fuel gauge

I ran out of gas once in the 70's it aint happening again, not while i got dead presidents and plastic in my pockets. It was not pritty getting her going again and that was with a 2 barrel carb. let alone a prius i drive today.

 

Miles to empty is based on your current MPG and how much fuel you have left, but the gauge is based only on how much fuel you have left. They won't act the same all of the time.

 

On some of my cars, driving near ‘E’ wasn’t anywhere near the edge of the envelope. In fact, it was so far away that the chasm was hidden well over the horizon.

I strongly dislike setting aside 30-40% of claimed fuel capacity as a scary forbidden zone, to be explored only during an emergency when it might be available.

Or not.

Rather than exploring this zone only in an emergency, I much prefer to narrow the uncertainty to under 10%, and do all the exploring at times of my choosing when the cost of failure is acceptably low. That helps to make better choices under the circumstances listed below.

I don't expect understanding from people who either lack life experience with limited fuel availability, or are very confident that these circumstances will never happen to them again.

Examples include:

Needing to travel a long distance on a day when one cannot legally buy fuel (re: 1970s alternate day fuel rationing);

Traveling off the beaten path on a triple-digit distance segment in a short fuel range car, outside the limited business hours of the route’s only fuel station;

Discovering that the only area fuel station not closed for the holiday is demanding a half-tank surcharge to unlock the pump[**];

Traveling in a remote area where the only fuel station has tourist trap (i.e. captive audience) price gouging;

Severe weather (e.g. wind or ice storms) causing regional power failure, disabling fuel pumps;

Demand spikes (e.g. hurricane evacuations) causing area fuel shortages;

Supply disruptions (e.g. refinery or pipeline explosion) causing area fuel shortages;


I have first hand experience with many of these, and have seen reports of the others. In these cases, the common advice to 'buy gas when the gauge drops to 1/4 tank' simply doesn't do the job.

[**] This incident added a new criterion to my future cars: range to make a specific trip even when nearly all stations were closed overnight on a major holiday, without changing route. The proliferation of 24/7/365 service in subsequent decades has not caused me to drop this requirement.

Why is this crud not being sucked into the pump all the time? And if it isn't, why should I let it build up, so that it all gets sucked into the fuel filter at once just when I can least afford fuel starvation? I'd much rather send it through gradually and continuously, so that any problem will build up slowly enough to be addressed at my convenience under non-critical circumstances.

 

I live about 5 miles from my regular fill up place and the DTE showed 10 miles. However, once I got on the road, it went down from 10 to zero immediately. I think others have also mentioned the DTE not counting down as they expected. Needless to say, it was a pretty scary five miles. I would caution to use the DTE as an estimate only and not the exact mileage remaining.

 

Deleted.

 

I don't expect understanding from people who either lack life experience with limited fuel availability, or are very confident that these circumstances will never happen to them again.

Then I'm glad you weren't referring to me.

Examples include:

Needing to travel a long distance on a day when one cannot legally buy fuel (re: 1970s alternate day fuel rationing);

Lived through that myself. Crazy times.

Traveling off the beaten path on a triple-digit distance segment in a short fuel range car, outside the limited business hours of the route’s only fuel station;

If you absolutely have no other choice, then it's time to break out the "wing and a prayer." (Atheists can always keep their fingers crossed.)

Discovering that the only area fuel station not closed for the holiday is demanding a half-tank surcharge to unlock the pump[**];

Beats running out of gas.

Traveling in a remote area where the only fuel station has tourist trap (i.e. captive audience) price gouging;

Still beats running out of gas.

Severe weather (e.g. wind or ice storms) causing regional power failure, disabling fuel pumps;

Any time there is the potential for losing power I fill up in advance. I find that I have a great deal of company at the gas station.

Demand spikes (e.g. hurricane evacuations) causing area fuel shortages;

See above.

Supply disruptions (e.g. refinery or pipeline explosion) causing area fuel shortages;

Agreed, there's no real way to plan for these. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

I have first hand experience with many of these, and have seen reports of the others. In these cases, the common advice to 'buy gas when the gauge drops to 1/4 tank' simply doesn't do the job.

But if I can, I will. Beats running out of gas.

[**] This incident added a new criterion to my future cars: range to make a specific trip even when nearly all stations were closed overnight on a major holiday, without changing route. The proliferation of 24/7/365 service in subsequent decades has not caused me to drop this requirement.

Why is this crud not being sucked into the pump all the time? And if it isn't, why should I let it build up, so that it all gets sucked into the fuel filter at once just when I can least afford fuel starvation? I'd much rather send it through gradually and continuously, so that any problem will build up slowly enough to be addressed at my convenience under non-critical circumstances.[/quote]

I wasn't agreeing with the statement. I was just saying that some people use this argument to fill up before the tank gets too low.

The bottom line is, I don't believe there is any reason to deliberately see "how low can you go." I'll let others test the hypothesis.

 

I have found that that the amount of gas my car takes when DTE first hits zero is consistently close to 9.7 gallons. Several other people have observed close to the same. DTE = 0 means you have enough gas remaining for 60-120 miles depending on how you drive. No need to get nervous.

 

Thanks. This happened when the car was still brand new and before I discovered priuschat. I'm not sure if I would chance 60-120 miles, but I concur in general. At the time, you can imagine my shock when the car said I had 10 miles left and then a mile later said "Oops, change that. You have ZERO miles remaining."

 

I have observed the same thing with my 2010.

 

It starts blinking when you run out of gas, so you know why the engine stopped.