Ok this was my second tank of gas and my "test the mpg" tank. I let the needle drop below the E line at 320 miles on the tank. Then filled it up where I always get gas and only needed 12.7 gallons. So if I have a 14.5 gallon tank and get estimated 23 mpg I should based on my driving habits (consistant every week) I could have gotten at least 23 more miles on the tank putting me around 343 and still .7 gallons left min. I can only gues this would have put the needle on the little orange dot? So any observations on this subject would be great. I did search (fuel light and gas light) and got nothing but I'm sure some one some where ask a similar question.

Thanks

Scott

 

I get around 26 mpg in my car. I don't usually drive my car until the light comes on, but I do get around 300+ miles per tank.

 

Well I should rephrase that getting 320 on 12.7 is more like 25 mpg which is fair but still wondering the needle location vs. getting that other 1.7 gallons?

Scott

 

you guys got ***** driving til the light turns on. i get scared as hell when my gas gets down to 1/4th tank, i alwasy have to refill.

 

Especially in west Texas, man what a baron wasteland

 

Well its not like I'm trying to drive a car till the dirt get sucks up'd through the injectors from a dirty tank but ya know its a new car and I should not be thinking about that right now.

Scott

 

I was told on my previous new car not to let the gas get below a 1/4 of a tank often because it is bad for the fuel system to drive with very little gas in the car. You can still figure out your mpg without letting the gas go all the way down.

 

you know, I hate to say it but it seems very unlikely contaminants will get in your engine when the gas gets low, it's completely against logic. Gas tanks have a nozzle at the top which feeds from the bottom of the tank. You also have fuel filters inline to stop just that from happening, and there is so little sedaments in your tank (unless purposefully put there) that it just doesn't sound possible.

Now something you should worry about is running lean. The farther down the tank you go the less actual fuel content is in the tank since we have a recirculating fuel pump (at least I'm sure we do) and the less fuel in the tank, usually the less useable "fuel" in the gas to use. I run nitro R/C trucks that run on methanol (nitromethane w/synthetic oils w/low flash point) and it's a fact and something you have to watch that in competitions your engine is running leaner as the tank gets lower and can even stall if you've been running a low nitro percentages.

Now cars have the same thing, with lubricants, cleaning agents etc so it would only make sense, but since it is on such a much larger scale with much, much lower compression/piston and fractions of RPM's etc it's probably not noticeable - but for the record, if I go forced induction I'm not letting my tank drop below 3-4 gallons due to possible heat and detonation issues.

EDIT: I just took the two seconds to look it up and TC's run a returnless line, which I'm guessing means it just sucks it from the tank and sucks it back into the pistons after detonation

 

yea and all cars these days have something called a reserve tank so when u hit that gas light you have about a gallon or so left to find more gas

 

i must have big ***** i drive till it has 1 mile left.. im a poor high school student living in california home of the high gas prices...

 

i get around 23 mpg city so im happy that its hitting the advertised mark

 

let me ask you something...what do you think a fuel filter is for?

 

Recently I drove for quite a while after the light had come on and the needle was slightly past E.
On certain turns and when trying to apply the throttle quickly I noticed the car seemed to die or show signs of fuel starvation.
I know others have posted this but now that I have experienced it I will not try to push my luck. I was worried all the way to the gas station.

 

my lights comes on at about 230 miles, and i drive it till 250 miles before i fill up.. i get real sh1tty mileage

 

Me and my friend are the kings of driving with gas below E. I will have a needle below E and drive 15 miles to work still.

Well my friend just got his tc and he was on E and thought he had plenty of driving left in the tank. Until he started running out of gas! haha, he made it to a station though... barely.
Guess his needle is the suckage =P

 

It is correct not to need to run all 14 plus gallons to fugure the mpg but I was just amazed at how long the light was on and me below E to just need 12.7 gallons.

Scott

 

Filled up 13.2gal last night till the pump clicked off - got it to a point when the car bogged down on me when I was pulling out of a parking lot, going uphill. Was below the R mark for about 25-30 miles. I get 25 lifetime average (24 city, that I drive 90% of the time) and 31 hwy (400 miles to a tank).

 

it scares me to let it even get that low... isnt it bad for your car?

 

the needle can actually go as low as where the orange light is!
i filled up about 14.1 gal when that happened.....i was on the edge of pushing the car home....
i get exactly 24mpg city...thats with injen cai intake and trd exhaust.

 

Gather 'round kids, Explanation Time!

Cars have gas tanks, cars have engines. To get gas from the gas tank to the engine, a car has a fuel pump. A fuel pump, like any other pump, gets hot when it's working. So to cool off the fuel pump, carmakers put the fuel pump in the gas tank...it's submerged in liquid (gasoline to be exact), which cools it off.

Now suppose you chronically run your tank dry. If there's not enough gas in the tank to cover up the fuel pump, then the pump heat up. Now it won't get so hot that it'll catch on fire or anything catastrophic like that, but over time letting the fuel pump get hot over and over can shorten it's lifetime.

All this means is that, no it's not bad for your *whole car* to run your tank dry continuously, but why be mean to your fuel pump unless you're a poor high school student whose parents would buy you a brand new $17k car but won't give you the money to buy gas for it?

Ravi