How low on fuel do you let your car get before refuelling?

[87 027]

With elderly parents living over 200 miles away, for peace of mind I now keep enough in the tank to be able to complete the journey without needing to stop en route, just in case. The fuel crisis was a bit of a wake-up call coinciding with my dad having an emergency admission to hospital. In many ways it would be easier to hop on a train but sadly both reliability and pricing are not what they were pre-pandemic

 

[matt]

Normally when I get below a quarter or if I know I'm about to do a long journey.

 

[Bald Rick]

As for running it dry. My first car developed a petrol tank leak - horizontal split across 50% of the upper rear !. So I ran and ran the car to get as low as possible before draining and dropping the tank. Ended up stranded and had to chuck a gallon in I had ready. The following weekend I swapped the tank - luckily I had hoarded some old oil cans as I got nearly 3 gallons out of the blasted old tank !.

Once in my Mk1 Golf GTi* I put the petrol pump in to the tank, and it promptly went right through the filler pipe, which was badly corroded. Took it to the garage who had to drain the system, and they pulled out about a pint glass full of sludge from the bottom of the tank. Apparently I was extremely fortunate that i still had a functioning engine!

* which I wish I’d kept. Worth about £20k now in good nick (which mine wasn’t, but, nevertheless…)

Luckily an elderly man waiting for a bus helped me push it to the side and then waited with it whilst I went and bought some petrol from the petrol station, and got a tenner out of the cash machine for him to get a few pints for his trouble!

Did your helper drink Diesel or super unleaded?

 

[Ediswan]

You don’t, on a modern car, especially if it’s more than a couple of years old. You’ll find all sorts of rubbish at the bottom of the tank, which can block the fuel filters, or sometimes make it through to the injectors with predictable results.

This an area where I have never been able to separate myth from reality. Rubbish at the bottom of a tank is a given. Hence, the outlet is via a tube which is raised a suitable distance above the bottom, to avoid the rubbish.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

When I was driving ( sold the car for scrap 5 years ago; haven't replaced it - too much expense and hassle to justify it ) I would usually refuel at the quarter mark; on a long trip I would generally top up once it reached the half mark.

 

[ABB125]

A fun story (maybe?) about running out of fuel: a few years ago I was with my dad in one of his classic cars (one of several of the same sort he's had in recent years; they appear to go by the name of Sprite, or MG Midget, I believe. As far as I can tell, the names are interchangeable!). We were going to the industrial estate where he works. Ran out of fuel on the hill down to the junction for the estate.
We rolled to a stop at the lights. Then I had to get out and push the car round the corner once the lights changed. Once round the corner, we stopped, some petrol from the can in the boot was added, and then continued into the estate.

I think that's the only time I've ever been 8n a vehicle that's run out of fuel.

 

[Bald Rick]

A fun story (maybe?) about running out of fuel: a few years ago I was with my dad in one of his classic cars (one of several of the same sort he's had in recent years; they appear to go by the name of Sprite, or MG Midget, I believe. As far as I can tell, the names are interchangeable!). We were going to the industrial estate where he works. Ran out of fuel on the hill down to the junction for the estate.
We rolled to a stop at the lights. Then I had to get out and push the car round the corner once the lights changed. Once round the corner, we stopped, some petrol from the can in the boot was added, and then continued into the estate.

I think that's the only time I've ever been 8n a vehicle that's run out of fuel.

My only time:

Aged 17, out late one night, me in my 1 litre Fiat, friend in his 1972 Land Rover. He runs out about 2 miles from home. Spare can - empty. I tow him back .

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I recharge my e-bike when the predicted range gets down to single figures.

I refuel our boat when I stick a plastic tube into the fuel tank and the line comes up to about 10cm or less…. and when I can find somewhere on the cut selling diesel. Exasperatingly there’s not many on the Severn.

Not sure what all this “car” stuff is - are they those annoying things that try to run me off the road on the school run?

 

[scragend]

My car's stated fuel tank capacity is 51 litres. I've never been able to get more than 43-44 litres into it before I can literally see fuel in the filler neck, even when the gauge has had no bars left on it and the range is showing 0 miles. So I'm quite relaxed about running it down to low single figures range and no bars left on the gauge, on the grounds that there's probably still a gallon and a half in there *somewhere*...

 

[GLC]

I've ran out of fuel right outside a petrol station . It was an E39 540i, which was a) extremely thirsty (4.4L V8), and b) the fuel gauge was based on estimated range, not purely on the fuel tank float sensor. This meant I would often start the car, it would bong about having "--- range", and as the engine warmed up and I got away from stop start traffic it would increase its own needle and estimated range. One day it had a bit of a cough at some lights, as I was heading to the petrol station, only this time it really did cut out as I set off. Thankfully it was downhill to the petrol station, so I managed to roll down the hill, only to find the petrol station shut for refuelling from the tanker. I had to abandon the car on the verge beside the petrol station, walk to the next closest station and back, which took an hour, and refill my car from a 5L jerry can, by which point the petrol station was back open. I assume everyone must have been wondering who this person was who chose to fill their car beside the petrol station, rather than in it!

In my EV I've made it to a charger with 2 miles range remaining, although at that range the heater would not function, and it was -5 outside. A very chilly wait for the battery to warm up and charge quickly that morning...

 

[JohnMcL7]

I mostly only use my car for long trips so it's kept filled up for those and on trips I fill it up each time I take a stop for the same reason others have mentioned here, you never know when you might need to take a long diversion or something else unexpected.

 

[stuving]

I used to start looking at 1/4 full, and sometimes got pretty low before actually filling the tank. But then, in September 2000, I had very little fuel in the car and no way of getting any except maybe with a lot of time and effort. I reckoned that was avoidable, simply by always filling up before getting down to half full.

That's been the plan ever since, though on occasions I've been a bit late to do it. The exception to that is on long trips, if I know I'll be filling up that day or the next, I can let it go a lot lower and plan where to stop. Since I'm now doing a pretty low mileage (not driving to work), anything like the recent little spot of bother I can basically ignore, and wait for supplies to recover.

 

[alxndr]

You would not be best pleased with me then

I treat pool vehicles a bit like hire vehicles. With the vans that I have hired, normally you find them with not much fuel in them. So you have to fill them up with whatever amount you think you will need…

With a pool vehicle, I won’t fill it up until I need to (that is it gets to “E”). When I do fill it up, I will however put as much as practical in. But yes, I do occasionally get moaned at.

Definitely not! Hire vans are understandable as you’re paying for it, pool vehicles that just go between offices is just about forgivable, ones that could need to respond to faults promptly less so. Nothing worse than jumping in and finding it’s got no fuel, no AdBlue and every pocket has someone’s rubbish stuffed in it.

We took a chance on not filling up one evening as it was above 1/4 full and then had fault after fault after come in. By the end of chasing the final one through various locations up the Berks and Hants we already over finishing time, estimated distance to empty reading “—-“, and heading away from home as the nearest garage was closed for the night and didn’t want to chance another that was probably closed. It couldn’t have been much left at all as we’d done about 12 miles since the estimate flatlined.

 

[Annetts key]

Nothing worse than jumping in and finding it’s got no fuel, no AdBlue and every pocket has someone’s rubbish stuffed in it.

That would be annoying.

We took a chance on not filling up one evening as it was above 1/4 full and then had fault after fault after come in. By the end of chasing the final one through various locations up the Berks and Hants we already over finishing time, estimated distance to empty reading “—-“, and heading away from home as the nearest garage was closed for the night and didn’t want to chance another that was probably closed. It couldn’t have been much left at all as we’d done about 12 miles since the estimate flatlined.

Less of a problem with our depot. Two fuel stations within a half mile of the depot.

 

[bramling]

Between a quarter tank and the light coming on.

Three reasons:
* better for the car
* both my parents were always absolutely awful for letting it run down to empty, and I have some horrendous childhood memories of scratching around trying to find a garage
* I have shares in Shell so like to use Shell, not letting it run down too low makes this easier to achieve

 

[L401CJF]

Personally just wait until the fuel light comes on. In our 2015/16 Corsas its around 70miles or so range.

Recently however the fuel light came on, with about 65miles left according to the trip computer. Started the car up and it instantly cut out on the drive way. Couldn't get it to start so I was flapping around checking diagnostics etc. I was stumped so by chance filled a can of petrol and topped it up just to rule it out. After a few more attempts, it then spluttered into life! We fill it a bit earlier now..

 

[birchesgreen]

Usually about 1/4, i don't like to get to the warning light even if there is about 50 miles left or so.

 

[trebor79]

You don’t, on a modern car, especially if it’s more than a couple of years old. You’ll find all sorts of rubbish at the bottom of the tank, which can block the fuel filters, or sometimes make it through to the injectors with predictable results.

Where does all this stuff about "rubbish in the bottom of the fuel tank" come from? It's utter nonsense, fuel goes through a very fine filter in the pump before it gets to your tank. And where do you think the fuel is drawn from anyway - that's right, the bottom! and aside from anything else any "rubbish" is going to be stirred up by the car jostling over bumps etc so will be constantly drawn into the fuel system anyway.
I suspect it's nonsense peddled by unscrupulous garages so they can charge for some filters and a few hours labour when all that is required is to bleed the injector pump.

My wife twice ran her car empty. "I know how many miles I can do after the light comes on" first time it ran out as I was reversing off our drive to go and fill it up, second time I got a distressed call from the A11. Anyway, on neither occasion did it require anything more than a jerry can of fuel to get going again.

 

[The Lad]

Only once did I run out, on the garage forecourt within coasting range of the pump.
Trouble is if there is a panic everyone fills up from a 1/4 and the country uses a fortnight's fuel in a couple of days.

 

[zero]

I use the PetrolPrices app to find the cheapest station that is convenient, there's no point paying £1 of fuel and taking a 30 minute detour to save £1. I also don't like wasting time filling up with small amounts. While there is an element of using extra fuel to drive a full tank around, if I did £10 a time as some people do, that is wasting an extra hour or more of time compared to filling it full in one go.

If I'm just driving around London with no long trips (outer London - I only drive into central London on Christmas day) it can be months before I need to refuel, so I wait until the car says I have around 5% left and then I do it when I pass one of the places which is the cheapest. My fuel gauge is an electronic display and the "miles left" calculator seems to be relatively accurate.

On long trips I look for somewhere cheap close to a motorway junction when I'm likely to be down to 5-10%, as the saving is a lot more compared to motorway prices, but I don't want to spend ages getting there. Once I drove at 50mph on a motorway for 2 hours at 2am because going at 70 would have made me run out before getting to the station I wanted to. Though when I got there I worked out I could have gone at about 55.

This generally works except the first time I drove to Sheffield, I didn't realise how hilly it is so I had to pay 10p per litre more than I wanted to (only put in £5) because I couldn't make it to the cheap station. The other time there was an unexpected diversion and I drove for about 10 miles with my fuel indicator saying 0%.

 

[Dave W]

Fumes. I regularly get to 0 miles range knowing I've got a couple of miles in my pocket.

It's funny how little quirks persist in makes of car regardless of their age - I had an "original" Honda Jazz with a needle gauge, no range estimator - it felt like the needle never moved from the top for 200 miles then I'd suddenly find it below half a tank. This persisted in the last one I had (2019) which had a needle but a range estimator - same thing would happen with the range, especially between uses (turn it off with a range of 150 miles, turn it back on with 100); and I've even found similar with the new hybrid one I got last year which has a displayed gauge, rather than a needle - although naturally fuel is consumed at a slower rate!

 

[InkyScrolls]

My '84 Renault Trafic fuel gauge stops reading at about half a tank, so I never let it go below that!

 

[dcbwhaley]

As a lot of cars have these days, mine has a 'distance to tank empty' (DTE) indication. Needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if the range indicated is 50ish miles more than my next journey, I won't fill up until afterwards.
My fuel gauge drops rather quickly from the 1/4 mark to the 1/8 mark when the light comes on, which the displayed DTE takes its input from, hence the need for a slight buffer.

I fill up when half full. That costs the thick end of forty quid and the idea of spending seventy or eighty quid to fill up from near empty makes my Yorkshire soul shudder

 

[stuu]

I fill up when half full. That costs the thick end of forty quid and the idea of spending seventy or eighty quid to fill up from near empty makes my Yorkshire soul shudder

I know what you mean, three lots of £25 is somehow less painful than spending it all at once

 

[bspahh]

I know what you mean, three lots of £25 is somehow less painful than spending it all at once

If you refill with microdoses of fuel, you save a little by driving around with less weight, but you spend more time stopping, queuing and paying.

However, if you keep going until the filler clicks, its easier to track the fuel economy, and you are more likely to spot when there is a problem that causes the fuel consumption to increase. My car displays the fuel consumption in real time, but its not as useful as having an average over a tank full.

 

[Annetts key]

I fill up when half full. That costs the thick end of forty quid and the idea of spending seventy or eighty quid to fill up from near empty makes my Yorkshire soul shudder

Just be glad that it’s not a van that you are filling up. From empty to full is well over £100…

 

[37114]

I mostly do long journeys and always fill up near home; I blame it on a career in Transport where the first thing you did when you got back to the yard was fill the lorry up.

 

[Cowley]

I think I treat anything below the light coming on as an overdraft facility. I got rid of the overdraft on my bank account to prevent me from using it and as far as the fuel light coming on goes I consider that as empty as I want to get.

Plus having any kind of warning light on is annoying!

 

[Starmill]

Of course, you can save yourself that extra few pence by putting off filling the tank up for as long as possible for some people the potential for inconvenience is worth that satisfaction alone. Also if you're able to delay payment it's good for your personal cash flow.

 

[Trackman]

As a lot of cars have these days, mine has a 'distance to tank empty' (DTE) indication. Needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if the range indicated is 50ish miles more than my next journey, I won't fill up until afterwards.

Well, I've trusted it - lowest I've been is 20 miles to go. Thing is it can change with MPG, so like it can be like 40 miles to go and then it says 20 or something like that.