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How many times have you ran out of gas? How did you get into that situation, and how did you re-fuel your car?
I've ran out of gas twice: once in December 2004, and once early last Sunday morning. The first time was in a '78 Buick Park Avenue - a gas guzzling land yacht which was getting around 10 miles per gallon, probably due to mechanical problems (choke?). I started the car up with the fuel gauge right near empty, intending to fill it up at the nearest gas station 2 miles down. Before I could get out of the driveway I had struggle with getting it "un-stuck" - my (unpaved) driveway was mostly ice, the car was on an icy surface, and it had rear-wheel drive. This required a lot of heavy revs. Then, after finally getting out, I made it about one mile down. It died shortly before an intersection. As my phone wasn't working at the time, I had to run and use somebody's home phone to call back. It was awful waiting, the temperature being around 0° F or lower. I can't remember how we got it back, but that was the last time I drove that car anywhere. After that I drove my parents' SUV until my dad bought me a '96 Buick Park Avenue.
The last time I ran out of gas was a couple of nights ago. I drove my aunt and uncle to the Twin Cities, to a restaurant, and then to a concert, during which I went to Borders and drove around after close until they were ready to be picked up. Normally my '00 Malibu can get to the Twin Cities and back on a single tank of gas without any trouble, but that day I was driving around quite a bit (it was very hard to find the onramp to I-35N after my engine died, and we probably spent about 20 miles looking). Not to mention I had probably 600 - 700 pounds extra weight in my car. My fuel gauge was behaving rather strangely - about 50 miles to dropping them off (where I intended to re-fuel) it was at about 1/8, then it quickly dropped down. I finally decided that instead of waiting until I was right before dropping them off to re-fuel, I would stop at the Armor station. My tripmeter was at about 346, and the station was just 2 miles away. I'd have to make it - my luck was not that bad! Well, it was. Right before the offramp there was a sizable hill, and it was there that the engine finally sputtered and all the lights came on. Trying to restart it was of no avail. I called somebody (this was at 3 AM) who I know to stay up late on weekends to help. They had their friend push me to the station by bumping the back of my car with his pick-up truck. The process was very scary, him almost seeming to ram it at times, but it worked perfectly. As far as I can tell, it didn't even result in a single dent or scratch. I re-fueled and dropped them off.
I, personally, have not ever run out of gas. It has just never happened to me. It's probably because I'm OCD when it comes to looking at the gas gauge.
Now my wife sabataged me once by driving her car home on 'E' and then I got in it and started to drive down the block and it ran out on me. I don't count that because it was her fault and I didn't really get stranded because I could still see my house. And my dad ran out of gas a few times trying to push the envelope and make it to a particular place before he filled up....unfortunately I was with him at the time.
Typically when a gas reserve light comes on there's two gallons in the tank. Since running the engine dry is bad for the engine and you're schedule, you should get gas asap. That said, there are times when you just can't get to a station in time.
I had a car once with a reserve light, but the light burned out and guess what, I ran out of gas. Luckily for me, I stopped about 300 feet from a gas station, so it was a short walk. I've also been on those long stretches of road where there's no gas station, and twice so far I've coasted in to stations!
What Bummer said. Back in the day, with carburators and engine-driven fuel pumps, I would put a 5-gallon "jerry" can in the car when it was nearly empty, and go run it out of gas on purpose, just to get a feel for how far I could go after the needle read "E". Of course if you are into older cars, this still applies. But with any kind of FI system, you don't want to let it get below about 1/4 tank, to avoid damage to the fuel pump.
Particularly with most if not all gas polluted by 10% ethanol, you want to keep the tank as full as you can, as much as you can, to minimize moisture absorbtion.
Typically when a gas reserve light comes on there's two gallons in the tank. Since running the engine dry is bad for the engine and you're schedule, you should get gas asap. That said, there are times when you just can't get to a station in time.
It's also bad for the in tank electric fuel pump as it is cooled by the fuel, if you keep running the tank low eventually your gonna have premature pump failure due to repeated overheating.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Ran out of gas in a Toyota Prius in 2004. It was a science experiment.
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