down ur fuel to a very very low level......i forgot why....but yeah......

 

[raitchison]

The theory is that you have little bits of sediment or debris in every fuel tank and that builds up in your gas tank. People say when you run your tank really low the sediment is super concentrated and can clog your filter or get into your engine.

Maybe that's valid if you NEVER let your gas tank get low and for some reason are forced to (can't find a gas station or something) but my opinion is that if you regularly run your tank low it won't have the chance to build up.

 

[vaBooM]

Ive only been able to juice about 40 miles after the light comes on. Then again, I havent ran it till the motor studdered.. came to the conclusion I didnt want to run out so I filled up.

 

[jeebus]

Poor fuel filter. I feel bad for my cars if the gauge ever gets to the E.

 

[icecube]

do u guys feel that the car got less power when is low on gas? or is it just me

 

[raitchison]

Other than the possibility of stumble if you fuel pump intakes some air, generally under hard acceleration or cornering, it's unlikely that there would be any power loss with a low tank of gas.

 

[mazdaspeed3]

Actually, I think the car performs better with a low tank, there is much less weight to carry arround.

 

[oskicat]

k.. so my light came on and i went to get a fillup right away. fillup was 10.759 gallons, and the tank capacity is 14.5 gallons, so that is 3.741 gallons left. I calculated my mpg (314 miles) for my first tank after the dealer fillup at 29.185 mpg.. so, at that rate, i would get 109.181 miles before i went empty.


You don't want to run your tank to near empty. I usually don't let it get down below 1/4. starts to suck sediment from the tank if you go all the way down.

 

[raitchison]

I only got about 12 gallons in when I filled up, and that was after letting it start to stumble. I'm pretty sure youd run out of gas long before you got to 14.5Gals.

 

[oskicat]

that's weird. I wonder if that's the same on all cars. Good to know though how long you've got before the light comes on. Also, the light will probably come n at different times depending if you are on an incline/decline.

 

[CRiZO]

Yeah the crap in the tank thing is true, but running to an empty tank mainly dangerous because then its all fumes in the tank, and causes them to become under greater pressure, so we all learned in physics, fumes has more surface area than liquid, so its more ignitable. It's a low risk of course, but even a small spark at the gas station could screw you over in that case.

 

[Bieser]

lol, all you crazy americans and your 'gallons'! Im just sitting here trying to understand this, doing the math in my head... :?
bahhh well.....

Im what you would call a poor student, so my car regularly see's the bottom of the tank. Not a problem yet.

 

[lmp180psu]

I find it confusing that in Canada, the lower the number, the better the gas mileage

 

[oskicat]

just use http://www.google.com to convert

e.g. to find out miles per gallon in kilometers per liter type "28 mpg in kpl" in the search field.