posted 10-04-2012 12:12 PM                  

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Originally posted by suitoman:
Sounds crazy, especially with the cost of gas today but I's be thrilled if I filled up with gas and saw that it was 11 gallons or anything close. I'd love to take my Prowlers on a longer trip (they really drive nice on the interstate) but, what's the point, I just end up looking for gas stations along the way.

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posted 10-04-2012 02:17 PM                  

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Originally posted by garysss:
When we drove to Vegas in our 01, we went from full to gas light most of the time, 231 miles almost every time. The light comes on at a 1/8 of a tank, it starts flashing at E. When light comes on you still have about 50 miles to you run out. If you drive 600 miles a day, you would have to get gas 1 more time than if you had a bigger tank. Well worth the trouble to drive this awesome car. At 70 MPH that's about 3 hours which is usually bathroom break for most people anyway. If getting gas is a hassle, please don't buy a motorcycle.LOL

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I once did an experiment by waiting till my low fuel light came on and then ran it empty to see how many miles it went. If memory serves me right (it was quite a few years ago) it was in the range of 12 miles. Each car will differ widely. My results were for my car only. The odd shape of the tank has a lot to do with it.

posted 10-04-2012 03:39 PM                  

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Originally posted by lionberger:
I once did an experiment by waiting till my low fuel light came on and then ran it empty to see how many miles it went. If memory serves me right (it was quite a few years ago) it was in the range of 12 miles. Each car will differ widely. My results were for my car only. The odd shape of the tank has a lot to do with it.

I'm sure they are all a little different. I have the trip computer in the mirror and it's usually dead on. Around 10 gals until the light comes on and range on computer says around 55 miles. The tank is around 12.5 gals, at 24MPG that's pretty close. I've drove 40 miles after light on and filled up taking around 12 Gals. I like to do this with all my cars so I know the fuel range.

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posted 10-04-2012 09:28 PM                  

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Originally posted by Me Time:
My problem isn't filling the car it's the readout, It shows empty or almost empty and I can only get 7 gals into her. One day I'll drive her around until the light comes on and see what it produces.

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I ran out of gas once in my Kat while driving from MD to SC. I had only owned the car for a short time and was not familiar with the accuracy of the fuel gage so I pushed the distance between fill up's a little to far...oops.

At the time the car was about seven years old and had about 14K miles on it with less than 5K in the prior four years.

I was watching the trip mileage as well as the gas gage and the rear view mirror for estimated miles left.

I was at the point where I decided to find a station even though the guage showed 1/4 tank and the low fuel light had not yet come on. Before I got to the next exit the car sputtered and stopped running. I figured that I had run out of fuel but could not be sure. I got 252 miles out of the tank with gears, driving 60-70 MPH and running the A/C.

After sitting on the side of the road in an unknown area for about five minutes, the low fuel light finally came on and the gage correctly showed empty. My thought is that it was sticking just a little.

For the longest time after that I would fill up at 150 miles regardless what the gauge showed and eventually drove further between fill ups. I also kept tabs on the miles driven VS gallons needed to fill the tank.

At this time I am comfortable driving 175 - 185 miles on the tank when in familiar areas. Since then my low fuel light has come on once without incident. My fill up's are typically under ten gallons at a time these days as I don't want the level in the tank to get to low.

I am of the opinion that filling up around 1/4 tank leaves enough fuel in it to keep the fuel pump cooler than it may become when there is less fuel in it and possibly resulting in a longer life for the pump.

Now after this long, drawn out story I guess what I am suggesting is that you have a cell phone on you and drive locally just in case the light does not come on.

P.S.

One thing I have noticed is after a fill up my rear view mirror often shows a travel range of about 215 miles. I can often drive 30 to 40 miles before the travel range starts to decline.