How many miles of gas is left after the light comes on?

[extrashaky]

Man, talk about thread necro.

Originally Posted by Packofcrows

sorry for bump.

Does the damn light only go up at 2 gallons left?

Mine does...or least seems it does this when I have 10-15 miles left... It should be more, no? I did this today and then pumped 13.07 gallons! My truck has like 50miles left before it dies.

Your story is not making any sense.

First, if the light comes on with 2 gallons left, and you only have 15 miles left, that means you're only getting 7.5 miles per gallon in a car designed to get as much as 35 mpg. So right off the bat that's telling me either you're making wild guesses without thinking about them, or something is seriously wrong with your car.

Second, it's not possible to pump 13.07 gallons into this tank unless it's a completely empty tank that was just installed with no fuel in it. That's because although this is a 13.2 gallon tank, only 12.5 gallons are usable. The pickup is situated above the bottom of the tank so that it does not suck in water or sediment. You could not drive up to a pump and pump 13.07 gallons unless you spilled some of it. The car will quit before that with 1/2 gallon still in the tank.

If the pump actually said you pumped 13.07 gallons, it was wrong. That happens. I had a pump read that I pumped 21 gallons into a 20 gallon tank once. If that happens, you can report it to your state government, and they will sometimes send out someone to inspect the pumps and fine the gas station for tampering with them to make more money.

Now, to answer your question directly, I monitor my fuel remaining in Torque, which reads it out as gallons, and my low fuel light seems to come on consistently at 2.4 gallons. That means there are about 3 gallons still in the tank, with 2.4 gallons available to me. At my normal fuel economy, I should be able to drive at least another 60 miles before running out of gas.

And in case anybody reads this ancient thread and believes some of the stuff that was posted:

Originally Posted by ayau

just FYI, you should never run until the gas light is on. doing so prematurely wears out your fuel pump.

This is nonsense. Since the light comes on when the tank still has roughly 3 gallons of fuel in it, the pump is not running without lubrication.

Originally Posted by steeloyangster

I don't know if this still applies to more modern cars but if you allow the gas to always get really low before refilling, there are sediments and in-purities sitting at the bottom of the tank. By allowing the gas to get so low you have a better chance of getting that stuff stuck in your fuel filter and having to change it out. Don't know if designs have changed in modern fuel tanks so not sure if this is still applies.

All modern fuel tanks have the pickup above the bottom of the tank to leave about 1/2 gallon of fuel unreachable. This allows water and sediment to settle down there and not be sucked up to find their way into the fuel filter. The tanks are generally designed so that even spirited driving will not slosh sediment up to the pickup. So this is not really something you need to worry about.

[ntron1]

Originally Posted by Packofcrows

sorry for bump.

Does the damn light only go up at 2 gallons left?

Mine does...or least seems it does this when I have 10-15 miles left... It should be more, no? I did this today and then pumped 13.07 gallons! My truck has like 50miles left before it dies.

I can put 14+ gallons in my 13.2 gallon tank If I want. Fill the filler neck etc. Not recommended. I always run until the light comes on most of the time filling up @ well over 400 miles. Not worried about sediment etc.

[NOHOME]

I first heard about not running the tank on empty from my mechanic. He claims that he gets a lot of fuel pump work when the price of gas is high because people run with lower fuel level hoping for the price to drop or because they cant afford it.