Do our cars have a 2 gallon reserve once miles hit 0?

[plc268]

Man, I get nervous and fill up asap when I get to 50 miles to empty. I took it down 18 miles once, and filled up a little more than 14.5 gallons.

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[moffetts]

I guess I have the freak gas tank, when mine hits 1/4 I put in 13.5 gallons. Maybe I have a gauge problem? My speed reads 4-5 mph high as well.

I frequently put more than 14 gallons in. I usually fill up somewhere around 1/8 to 1/4 of a tank.

 

[Quackfoo]

Some of you guys run your cars low! I fill up when I get to a 1/4 tank.

 

[Road Dog]

As for running low I have on three occasions filled up with 15.25 gallons.

 

[SpeedLu]

I pretty much always reach 10-15 miles remaining before filling up.

 

[TheDivaDanielle]

ran mine down to 0 the other day when i switched it over to a tank of E85 and it took 15.4 gallons. /shrug

 

[Sda3]

My gas light always comes on early, right around 1/4 tank and I've filled up when it says 30-40 miles left. Every time its been somewhere around 13 gallons to full. So it should have a about 3 gallons left in it.

 

[NightmareMoon]

If you drive hard enough for a couple hundred miles, you can trick the computer into thinking you have zero miles left with about half a tank in reserve. Not half a gallon, half a tank. Its predictive, and if you're consistent it does pretty well to meter down to about 1 gallon left at 0 miles.

If you're unpredictable, like getting 5mpg for a couple of tanks of gas at the track, and then driving 25mpg on the road going home, you can really mess with the computer. Doing the opposite (driving like a grandma for 2 full tanks and then driving like a teenager for the last half of your 3rd tank) is what causes people to run out of gas before it reads 0 miles.

Better to watch the gas gauge needle as opposed to relying on the miles to empty estimate. The gas needle doesn't lie.

 

[davekro]

One time I got in my car after a client meeting and it read 0 miles left but it said 3 miles when I parked it. I had to stop in to see another client about 1.5 miles away right after the first meeting so I figured I was well beyond safe holding off until afterwards to fill up.

Boy, was I wrong. I left my second client's place and began driving to the closest gas station which was no more than 2 miles away. Ran out of gas while sitting in line at a stop light, when I was only about 20 yards away from the entrance of the damn gas station. I got out and started pushing in 95 degree heat while wearing business attire. Luckily, the person behind me was kind enough to help.

Haven't trusted my car past 0 miles since.

So how many gallons did it take from 'out of gas'?

Curious of the most anyone has filled their '16 gal. tank' with?
Looking at my gas log, the most I have ever added was 15.4 once. I commonly fill 14-14.5 gals or less. I did not think of the variability of the computer calculation. I'll shoot to gas up a bit sooner going forward. But mi MPG w/ the V6 probably does not have as wide a range as a GT does from easy cruising to hard driving.

 

[Blue Horse]

One time I got in my car after a client meeting and it read 0 miles left but it said 3 miles when I parked it. I had to stop in to see another client about 1.5 miles away right after the first meeting so I figured I was well beyond safe holding off until afterwards to fill up.

Boy, was I wrong. I left my second client's place and began driving to the closest gas station which was no more than 2 miles away. Ran out of gas while sitting in line at a stop light, when I was only about 20 yards away from the entrance of the damn gas station. I got out and started pushing in 95 degree heat while wearing business attire. Luckily, the person behind me was kind enough to help.

Haven't trusted my car past 0 miles since.

Now that is FUNNY,to bad you don"t have a video of that,pushing that car in the heat, and no air conditioner either,wish I could have seen that.:doh:

 

[Mike02z]

Not sure with the Mustang ,but on GM cars running low on fuel is a problem as the fuel pump uses gas to cool it. When you run too low you run the risk of overheating the pump and causing premature pump failure.

 

[GT Pony]

If you're unpredictable, like getting 5mpg for a couple of tanks of gas at the track, and then driving 25mpg on the road going home, you can really mess with the computer. Doing the opposite (driving like a grandma for 2 full tanks and then driving like a teenager for the last half of your 3rd tank) is what causes people to run out of gas before it reads 0 miles.

If you reset the trip meter info at every fill-up then previous gas tank fulls shouldn't factor into the computers predictability. I always reset the trip meter after each fill-up, which also resets MTE and avg MPG.

 

[davekro]

If you reset the trip meter info at every fill-up then previous gas tank fulls shouldn't factor into the computers predictability. I always reset the trip meter after each fill-up, which also resets MTE and avg MPG.

Good to know. I always reset my trip meter too.

 

[GoBlues38]

my 2015 was .5 gallons when range hit zero.

Every model is a little different...each car can vary

 

[GoBlues38]

If you reset the trip meter info at every fill-up then previous gas tank fulls shouldn't factor into the computers predictability. I always reset the trip meter after each fill-up, which also resets MTE and avg MPG.

That is incorrect sir.

Ford's DTE calculation is based on your last 20 miles worth of driving.

Example....if you just filled up 14 gallons after a day of autocross runs, your DTE may only read 230 miles.

If you just got off the highway and had been on a long road trip getting 24mpg, your DTE will be close to 400.

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