Justin Davis is on a mission. He wants to know how far various cars will drive after the gas-tank warning light comes on. The auto manufacturers won’t tell him. His solution? Ask the internet.
So, people of the tubes, you can help Justin and heck, help us all, by adding your knowledge to his website “Tank on Empty.” The internet is so nifty sometimes. —MEGHANN MARCO
Tank On Empty [via Network World]
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My ’02 Accord has the fairly normal two gallon reserve found in most cars made recently. It gets me some 55 miles before the thing completely shuts down (which I allowed to happen, once). Nice to know my car’s limits.
With my old ’05 Mazda6 GT Wagon, I did 72 miles before it ran out gas…
With my ’06 Nissan Titan, the light comes on with at least 4 gallons of gas. I’ve gone 40 miles and I still had a gallon left in it…
I have a 2004 Olds Alero. When i first got it i used to fill it up RIGHT when the light came on and it always had about 2 gallons left in the tank, or about 50-60 miles. Then i learned to milk it and would fill it with it running on fumes!!
my 94 Jaguar XJ6 can go about 25 miles when the light comes on, according to the VCM i only have 1 or 2 gallons left, but it’s wonky.
my 2002 Ford Windstar goes about 30 miles when the light goes on.
You guys really shouldn’t let your car get below 1/4 a tank. I would not try this experiment. It’s extremely bad for the fuel pump and they are expensive to replace. Good luck replacing one on a full tank of gas. Dealerships charge $100+ per hour and won’t give the gas back.
On my little brother’s electric motorcycle, I can get about 50-60 more feet when the red, “CHARGE” light turns on…
Anyway you can chill witht he inline tagging a bit?
Or at least not inline tag the same as the link to the article.
I swear I need to go back to school to be able to find the link to the original article some days. Maybe I am just defective though!
7th gen Accord: low fuel light turns on after the car has a little less than 4 gallons less. Fuel tank capacity is 17.1 gallons, so almost a quarter of the tank is still left.
I don’t get why this is so difficult; after the low fuel light comes on, fill up your tank.
Gallons Maximum capacity
- gallons it took to fill up your car to max (pump clicks off automatically)
= gallons left in your car when light turns on
miles driven/galllons used = mpg.
1991 to 2002 Infiniti G20
Light comes on at 13.913 US gallons and the tank is 15.900 US gallons. That should be between 31.800 and 63.600 miles on the light depending on miles per gallon.
Like others have said please do not burn out your fuel pump by running the tank low if there is no need.
BTW more Nissan and Infiniti cars have the light come on at 0.125 left of a tank.
1998 Pontiac Sunfire, I get 20 miles after the empty gas light comes on (even after 120,000 miles!)
Chevy diesel trucks have about 10 gallons left in tank when gauge hits E . The gas models are empty when they hit E . This only applies to 70′s thru early 90′s trucks. However when you empty the tank that far you end up sucking all the crud from the bottom of the tank into your fuel injection system, and that can be a very expensive fix. If you happened to get a bad tank of gas with some water in it the water sits at the bottom of the tank and your submerged pump in the tank burns up due to the water having less lubrication than gas. The average price of a new pump/sending unit starts at $500 just for the pump.
I never allow my tanks to drop below a 1/4 tank, due to the pumps on most vehicles use the fuel as a cooling solution.
I learned the hard way by burning up a pump on my
old ’84 Buick regal by testing the low fuel light.
Made it 10 miles before the pump ceased operations.
The real question is how long can you go between oil changes without blowing the engine? My friend had Jeep Cherokee in the 80′s and being a naive teen (yes this is true) didn’t know he was supposed to change the oil. I believe he said it seized at about 80,000. Yeah he’s an idiot, goes without saying.
2006 Honda Accord V6, 50 miles bone-dry after E.
[www.tian.cc]
2006 Explorer SportTrac…generally has about 3 gallons left when the light comes on…I’ve gone 30-40 miles before and still had a gallon or 2 left…
@ChrisC1234:
I have an ’05 Camry also, and I completely agree with you. It’s by far the only thing I don’t love about this car (and I usually average 34 mpg highway, not bad for a midsize car.) When you fill your tank completely, it seems like you can go FOREVER before the guage drops at all….after that, well, it lowers quite fast. Kinda scares me a bit, so I try to not let it get below 1/3 tank, which I guess is good anyway.
My ’97 Subaru Outback has a 15.9 gallon tank, I generally fill it when it gets a little past E. At that point it’ll take 12-12.5gallons to fill it. This means I have around 3.5-4 gallons of gas in the tank, which combined with it’s gas mileage means I could potentially have another 100miles worth of range. This is my 2nd Subaru wagon and they both did this, so I don’t think it’s a defective guage.
My ’78 Nova on the other hand was empty the moment the needle crossed the E mark. I learned this the hard way, running out of gas while waiting to take a left into the filling station.
As long as the gas light goes off every time I hit the brakes hard, I’m gonna keep going. 27 miles in my ’95 Nissan Pickup, and I made it to the station.
97 GMC Truck
4L V6, 18 Gallons
I actually tried this with a spare gallon of gas. My engine shut off after about 35 miles after the low gas light came on.
I wont recommend anyone trying this though because my truck started to run rougher after this stunt. It must have been the sediments sucked up from the bottom of the gas tank. I don’t know the validity of this, but can any mechanics out there verify this.
2005 Ford Focus ST
2.3L I-4, 14 gallons
The low fuel light will kick on with 3.5 gallons left. I average about 25 mpg with mixed driving so I could over 85 miles with the light on. I usually stop and fill up once the light comes on unless I’m near home or work, though.
I’ve been keeping gas consumption data on my 2004 Outback Sport since day 1. I have over 50,000 miles of data of mileage, gallons to fill, miles after the light comes on, and per gallon price. It has a 17 gallon tank, and the light comes on after 13.3 gallons have been consumed (sd = 0.5 gal), which means that I usually have over 3 gallons left. This could mean 45 miles in the city or nearly 100 on the highway. It’s not really hard to keep this kind of data. Just write the mileage on the receipt and reset the trip odometer. When the light comes on, set the B trip. And always fill to capacity.