Do you trust your cars "Distance to Empty"

[TX03RUBI]

I’ve got a 48 tank in my F-350 and 25-26 in my Sierra 1500. I fill up the Sierra everyday mon-Friday and occasionally run it low. I’ve gone down to 5-10 miles to empty a few times and never put more than 24.2 gallons. I try not to fill up more than once a day, but occasionally need to. My F-350 I’ve driven it down to 35 miles to empty once. It took 39 gallons to fill it up, so I had a conservative 150+ Miles left in it.

I normally try not to let my F-350 get below 1/4 tank. On road trips I don’t mind as much cause I’ll get diesel when I find a decent price. Some of the po dunk towns in west lf here are priced out of this world, and not heavily trafficked. I’d prefer to get diesel from a place that has high diesel traffics and relatively cheaper. I have an aux 40 gallon tank in my bed that’s usually full for that purpose though. 1400+ miles of fuel capacity allows me to be pretty picky where I stop lol

[Codie]

I run with my fuel light on quite often but have never allowed it to get down to 0 miles to go before empty. There is usually ends up being between 1/2 and 1 gallon in there when I fill it up.

[fbchunter]

I’m turning into my dad...can’t stand a half full tank.

Right now

Lol, This is me. A mechanic once told me the fuel in the tank cools the pump, little fuel offers less cooling. I’m not sure if that’s true but it made sense to me. That plus after fuel was short during a storm years ago I rarely go below half.

[CaptainDave]

I trust mine, but typically don't even try and test it. The first reason is that if an emergency situation were to unexpectedly occur, the last thing I want to do is be worrying about not having gas. The other is I've also heard multiple mechanics say it's not great to routinely go well below 1/4 of a tank. Some say fuel pump reasons, others have also said any additional trash/particles in the gas float to the bottom of the tank and some gas stations do not change filters often.

Heck, take Harvey in Houston from one year ago. It was crazy the amount of people that didn't have gas in their tank or water on-hand the day before it hit the fan.

[tmurray]

I don't even know what color my low fuel light is, I'm never below 1/4 tank.

[bsills]

Ive gone past 0 many times, more than i should probably. When you car says 0 miles to empty you usually have a gallon or so left. Only car that gave me problems was my excursion when it got over 300,000 miles. It would tell me 40 or so miles to empty and still run out. That scared me and after the 3rd time i ran out of diesel I started filling up sooner.

[SabreKiller]

I've pushed it coming from from the lease. My new F250 seems to be a little off. The last time I tried it I had a full 5 gallon gas can in the bed so I figured why not. I rolled into Kerrville and the DTE was 10 miles I believe. When I filled up it didn't take the full capacity of the tank to fill it. I believe it's about 2 gallons off.

[texasdeerhunter]

I don’t trust mine. The same way I don’t trust the computer calculated MPG. I look for a gas station when I hit 1/4 tank

[Gbird]

Someone I know lives and breaths by it, if the gauge says 10 miles till empty they truly believe they can drive 8 before having to get gas.



Personally, the lowest I take it is when the fuel light comes on (usually my comp says 30 miles till empty).



Was just wondering if trusting the computer is a trend?

If you ask any of my dispatchers, what the computer says is gospel.


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[Grndchecker]

Sounds like my wife. And I've chewed her butt good about it, to no avail to stop her from doing it. I finally have given up and told her that under no circumstances was she ever to call me if she runs out. I ain't coming. It's her fault, figure out how to get gas. I'm not joking either.

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When I heard my wife say that you can easily drive after the miles get to zero I told her the same. I said if she had a flat, mechanical issues, or heaven forbid a wreck that she can call me and I would be there to help. If she runs out of gas, she's on her own. If she has the kids with her when she runs out I would come pick them up and leave her there.

[Puggy625]

When I heard my wife say that you can easily drive after the miles get to zero I told her the same. I said if she had a flat, mechanical issues, or heaven forbid a wreck that she can call me and I would be there to help. If she runs out of gas, she's on her own. If she has the kids with her when she runs out I would come pick them up and leave her there.

Yep. She's an able bodied country girl. Has cash (usually) and credit card. Never a reason to run out of gas.

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[91cavgt]

My low fuel light comes on every week. If I fill up with gas when the light turns on, only a little over 10 gallons is all it takes to fill it up. But it has a 13.6 gallon tank. The farthest I have driven with the low fuel light on was 60 miles, and it took 12.9 gallons to fill it up.


On new vehicles, manufacturers do in fact program the DTE number conservatively because you know someone is going to test to see if in fact you can make it to zero before filling up. If it was not programmed conservatively then there would be heck to pay.


Oh, and the old guys on Top Gear did a long range test a while back to see if they could make it 800 miles on one tank. I think one of them drove 60+ miles with the distance to empty gauge showing zero.

[Dale Moser]

Mine switches to "Low" at about 20 miles. I know I can go 40+ miles when the light comes on initially, I generally go 20-25.

Filling up at 1/4 tank is ridiculous to me if I'm not heading out to the middle of nowhere.

[hopedale]

Someone I know lives and breaths by it, if the gauge says 10 miles till empty they truly believe they can drive 8 before having to get gas.

Personally, the lowest I take it is when the fuel light comes on (usually my comp says 30 miles till empty).

Was just wondering if trusting the computer is a trend?

You may want to tell that person to price a fuel pump replacement. Constantly running the vehicle when it gets to low fuel wears on the fuel pump.

[critter69]

I have an 81 Toyota pickup and iam flat out of gas just before that needle touches the empty line. I also have a ford with a 460 and two tanks, I don't push it because you can almost watch the needle drop as you drive. It don't take long at all to use a 1/4 of a tank.