What a way to start out a monday morning...I was at a light, heading towards a gas station to fill her up, then engine shuts off, I was amazed, b/c the needle was just above empty...I guess in a sense I was lucky I didn't quite make it onto the highway..Put the blinkers on, and got my dad to bring me some gas, and 30min later I got to work...Does this hurt the engine in anyway?

 

doesnt your car tell u how many miles left to drive on those gas?..

 

Not when you get THAT low.

 

Funny how the prices in my area just jumped up 5 cents per gallon from yesterday and I had to fill up today. Anyway, I guess it beeps and tells you to visit the fueling station for a reason.

 

i always use that feature to tell me how many miles left when the Refuel gas message appears..

 

Also could be a bad sensor since the needle didn't show empty.

 

I've run out of gas twice (once I coasted >1/4 mile into the gas station on empty). No damage to the car. I've never had a problem with any gas car and running out, diesels on the other hand are a completely different story!

-Marc

'81 "Gorgeous" Cedar Green Metallic Mk1 Scirocco - No Pictures to date
'87 Tornado Red 16v Bogged Scirocco http://getty.net/scirocco/ RIP
'02 Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor Sports Coupe - http://getty.net/c230k/
in Heliodongrün (Citron Green) w/ European Delivery at 52,600 mi


"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti

 

mine is pretty accurate. I have had 2 occasions where it told me 0-2 miles left. First time I was in city so just pulled over into a gas station and pumped gas. 2nd time was in my driveway..... i had made it home previous night but didn't have enough to go anywhere. FYI..... running that low on gas isn't a great idea at all. I don't know about MB's but letting the gas get too low overheats the fuel pump. I was told that certain vehicles have the fuel pump submerged in the fuel tank so it acts as a cooling mechanism. Perhaps I was wrong.... i will check with a friend about it this weekend.

 

Electromethod, I think you're right. Almost all cars nowadays have the fuel pump in the tank and the fuel cools the pump. When you let it run dry, the pump gets hot and you can burn it up and your fuel system sucks up all the crud in the bottom of the tank.....Not a good thing.

 

These cars are not fragile eggs. They are designed to not break under normal use and what some might say is a modicum of misuse or abuse.

I routinely run my tank lower than "0" miles remaining on the range computer. It will run for a good 5-7 miles after reading "0." Your results may vary, so don't experiment unless you have a 1-gallon gas can reserve in the trunk.

Once I ran it dry as I pulled into the gas station... coasted to the pump. I have noticed no lasting effects at all.

IMO, it's better to run the tank down fully, sucking up any "crud" in the tank in small increments with each tank (or every other tank), compared to refilling at 3/8 tank every time and letting the junk accumulate to larger quantities. It's just a preference.

 

Y Y Y
y are u people not fill up when the "emtpy gas" message appear?? and wait tile at 0-1 miles left? i alwasy try to fill up when the "empty gas" message appear. i always worry if i dont fill up after a while once that message appears..

 

1. 'dirt' that isn't filtered in the gas would get into the engine and cause problems. usually this would occur when low on fuel since the dirt is found on the bottom of the tank.


2. also, i was told never to go low on fuel when its cold out since water vapor would be at a max when fuel is low, and thus cause problems by freezing.


true or false???

 

This is only true if you don't have a fuel filter, which I'm sure you do. It's the job of the fuel filter to filter out any dirt that finds it's way into the fuel tank.