PSA: Why You Shouldn't Drive Around On Empty

[Zandcwhite]

Accually it only takes less than 5 to pull in and fill up half of a jeep tank. The less than 20 minutes a month are not a game changer to me expecialy because about half the time i am going to use the bathroom anyway. I also live in a rural area and don't won't to get up in the middle of the night and have an empty tank.

Not earth shattering if that's all you drive, Even still I've personally proved that running every tank until the light comes on you'll still get 60k+ miles out of a pump. That's 165 tanks of fuel or 330 half tank fill ups. That's 165 extra 5 minute stops. That's 32 hours that "driving on the top half of the tank costs. And 60k is a massive under estimate on fuel pump life as that's all I can personally vouch for in the JL platform. Again I've never had a modern retunless fuel pump fail and multiple other vehicles well over 200k miles. Do the math on 200k miles of double fill ups to allegedly extend fuel pump life and you're closer to an entire work month down.

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[Ratbert]

I learned a long time ago to never let the tank go under 1/4 in any vehicle after having to be pushed to the gas pump at a gas station after my old Mustang stalled just as I made the right turn into the station

I think I was just more silly about squeezing the last bits of fumes of fuel when I was younger. Now I'm full range anxiety if I'm on a road trip and I see one of those "Next exit 75 miles" signs or something on a lone stretch of interstate

Man, don't use that phrase "range anxiety" around people like @Brad Hearing. He refuses to concede that it can apply to ICE-based vehicles.

 

[azjl#3]

If you did the math on making double the fuel stops every year and came up with no cost you must be an English major. Say you average 1 tank per week like most. The average fuel stop is probably 10 minutes on the conservative side. Stopping 2x per week instead of once in order to "run on the top half of the tank" costs you ~500 minutes per year. That's over 8 hours. It costs you nothing... but an entire work day worth of time every year. Even if it cost me a fuel pump every 5 years I'd still be up thousands of dollars in the entire work week worth of time saved. Time is money.

yeah but, but, how will I look cool if I don't stop my jeep at the pump, and lean back on it with the boot on the tire?

 

[MARTY J]

If you did the math on making double the fuel stops every year and came up with no cost you must be an English major. Say you average 1 tank per week like most. The average fuel stop is probably 10 minutes on the conservative side. Stopping 2x per week instead of once in order to "run on the top half of the tank" costs you ~500 minutes per year. That's over 8 hours. It costs you nothing... but an entire work day worth of time every year. Even if it cost me a fuel pump every 5 years I'd still be up thousands of dollars in the entire work week worth of time saved. Time is money.

The fuel pump has nothing to do with why I don't run my vehicle on fumes. My wife has consistently ran every thing that she is driving to empty for the last 40 years and I have never replaced a fuel pump. I just don't like to go home with an empty tank.

 

[jcruse64]

My wife thinks the E stands for Enough

Yes, in our house it stands for "Enough to get to the house so he can take and fill it up".

 

[Heimkehr]

When newly married, one of the things that I'd recurringly mention to my freshly-minted wife was the importance of filling up the fuel tank when it reached 1/2, particularly during the winter months. We lived in western PA at the time, where lake effect snow and occasional black ice would affect how easily or not (usually the latter) one could get to and from work. Getting stuck in those conditions would be extra sucky if there wasn't enough Go Juice to get unstuck and get home.

My friendly reminders worked very well. A bit too well, actually. She's had the years-long habit of recurringly mentioning to me that the tank is getting close to half full, and would I be nice enough to take her car to get it filled up?

Yes, dear.

 

[NewbJLUOwner]

Good info

 

[Gorilla57]

Lost interest in the vid after he said "Similate" more than once.

 

[Medsker]

I remember running out of gas in my truck once. I called my Dad to come rescue me and when he walked up to me he said "Grown men should never run out of gas." It made me feel so stupid that I fill up at 1/4 tank at the lowest and usually before that.

 

[Shibadog]

Several years ago driving down the interstate in the toolies traffic came to a halt. Cars were literally backed up for miles because of a multi car multi fatality accident. Sat in one place for 2 hours and 45 minutes while emergency crews extricated the victims. Temp as in the teens. I know I was damn happy I had plenty of fuel onboard (1/2)-some folks did not. Once traffic began moving it was still a long time before things got cleared out. More than one vehicle was sitting there “dead” before that happened. A few minutes at the station can save you a LOT of time and discomfort if things don’t go according to plan…

 

[wcjeep]

Yet another myth.
I’ve been driving since 1980 and have many, many miles with low fuel light on (or needle buried below “E” before the light was a thing) and have only ever replaced one fuel pump (engine mounted on a SBC) in my lifetime.
And the opposite myth, “only fill up til the pump clicks”. I ALWAYS fill up right to the top of the filler neck where the cap goes on, have never, ever had an issue doing that either.

As a teenager I drove at/near empty a few times. Killed a few pumps. The pump can send water in the tank to the fuel filter. Which plugs the filter and causes the pump to work harder to push fuel past a plugged filter. As an adult 1/4 tank is my threshold. Not worth my time to deal with repeating earlier mistakes.

 

[Trails]

As a teenager I drove at/near empty a few times. Killed a few pumps. The pump can send water in the tank to the fuel filter. Which plugs the filter and causes the pump to work harder to push fuel past a plugged filter. As an adult 1/4 tank is my threshold. Not worth my time to deal with repeating earlier mistakes.

Water is denser than gasoline, and any water would go to the bottom of the tank. Your fuel pick-up is near the bottom of the tank, so any water would be sucked up whether have have low fuel or a full tank.

 

[Zandcwhite]

Water is denser than gasoline, and any water would go to the bottom of the tank. Your fuel pick-up is near the bottom of the tank, so any water would be sucked up whether have have low fuel or a full tank.

Just like the debris in the tank idea. None of these theories on why using all of your fuel hold water so to say.

 

[aldo98229]

No kidding. I remember hearing about this on Car Talk. Does anyone even remember that radio program?

A "radio program"...?

What is that?

 

[dstevens]

Water is denser than gasoline, and any water would go to the bottom of the tank. Your fuel pick-up is near the bottom of the tank, so any water would be sucked up whether have have low fuel or a full tank.

On E10, which most of the country uses, water phase separation occurs at around 0.5% water content, temperature dependent. At that point you don't get pure water at the bottom of the tank; you get a water rich ethanol blend at the bottom.

In any case the fuel pick up is always at the very bottom of the tank anyhow and most manufacturers also have an internal pressure regulator and bypass so the fuel is constantly circulating in the tank, essentially stirring up everything in the tank, so if there is water in the tank it is going to end up in the engine. Sometimes the return fuel flow is used to draw fuel into the fuel pickup in order to get more fuel out of the tank before it stops pumping as well.

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