A Little Disconcerting!

[achr]

I'm a little bit anal about fuel consumption and also don't like walking unneccessarily. I've NEVER run out of gas in my lifetime of driving and hope not to ever experience such joy. At any rate, I decided to press my Versa to see just how far it might go in a mix of city/highway driving. I was surprised, when I finally caved at 536 kilometers (333.4 miles) and filled up, to find my car took 44.51 liters of fuel. The Versa is rated to hold only 50 liters and the LOW FUEL light had not even come on yet although the gauge was below the 1/8th level.

I'll definitely never let this vehicle's tank run down when travelling in the boonies as it doesn't appear to have a lot of reserve range left to find a gas station.

How far have people gone after the Low Fuel light comes on??

[Mutsy]

When light appear, i fill up until the first "Clic" and then, it's about 40 or 41 liters, but i can easily put another 3 liters, so 44 seems ok.

[matt_a]

I think he's asking how far you can continue to drive after the "Low Fuel" light has come on. I have no idea. But if anyone will find out, it'll be my wife!

[Urq]

I think he's asking how far you can continue to drive after the "Low Fuel" light has come on. I have no idea. But if anyone will find out, it'll be my wife!

LOL

[lain]

rofl!! ive taken my car really low before where, i believe the gas tank is 13.3 gallons(this is what i was told), after feeling up the tank the gas station showed i filled up 12.7 gallons...so i was pretty close...about 3 clicks below the E. Clicks as in..like a clock i guess.

[BBISHOPPCM]

I believe the car has a range of around 20-30 miles after the low-fuel light. If you are in an area with no fuel sources within 20 miles, You're probably in an area where you shouldn't be in the first place...

[bikeman]

I've done 75 miles (all highway) after the light came on and the tank was down to it's last gallon. That's close enough for me. I won't be running that experiment again anytime soon.

David

[Ever Victorious]

I've done 30 miles in-city with the fuel low light coming on. 11.17 gallons expended.

I've also done 50 highway miles with the fuel low light on. 11.07 gallons expended.

However, you might be interested in this... I've had a tank with 11.11 gallons expended WITHOUT the fuel low light coming on, and a tank with 10.80 expended where it DID come on.

So I wouldn't assume you have more than 30 miles city or 50 highway left when the light comes on, best not to push it.

[Rockhound]

And I'd say that even 30 miles to empty upon illumination is a reasonable, safe distance.

But in your case, you drove 30 city miles and still had about 2 gallons left, which suggests that true distance to empty when the light came on was 80-90 miles. I think I've read that for most cars it's calibrated for somewhere around 2 to 3 gallons...which is quite a bit of fuel for this engine.

I'd expect a 3/10 gallon margin of error for this indicator to be well within spec considering the inaccuracies of fuel-tank floats. Although the top two cases would suggest that the light was coming on around 10 gallons expended (3 gallons left) - or earlier even for the highway example, considering 50 miles were driven post-light and still 2 gallons remained. So perhaps that margin of error is well above 3/10 gallon!

But yes, best not to push it!

[Great White Versa]

I believe the car has a range of around 20-30 miles after the low-fuel light. If you are in an area with no fuel sources within 20 miles, You're probably in an area where you shouldn't be in the first place...

Out west there are quite a few stretches of interstate highway of 20-30 miles with no stops for services. For example, on the way to Vegas, once you pass St. George UT you will pass through a 30 mile stretch with not even an overpass. You will then reach ONE gas station. If its closed, you have another 20 miles till you get to the next stop. Once you pass Mesquite, service exits are spaced out about 15-20 miles apart. Not that there are service stations anywhere near the exit, most are several more miles away from the interstate. Its not a place to drive a car that is prone to breakdowns.

[drummernamedpat]

I second you on the wife thing!

I have gone about 50 miles with city driving after the light has come on, pretty regularly in fact. Not a good idea apparently. But I live downtown Columbia, SC so there are enough gas stations close to my route to work.

[KimberKenobi]

My previous Camel was spot on with the gas gauge every time. The light came on when 10.7 gallons (from a complete fill-up) were used and would run 380 miles easily w/o any problems toward the end of my ownership.

The current Camel is sporadic and it's neigh impossible to estimate mpg by looking at the placement of the needle. When we were driving to Seattle, we made it 371 miles before the light came on in Montana (I know because Josh and I made bets on how far it would go and I lost) but it has left me stranded on the Eastern Bypass at 353 miles (ran out of gas) so go figure.

I'm sure there's a reason the gas needle is so unreliable in this Camel, but I haven't pursued it with the dealership yet.

[longo]

Just a little 'heads up' for people who have a habit of driving every tank down to the warning light.

The electric fuel pump burried down in the gas tank use the surrounding fuel to keep cool. When the pump is running and keeping the system pressurized it can get hot and self distruct when it's repeatedly running, mostly out of the fuel.

Talk to any service writer who sees cars on the end of tow truck hooks coming in with burnt out fuel pumps and they will tell you the same thing. "drive your car on the top half of the tank, not the bottom".

Electric fuel pump replacement is a long dirty job and a nasty bill that will always run in the hundreds of dollar$.

[KimberKenobi]

I wonder if this is maybe why the owner's manual states to not run down past the last 3 gallons in the tank.

[longo]

I am sure the Versa manual puts this warning in so that they can say "we told you so" if an electric fuel pump craters and the angry recipient of a the huge bill wants to know why.

Usually some of the exhaust system has to be removed, and the fuel tank completely taken out of the car. This is after all the saftey precautions against explosions are taken by the garage to deal with the resulting fumes and spilt gasoline that happens during the job.

If they would explain why the manual says not to run down the tank to near empty it would stop owners from thinking there is nothing wrong with running the tank down to where the pump is sucking vapor.

I just had a fuel gauge sensor replaced in my old Buick Park AVe and had a good look at the pump while it was on the bench...it has the intake supply line on a screen under the fuel pump.

That means that the pump is still running hard while it is completely above any cooling gas left in the tank.

BTW the newer GM cars fuel sensors (and pumps) are so failure prone that they have provided an access pannel in the trunk to get at them for R&R.

Wonder if anyone there at GM ever brought up the idea of a better warning about driving on empty or just making the whole system better?