fuel gauge

All right, driving into town last night on i 19 truck died.Gauge said 1/8th tank left had it towed to my dads house cost me 128.00.I thought it was fuel pump ,Turned out it was empty bone dry , never had no problem with gauge before. Anbody have problem with gauge?

 

Never trust the gauge, especially when you're running low. Learn your average safe distance on a tankful and err on the side of caution.

 

I'd say there is a gauge problem for sure. These gauges usually read empty and stil have 1/8 tank.

 

To those of you running on anything less than 1/4 tank on a regular basis--the fuel pump manufacturers looooove you. Your electric fuel pump is cooled by fuel and when you run your tank low, the pump heats up and will fail prematurely. Suggestion--find the cash to fill your tank, then treat the 1/4 mark on gauge as "empty". More fuel in tank means longer lasting pump, less condensation, and no $128.00 tow bills.

 

While this may be true on some vehicles, I'm pretty sure the fuel return line for the Tacoma dumps directly back onto the pump in the tank. So as long as there is fuel enough to flow, the pump will be cooled by the returning fuel pouring over it.

 

There are three lines that run between the engine and the tank. One of them is the evap line. I can't imagine that they would run two delivery lines, but I could be wrong.

 

Regardless....

It's a gauge.
It's not a meter.

When you're crossing 450 miles and you've been leadfooting it, I don't care if the gauge says you have 1/2 tank left... you're gonna' walk.

 

Just wondering if you have any actual cases of fuel pump failures, or if you are just passing along "what you've heard"? I've looked into this myself and the only documented cases I've been able to find were on the last gen Chevy/GMC fullsized.

I had my last truck for 8 years (Dakota) and heard all the hype about "don't let it get below 1/8, 1/4, etc. or you'll burn out the fuel pump". I regularly ran that truck, and my Tacoma, down to a gallon, or less in some cases, with no failures. I also have not heard of any fuel pump failures on either of those trucks.

 

With my '05, I wouldn't exactly run regularly under 1/4 tank (because I would fill the tank rather than just toss $10 worth into it), but I definitely wasn't filling up at that mark either.

I rarely saw the gas warning light come on, but none the less, I'd usually drive it down to 1/8 of a tank or less before filling. 100K+ miles and no issues with the gauge.

Not saying that gauges can't be faulty, just saying that driving mine well below 1/4 tank on most occasions didn't seem to do any damage.

 

Lurkin was talking about pump failure at low fuel levels, not gauge failure. He brings up a good point. Forum facts tend to take on a life of their own, so it's good to step back occasionally and sanity check things. Tacoma's typically have something like 3 gallons of gas left when the low light comes on. That gas is sloshing around, and it's hard to imagine the pump is not getting washed by it. More than likely Toyota set the low light that way to discourage running at super low levels. I haven't seen anything to indicate a frailty with regard to pump cooling.

 

I regularly drive with little gas and never have I had a fuel pump failure.

 

When I add gas I fill it up to the top. When I run it down I run it till the damn light comes on. I've never had a problem, 60k miles, hot as all hell Dallas Texas. I don't forsee a problem for anyone else with the fuel pump.


As far as the gas gauge goes; definitely sounds like the OP has a problem. My needle runs down at the bottom mark and I typically still have 2 gallons in the tank even with the fuel light on. I've never put more than 18.5 gallons in the truck and I'm pretty sure it has a 20 gallon tank. For it to read 1/8 and be out of fuel is very wrong.

 

i run it for some time after the light comes on, i still end up having three gallons left when i get to the pump but, ive never had any pump problems and i have 120k

 

If you found out it was bone dry, and filled your truck, did the gauge show full as normal? There is a chance the float just got hung up or stuck. It has not happened in a awhile, but I have topped off and seen the gauge remain in the same position for a brief time until gas slushes around in the tank... if you have not run the fuel down since filling up, you could carry some fuel and run it down to see if it operates as normal and the low fuel light comes on.

 

I use to test my truck when it was new to see how far it ran on the low light. I just wanted to know. I went from 30, to 40, then 50 extra miles, and still had fuel left when I went to fill up. I do not do this anymore, but feel good that I can run 50 miles on low if I had to. Now that I have had the truck 3 1/2 yrs, I can go by the numbers, caculating extra loads if needed and probably never run out even if the gauge went out.

 

why not just have someone bring you gas?

 

I live in the sticks was going into tuesday night bike ride have nobody out here to help .

 

I put 2 gallons in the morning started up and then put 19.7 at texaco so it was empy

 

I suppose it doesn't really matter if the FPR is on an injector rail or in the pump assembly, fuel is going to flow through and cool the pump, and the fuel not consumed by the engine will bypass back into the tank regardless of where it makes its u-turn.

I put more stock in the idea that dead pumps from people running out of gas are more from leaving the ignition on for a few minutes while trying to figure out what's wrong with the vehicle, giving things time to fry.

 

Well since we are on the topic of running fuel pumps with low fuel levels I have a question.

Why do people say the fuel pickup will suck up dirt and sediment from the bottom of the tank when the fuel level is low?