Gas tank completely empty when at the E line?

There's some differences when the light comes on. Mine comes on somewhere between 17.0 and 17.5, and it's not totally consistent. My last truck, Dodge Dakota, the light would consistently come on at 20 gals (24 gal tank).

I put 20.7 gals into my Tacoma, and had not run out. It was my first tank and I had figured, from info on TW, that the light came on at 17 gals. Light came on, I figured my milage for 17 gal, and drove on figuring I had 4 gals left. Ended up the light was coming on at 17.4 or 17.5 and my calc'd milage was bad.

As for the fuel pump and low tank volumes,,, heard the stories for years, but paid them no mind as the vehicles I was driving had few to no documented cases of actual fuel pump replacements. Drove my Dakota for 8 years while running the tank down to 1-2 gals all the time. Do the same on my wifes cars. I don't spend any time worrying about the fuel pumps unless I see some known failures on the board(s) for those cars/trucks.

Only time I change this thinking is if there is a hurricane in the Gulf, and then it still depends on the situation.

BTW, couldn't care less when someone fills their tank! It's their own decision. Kind of like style, it's personal choice.

 

The manual says it's a 21 gallon tank, I have let the needle get below the E line... and it took 18.5 gallons to fill... So, 2.5 gallon still in reserve with the needle just below E... At 16 mpg, you still have 40 miles to find gasoline!

 

As far as gasoline quality goes... I have never had a fuel issue... I have had the V-6/ automatic in all three ('01, '05 and '10). Almost always use 87 octane (regular here in coastal So. Calif.)... Many miles in Baja Calif. Mexico on Pemex gasoline (also 87 octane) in all three of my Tacomas... Never any fuel problems. Just can't stop a Tacoma!

 

87 is definitely fine but you can use 93 with no additional cost in the long run. I ran about 20 tanks of both 87 and then 93. I tracked my gas mileage on an excel spreadsheet and averaged 1.8 MPG better with the 93. It also felt the truck had more pull off the start.

I don't have actual numbers with me but on average I was getting an additional 33 miles per tank (or ~2 gallons of gas). At $3/gal, this $6 in savings negates the $6 more you spent for 93 octane.

Plus you get 'better' gas and a seemingly stronger pull. There are a ton of threads discussing this.

 

Yeah, that is silly.

For us here in the hurricane prone Gulf Coast states we usually don't go below 1/2 tank.

Why? Cause I want to live my life and not worry about having to find gas when there isn't any to be found.

 

Why not just wait until a tropical storm is forming and fill up at 1/2 a tank. Typically you have a few days warning before a hurricane hits.

 

I call bullshit on the "not to run the tank below 1/4.". I'm a poor college student. Barely have money. And fill up 1/4 at a time to keep myself from going far. 3.5 years and 80,000 miles later, my truck runs like the day I got it.

 

Ditto

 

And the many others like it that I could've quoted....

I can't believe some people are questioning peoples decision to fill up at 1/4. I usually don't because I am just too damn lazy. But I sure as hell hate it when it hits E and I am in a situation (like running late) and I don't have time to stop. It is THEN that I wish I would've filled up a day or so ago - at 1/4 tank.

 

If you run your fuel pump for a prolonged period DRY...it MIGHT fail....but if you run out of fuel....the pump is going to run dry for maybe 30-60 seconds untill you shut the truck off... its not a legit concern to run the truck out of gas a few times. Yes, some trucks like chevys have issues with the pumps in general...

 

Same here. When the light comes on I usually have about 3.5-4 gallons left.

 

Don't the injectors have chance of burning up while you're pumping gas from the tank to them after running out completely? I know they won't burn out in 10 seconds or so but personally wouldn't wanna risk either the pump or the injectors and the associated wasted time/money replacing them or having them replaced. Of course, this wouldn't be an issue on mech pump/carb setups.

I'll run mine past a quarter and past the light coming on for convenience sake to get to the next station but not just willy nilly gonna run it dry even if I had a spare jug in the back. I try to hit station by 1/8th because that will push things getting home or to work and would rather not play gas pump roulette if not absolutely necessary. For hurricane season just pay attention when there's actually something out there and fill up the 5 & 10 gallon spare gas cans so you got some extra. I personally wouldn't need gasoline to run a generator since the generator I have runs the whole house off natural gas. As has been stated, preference and convenience thing, nothing for anyone to go all anal or OCD over........

 

You can run your tank down to 1/4 empty as many times as you want. It won't hurt the pump. As long as fuel is running through the pump it is being cooled. As far as the whole "your pump is sucking up all the dirt when you run it low" well, guess what, when you fill the tank up it gets mixed around and your pump sucks it up anyways. That's what the filter is there for.

 

When do you fill up? on E? Sorry man that's just silly. You know there's still 3-4 gallons left right?

 

Exactly. When I took the turbo stuff off my old accord and dropped the fuel tank to take out my walbro 255lph pump and put the stock pump back in my fuel tank it had absolutely zero sediment in the bottom after 200k miles. The inside of the tank looked brand new. Still shiny. The socks on both fuel pumps were perfectly clean with no signs of sediment staining. I fill up at whatever gas station is first available when I need gas. I have been driving for almost 10 years now and have NEVER had "bad gas" as some people claim. I have never had a fuel pump fail me and I have never had an injector go bad or get a clogged fuel filter.

 

Go to the nearest auto parts store and ask to look at an electric fuel pump. Inside the box, the manufacturer usually includes a little piece of paper that says, DO NOT DRY TEST THIS PUMP. I wonder why?

 

I usually fill up within 10 miles of the light coming on...or sooner if I feel like stopping. I have a gas card for work, so I need to plan out my driving so I can be close to an Exxon station.

 

the owners manual will tall you exactly what you have. i have an 18 gallon fuel tank and if i refuel right when the light comes on i put 15 gallons in it meaning i have 3 in reserve. its good to know what you got to determine how far you need to go.

and one time in the first car i ever owned i ran it completely out of gas and had to walk a few miles and got some more, put it in and it still wouldnt start. had to tow it home and replace the fuel pump. so it happens
although ive seen my friend run his jeep out of gas 3 or 4 times and he just put more in it and it was fine

 

One 'safe' method I use to figure miles per tank... is to round down (I did say 'safe')...

Worse case / normal driving I get 16 MPG and if the tank really does hold 21 gallons, that would mean a min. range of 336 miles (16 X 21). However, do we always TOP UP the tank...? The shut off on the pump will cut off the filling well under a gallon below topped off. Because of that, I never figure I have more than 20 GALLONS in my tank after 'filling up'!

So, let's take the 16 MPG my V-6 4WD gets (worse normal driving rate) and times it by the 20 gallons I probably have after a normal fill up (without adding more and more until it spills out). In some states (like Oregon) they don't allow drivers to fill their own tanks and they won't even 'round-up' the amount on the pump for an even dollar purchase.

20 X 16 = 320 MILES... One more 'round dpwn' for "just in case" is to figure 300 MILES PER TANK. Each quarter of a tank mark is equal to 75 miles of driving...

FULL TANK = 20 gallons/ 300 mile range (320 actually)
HALF = 10 gallons/ 150 miles (160 actually)
QUARTER = 5 gallons/ 75 miles (80 actually)

My warning light comes on when the needle is about at 1/8 tank and when I put gas in right then, I only get 17 gallons in it. The worst I have been low is when the needle was below the E line, and I still only got 18.5 gallons in it.

This is just a safe rule... IF you do a lot of highway and little city driving, then the 16 MPG will be closer to 17-18. My best highway mileage was 19.2 (on Mexican gasoline... maybe because it doesn't have all the California nonesense added to it?).

 

I like your conservative look at it but your are not judging it right by saying each quarter is the same. they are all different..I've been calculating each 1/4 of my tank all the way to the e-light and have found that they are all different.

I wanted to know this because you may not get 320 out of your tank if you drove the first half like a bat out of hell or something.but now no matter where my needle is i have a good idea of what i got left for miles.

this should give guys out there an idea of how big each 1/4 of the tan is as well. i used to get 15-16 miles to the gal and then i started driving like a normal person low rpm etc. i am in 5th gear in the 35mph zones, 4th in a 25 mph zone. I drive the same 20 mile route to work everyday. in some of these figures i drove in the city or to weddings or appointments around town or even got on the throttle a bit so i have low avg and high numbers for each 1/4 of the tank. here is my info

sorry no data for the mpg/miles/gals on the 1st 2 tanks...and i wasnt always by a station when the light came on but both of those 17's i was right there about a mile from it. I would say 17 is pretty accurate. the 17.2's I was a little ways away. not too much but about 5 miles or so. I always go to the first click on the pump and then wait 10 secs and pump it till it goes click. everytime.




total mile Average (314.29) is for my miles before i fuel up to calculate mpgs. the total miles below the high and low columns are for the worst and best case scenario to the e light.

Total miles till E-light are as follows: 284/ 303 / 282 / 295 / 323 / 322 / 312 / 302 / 314 Avg is 304.1