Run out of petrol?

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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If needs must or I'm lazy I can get at least 40 miles or so after my fuel light comes on before topping up, which I've never really abused.

Came home today after a roughly 30 mile trip and went to the GFs house instead of getting petrol :rolleyes: Headed home 15 minutes ago and my car started what I can only describe as juddering slightly. Have I went OTT and ran out? :(

I managed to get down the street and into the drive without any issues but I'm scared of driving the 1 mile trip to the nearest petrol station?

Such an idiot at times!
 
My petrol light is always on, need to get some before work tomorrow bah... i've never actually ran out but i've had vtec cut out before:o
 
Mines occasionally comes on half way to work and I'm usually fine travelling there and back which is over 30 miles.

No idea how I've managed it this time.
 
So the light came on, you did a 30 mile trip and then went to your GF's house and then drove home not via the petrol station.

I'd say it was more than likely.
 
All uphill on the way back then. Anyway don't worry, risk it driving to the station if you want, the worst that can happen besides crashing is you'll run out of petrol and then have to walk the rest of the way to buy a jerry can.
Which you're going to have to do anyway if you don't risk it.
 
Yeah, might take a walk down tomorrow.

It was mainly the slight and brief juddering that was the issue. Is this behaviour generally associated with running out of fuel?

As I said, I didn't think I went over the limits, I believe there's been situations where I've travelled further whilst at zero before.
 
If you were driving uphill it's possible the fuel exit point in the tank was not covered and thus it was struggling to get the last drops of fuel into the engine. On the flat you might get another 5 miles?

Just a guess.
 
Apologies, what I meant was the journey home was downhill all the way. So yeah, I was heading down a hill when the brief juddering occurred.

Slightly annoyed with myself and have an urge to attempt getting to a garage right now but it's too late.
 
The juddering will possibly be due to low fuel, and if its worse on hills depends which end of the tank the fuel pick up is.

Equally, the juddering could be caused by a blockage in your fuel system which has possibly been caused by you running it on near empty and sucking up some sediment from the bottom of the tank.

Ideally, leave 1/4 in it - saves lots of hassle and never trust fuel guages!!!
 
I've nearly run out soo many times. When I came home from work (30 mile trip) on Monday it was on the red when it left. Bloody wonder I got home! lol
 
( |-| |2 ][ $;15785289 said:
Are we not yet agreed this is a myth as the fuel pickup is always sucking from the bottom of the tank?
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Not entirely, and note that I did use the words "could" and "possibly".

And another thing, the last time I ran a car out of fuel (my old e38 7 Series) I had to replace a blocked fuel filter, funny how it got blocked when I ran the car dry.....
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Not entirely, and note that I did use the words "could" and "possibly".

And another thing, the last time I ran a car out of fuel (my old e38 7 Series) I had to replace a blocked fuel filter, funny how it got blocked when I ran the car dry.....
Click to expand...

Sorry, yes I wasn't stating you were wrong as fact just as far as I could understand.

Aside from it actually happening as above can explain the idea behind how running a car dry could block a fuel filter given that the pickup will always been at the bottom of the tank?
 
When I was back in Sixth form I used to borrow my mum's car and she hardly used it, so I just used drove it until the red light came on, then park it in the drive and wait for her to drive it and fill it up :D working amazingly well :D
 
In my last Saab I was driving home very late, the fuel light came on but was showing plenty to get home, I parked on the drive with it showing 30 miles left, next day it wouldn't start, I tried rolling it off the sloped part of drive but still no good, had to get a can and put some in before it would fire, I never trusted the distance to empty after that lol.
 
mr_x_plosion said:
In my last Saab I was driving home very late, the fuel light came on but was showing plenty to get home, I parked on the drive with it showing 30 miles left, next day it wouldn't start, I tried rolling it off the sloped part of drive but still no good, had to get a can and put some in before it would fire, I never trusted the distance to empty after that lol.
Click to expand...

BMW's will happily go down to --- on the range readout and still have fuel left, I think PMKeates actually did an experiment to find out how much further you could drive when it did that :D
 
i'm tempted to see how far mine will go, but i don't really fancy running out of fuel in a diesel :o
although last time i stuck in 62.4l in a 62l tank
probably as close as i want to get :p
 
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