As in, how many miles did you go past when the number that tells you how many miles you can go on the gas left in your tank counts down to 0?

Seems like the gas gauge goes from 1/4 of a tank down to flashing fairly quickly and as my commute goes thru some rural areas, gas stations arent always handy. Today I went about 10 miles past "0".

Whats the most you guys have gone?

 

Just before anyone else says it: Running the tank that low can stir up sediment in the gastank and really screw up your fuel pump...

I'd suggest not running it that low, especially if gas stations are far apart near you.

 

I would try to keep it under 15 miles. I got curious let it go down to zero and then filled my tank up as much as I could. Our tanks hold about 11.1 gallons. When I filled up I was able to put in 10.3-10.7 gallons (I can't remember which). So that .4-.8 is about what I had left. So about a half a gallon, you get 33 mpg halved =16.5.

 

on the tC, the low fuel light that comes on is pretty far in advance. our tanks are 14.5 gallons and if i fill up as soon as it comes on, it usually takes between 11 to 11.5 gallons to fill it up, so the car still has 3 gallons left before it would completely run out. so keep track of what it takes to fill up the tank when your gauge reaches zero or your low fuel light comes on and that'll give you some idea how far you can really get before you run out completely.

 

ive gone 25 miles on the ultra fast blink on E. i was quite frantic to get to a station asap lol

 

40 miles highway haha i didnt know there wasnt gonna be a gas station!

 

I usually fill up when my display reads between 20 and 60 miles, just because.

 

Hmm... I never thought about sediment. I mean I know not to get gas at a station where there's a tanker filling their tanks because that stirs up their sediment.

 

Yep. There's bound to be some crap laying at the bottom of the gas tank.

 

I wouldn't worry about sediment too much. Most of the sediment in gas tanks is rust from metal tanks themselves. We've got plastic fuel tanks, so there's no rust to worry about.

I opened up the fuel tank on my Golf at about 150,000 miles to fix the anti-backflow valve (was a known problem, VW fixed it on later models), and the tank was clean enough to eat off of.

 

I never thought of that.

Back when gas was over $4/gal. A local news station did a report on People wait to the last drop to fill up. They interviewed auto shops, the mechanics said a lot more people come in with fuel pump problem because they waited until the tank get empty. ( I think fuel pump problem went up 10 or 30 percent) The fuel pump get clogged because of the crap at the bottom of the gas tank.
I usually fill up when my tank get below 1/4.

 

The gas in the tank keeps the fuel pump cool and letting the fuel get to low causes the fuel pump to over heat and eventually leading to failure. It’s like running your car with out coolant it might run for a while but eventually the heat will destroy it. So all those people waiting for the car to be on the last drop to fill up are causing damage to the fuel pump. And as for the car showing empty early is probably the factory trying to prevent the pump from over heating.

 

i went about 30... i was on I-80... i didn't realize the next gas station was 3 exits away!!!!

 

I didn't know about the sediment thing. Good to know.

My 0 mile marker seems to come up way too early though. I usually fill up when there's one light left.

 

After reading "0" miles, I have gone an additional 40 miles and put something like 10.4 gallons into my tank if I recall correctly...

 

I was about the same. Also notice that it'll even if your AVG MPG isn't changing the miles left will go down more slowly than they should be when you're at <1/8 tank. Like it'll say 35m till 0 and then 30 miles later it'll say 12m.

 

Good answer and the most logical for the rash of pump failures.

That sediment thing is generally an old wives tale started back when we had inner tubes in our tires.

 

Yeah the pickup for the fuel pump is ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK there is no sediment sloshing around at the bottom . . . it gets picked up right away. Running out of gas can however cause fuel line surges and blow holes through your fuel filter and overheat your fuel pump. Best to run it low then pump out the fuel tank into a container to see how much is left instead of driving it around waiting to run out of gas.

 

I've never had a fuel pump nor fuel filter issue on any of my cars, so I usually run all my cars down to the "warning light" or at 1/8 remaining. The one exception was my '88 Honda Accord with a carburetor to feed it, which had...a carburetor. 'Nuff said. Of course, I've also owned 2 other cars with no warning light, so you had to watch the gauge needle.

My least favorite feature of my xD is that stupid digital gas gauge: A great idea for cell phone and digital camera batteries, but terrible idea for an automobile, in my opinion. It already has a needle for the tachometer and speedometer...why not a real temp/fuel gauge as well? (I guess those are two thing I did not bother to check when test driving the car.)

But being the procrastinator that I am, I usually run it down to the blinking light. There seems to be at least two speeds (possibly three), of the repetition. Slow for about 5-10 miles remaining, faster for 0 miles, and even faster for about less than a half-gallon remaining in the tank. I have yet to require more than 10.5 gallons, which is fine by me, considering that only leaves 0.6 gallons (about 15 miles) remaining.

I've only seen fuel residue on tanks that were rusted, corroded, or had a contaminant (like sugar) in it.

 

i dunno i already ran outta gas and was cruising on the side of the freeway. but it did go pretty far at least 60 miles i did.