Running on Fumes

I drive as far as I can with a tank. It you get, say, 300 miles before an empty tank that's 300 miles, but on the other side of the coin if you get 300 miles out of a tank and drive it until you've got 100 miles left and refill it there, you're still getting 300 miles until your next refill just with some extra room to spare in the tank.

It's just what I've always done and, judging from what others have said, it hasn't hurt the car any, especially since I've never actually run the car into the ground with a bare-bones empty tank.

On a lighter note, let's not get started with the inter-service rivalry as that'll be a whole other can of worms. All I'll say on the subject is this: The Army and the Navy are the only real military branches. The Marines are a religion and the Air Force is a Corporation

 

Admittedly, we don't have to worry about too much inclement weather where I am at, if anarchy ever struck I would be a lot better off than most people. I have supplies stocked up and a bug out bag/plan ready to implement. I'm not one of those "preppers" but I do have a plan and I like to think that if anything ever did happen, while the rest of the neighborhood fought each other over canned food, I'd be sitting pretty nicely indoors.

Some very wise words to live by: "Be Prepared"

 

Ok that makes more sense now. Yeah you won't hurt anything running it till empty. Nothing worse than running out of gas.

Good luck brother, keep your head down.

 

This ^ The pump delivers far more fuel that the engine uses so fuel as long as there is enough to pump is constantly cooled by the returning fuel, the fuel goes right through the motor so if there is any it's cooled. The junk if there is any is all ready on the bottom (dirt and water are heaver than gasoline) and if it was that bad it was picked up long ago.

 

i've gotten kinda anal about it.

i keep the truck full. living in earthquake land, it just makes sense to me.

 

Anyone with a little common sense doesn't run there fuel tank low, you never know when you might get stuck in traffic or have no access to fuel.

The fuel pump is internally cooled/lubricated, you would have to run it dry to overheat it.

My biggest concern is where i fill up, there is all types of crap floating around in the stations holding tanks. If your buying budget gas, the station probably has a poor maintenance program. Old filters, dirty tanks, moisture contamination, ect

An uncle of mine once had his truck damaged from a gas station with a water leak in their holding tanks. A ton of people got screwed on that one, luckily they were able to prove the gas station was at fault. The station had to fully replace all their holding tanks and cover damages.

 

Encase no one has covered it I have highlighted the areas that can not correlate as you state yourself. One is a mid size sedan while the other is a truck. They will not have the same mpg's regardless of motor size or not.

As for you question. I tend to go about 60 miles past when the light comes on. The reserve on these tanks I believe is 4 maybe 5 gallons on a 21 gallon tank. When I push for 60-80 I tend to put 19-19.8 gallons in the tank. You dont want to suck it dry as this tends to allow the pump to suck the sediment at the bottom of the tank up into the filter, clogging it, and requiring replacement.

 

So I've filled up about three times already, and the average miles I get per tank is 300 miles (and this is nursing the acceleration to nothing over 2000 RPMs). A thought occurred to me while filling up, what gas is best to use? The salesman at the dealership had told me that the Unleaded gasoline (86 Octane in my area) is fine, as long as I get the middle grade gasoline once a month. Although the manual for my 2014 Tacoma says to go with 87 Octane or greater, I haven't seen any issues with the lowest grade. What do y'all fill up with?

 

fill with midgrade once a month? lol

The 1gr engine was designed to run on 91, however, the ecu is able to retard timing to compensate for lower octane and prevent knock. Considering whats available in you area, I would run the midgrade all the time. Running the 86 doesn't meet standards.

 

The fuel pick up is at the bottom of the tank. You do run the risk of picking up any floating gunk if you run the level too low though

 

Yeup, that's what I said