Low Fuel Light.....grrrrr

My wife Misty is in the Roadmaster today. She had to take the dog to the groomers and had a bunch of Christmas crap to mail.

So I get a call a few minutes ago. She says "So how far will your car drive with the Low Fuel light on?".

Now I don't know if it's an urban legend or not but I've been told it's not smart to run a fuel tank super low. It's harder on the electric fuel pump....and as far as I know I still have my original one....and it's also sucking up whatever is in the bottom of the tank. I try to fill up when the gauge gets around 1/4. Besides I know dash gauges reading off in B-bodies is common.

What makes me even more mad is I put $30 in the car yesterday morning. Now granted I drove to work and home yesterday, but it still had a lot of gas in it last night.

So I told her to get gas NOW, that it runs out of gas when the light comes on. She replied that she'd been driving at least 10 miles already with the light on...

So it's raining out. It hardly ever rains here...but it's raining today, plus I'm in the '79 Buick....and I have no urge to drive down into Austin to rescue my wife on the side of the road out of gas.

I'm sitting here waiting on the "come get me" phone call....

Ah marriage....

-Mike

If you dont have a locking gas cap,get one NOW.If your low fuel chime is as loud and annoying
as my OCC you would never let the gas get too low nor should you Mike!
Jim

We don't even have a low fuel light. It never came back online when I installed the fuel gauge calibrator. I saw it once, when I ran the tank down to ounces as a test. Mrs Danger buys more gas when it reaches 1/4 tank.

It helps that she has problems with anxiety attacks, and gets nervous when the gauge gets low.

I try to be good but sometimes sh*t happens and my cars get low enough to set off the light. I found with the OCC and the LT1 Caprice wagons, when the light comes on, you get gas NOW. The OCC seems to give you less warning. I almost ran out of gas in it once, the light had only been on for approx. 10 miles and the car stalled heading up a small hill. I coasted to the top, then it easily restarted, and thank goodness a filling station was literally at the bottom of the hill. Twice with my blue Caprice I filled it when the light came on, put in 21 gallons! And that was at two different gas stations so it wasn't a faulty pump. Yeah that's right 21 gallons! BOTTOM LINE: Do not F with the low fuel light on these cars, they mean business.

Boys boys boys. I know it is "bad" for the car to run it down. Mostly because you suck up all the dirt and junk into the screen. But I have gone 20+ miles with the low fuel light on. I fill up so many times in a month that I do run it down to 1/8 a tank or less just so I am not filling it up EVERY day.

I remember in my Eursport wagon I ran out on a left turn on the express way. Popped it into neutral wiggled the car a little, started back up still rolling at 55mph. Got off the next exit ramp. Stalled again. On the green light I restarted it. Drove into a station and glided the last 50 feet as it had quit again.

Only ever ran out one time. 79 Saab 99 GLE or 83 Saab 900 Turbo, cannot remember whick. The warning light was there for a good reason, I just ignored it. AAA brought me a couple of gallons of gas, thanks to Mom and Dad buying me a membership. I was in college and dating my now wife.

The black wagon fuel light comes on ,.it lets you know you have 500yds to find a safe place to stop,.
doh!

nick

phantom 309 wrote:

The black wagon fuel light comes on ,.it lets you know you have 500yds to find a safe place to stop,.
doh!

nick

That is funny nick. How different the sending units are!! I usually fill up at between 300 and 350 miles on a tank. A partial fill is a waste of time, unless I am on my way to Maryland or NJ as fuel is a bit cheaper in those states.

I have only seen the low fuel light on my RMW come on a few times, and I usually got about 15 miles before I filled it. Neither of my Caprice's have ever set off a fuel light. I had no idea those had lights until I saw the one in Lynol's car come on.
None of these are as bad as my Riviera, which makes the B-bodies gauges look like precisely tuned instruments. Past a half tank the needle bounces all over the place and when the light does come on, you better already by at a gas station or your not going anywhere!

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

The black wagon fuel light comes on ,.it lets you know you have 500yds to find a safe place to stop,.
doh!

nick

That is funny nick. How different the sending units are!! I usually fill up at between 300 and 350 miles on a tank. A partial fill is a waste of time, unless I am on my way to Maryland or NJ as fuel is a bit cheaper in those states.

The rest of the story,. the wife was driving it, i was in town 20 miles away, phone call sounded like this,.
*ring* Heloo? The low fuel light came on, how far can ,.....can you bring me some gas?"" whaat? how far have you been driving it like that??" since taits place,,.. where are you now? ,.. just past the stop sign,....which damn stop sign?? ,. the one south of taits place"

*sigh* yes dear,..i'll be there as soon as i can,.

Nick

She made it to the gas station....and I get it back tomorrow....thankfully.

As for the light, when it comes on the chime "bongs" three times. How does that compare to the Custom Cruisers?

-Mike

In my 91 the low fuel light starts to come on once it's below half a tank when stopping then goes out when the fuel in the tank settles. It comes on and stays on once it's below an 1/8th tank, I've gone two days with it on and reading empty and it never ran out before I filled it, so the gage in my 91 is way out, and it's idiot lowfuel light comes on way too early so I tend to ignore it.

In my 93 it comes on below 1/4 and I tend to keep it filled when using it..

I had my OCC a few weeks and was having one of those nights.Threw my 1st eskie in the back seat and hit the road.Went west on 64 for an hour and turned around.Dog had by then worked
his way into the front seat and since it was like 3 am,I let him stay.I am about 5 miles from my
exit when this very loud chime goes off.Dog jumps up and trys to land in my lap.I apparently
swerved in my lane and the only car behind me was a trooper who immeidiately lit me up.When he yelled "driver put both hands outside the car" I am laughing pretty hard.When he sees me I guess he realized something wasup because he asked me whats so funny?Told him about just getting the car and the very loud low fuel chime and the fact I had a 35 lb white dog in my lap.He started laughing and handed me back my license and told me the dog belongs in back and to have a nice night.I have only let my gas level get down that low one more time since then to check the gauge with a fill up.It is very very accurate warning chime as it took 20 gallons to fill.
Jim

I don't think I've ever heard the low fuel warning in my OCC. I trust the gas gauge about as far as I can throw the car since it indicates 125% full when I fill it. So I figure it's getting pretty low when it says 1/4 tank (about 290-300 miles) and fill 'er back up. The Low Coolant warning on the other hand...

Low fuel will cause the pump to die quicker. My wife only puts gas in when it comes on. I confirmed this with Bewb (who worked for Delphi in the fuel pump development) when I was visiting him and his wife had burned out the one in their Olds (Sorry John, Pat and I did discuss changing it out several times and had all the best intentions, but then there was this motorcycle to take apart, greasy burgers to eat, and cars to go look at)

All that said, you can run an LT1 tank down much further than a TBI one. They apparently did an internal redesign on the internals with better baffles to prevent sloshing. I can fuel starve any TBI I have owned and it'll only take 17.5 gallons, but can shove 21 in when the fuel light comes on in Dusty.

I don't think I've ever put more than 19 gallons in mine....but I've never gone far once the light comes on...if I let it come on.

Flasheroo wrote:

I had my OCC a few weeks and was having one of those nights.Threw my 1st eskie in the back seat and hit the road.Went west on 64 for an hour and turned around.Dog had by then worked
his way into the front seat and since it was like 3 am,I let him stay.I am about 5 miles from my
exit when this very loud chime goes off.Dog jumps up and trys to land in my lap.I apparently
swerved in my lane and the only car behind me was a trooper who immeidiately lit me up.When he yelled "driver put both hands outside the car" I am laughing pretty hard.When he sees me I guess he realized something wasup because he asked me whats so funny?Told him about just getting the car and the very loud low fuel chime and the fact I had a 35 lb white dog in my lap.He started laughing and handed me back my license and told me the dog belongs in back and to have a nice night.I have only let my gas level get down that low one more time since then to check the gauge with a fill up.It is very very accurate warning chime as it took 20 gallons to fill.
Jim

Hahahahahaha....nice!

Olds Weighty Eight wrote:

I don't think I've ever heard the low fuel warning in my OCC. I trust the gas gauge about as far as I can throw the car since it indicates 125% full when I fill it. So I figure it's getting pretty low when it says 1/4 tank (about 290-300 miles) and fill 'er back up. The Low Coolant warning on the other hand...

My gas gauge read the same way when I filled the car the first time, way beyond full.
I sent away for the fuel gauge calibrator and installed it, reads right on now.

http://www.fuelgaugecalibrator.com/bbody/bbody.html?

I have put 21.5 gallons in more than once!!

Al H. wrote:

Olds Weighty Eight wrote:

I don't think I've ever heard the low fuel warning in my OCC. I trust the gas gauge about as far as I can throw the car since it indicates 125% full when I fill it. So I figure it's getting pretty low when it says 1/4 tank (about 290-300 miles) and fill 'er back up. The Low Coolant warning on the other hand...

My gas gauge read the same way when I filled the car the first time, way beyond full.
I sent away for the fuel gauge calibrator and installed it, reads right on now.

http://www.fuelgaugecalibrator.com/bbody/bbody.html?

I have one in the Impala and one in the wagon!! Joel actually calibrated the sending unit. There is a post somewhere on how to do it. That is the REAL way to do it.

When my low fuel comes on in the blue wagon, I have three gallons left. First one that has worked well.

The light in my '94 comes on with four gallons left. Seems like there's a whole range here .

Data point: I ran out of gas in the '94 wagon this morning (long story). Literally sputtered into the gas station. I put 19.77 gallons in. So don't put too much faith in that last gallon.

FWIW I do not drive regularly like this but the gas in the tank was over 45 days old and I needed to use it up before I put new stuff in.

Funny I put 21.4 gallons in my wagon just this week!! Gas is lucky if it ages 4 days in my tank.

Does anyone know about whether or not this ethanol miracle gas goes sour quicker than the
good stuff use too?Sometimes I may only use a tank of gas about every 6 weeks and I always
try buy the good stuff but dont trust the labeling on the pumps.My brother wants me to drive
his 05 Cummins Ram often since he bought the toyota to drive to work.Terminal is in a rough
part of town so the Ram stays home with me.The 04 Crown Vic is mine unofficially and when
I manage to convince my dad he no longer needs his license,I will sell it and get another wagon
maybe.Crown Vic only has 44000 miles and with the exception of needing a good buffing out
is like new.
Jim

Flasheroo wrote:

Does anyone know about whether or not this ethanol miracle gas goes sour quicker than the
good stuff use too?Sometimes I may only use a tank of gas about every 6 weeks and I always
try buy the good stuff but dont trust the labeling on the pumps.My brother wants me to drive
his 05 Cummins Ram often since he bought the toyota to drive to work.Terminal is in a rough
part of town so the Ram stays home with me.The 04 Crown Vic is mine unofficially and when
I manage to convince my dad he no longer needs his license,I will sell it and get another wagon
maybe.Crown Vic only has 44000 miles and with the exception of needing a good buffing out
is like new.
Jim

I swear this ethanol crap goes bad much quicker than the real thing. When my old Lesabre got abandoned for 4 years it started and ran on the 4 year old stuff. Lawn equipment barely runs on ethanol gas after only sitting for a year, sometimes less. Never abandoned a car long enough to see what would happen. Stabil is my best friend!

My brother broke the pull cord on his leaf blower last week and dropped it off for a quick repair
at the lawnmower shop.The owner told him that the ethanol was making all 2 strokes very hard
to start.My brother said that one side of his shop was stacked up with various 2 stroke machines.
All of them had broken pull cords because the owners got frustrated and broke them pulling
to hard.Guy said even the newer macines are having fuel lines probems from this corn gas.Another
problem that is making owning older cars like ours more difficult with the govs goal of getting all
older cars off the road permanently.
Jim

Flasheroo wrote:

My brother broke the pull cord on his leaf blower last week and dropped it off for a quick repair
at the lawnmower shop.The owner told him that the ethanol was making all 2 strokes very hard
to start.My brother said that one side of his shop was stacked up with various 2 stroke machines.
All of them had broken pull cords because the owners got frustrated and broke them pulling
to hard.Guy said even the newer macines are having fuel lines probems from this corn gas.Another
problem that is making owning older cars like ours more difficult with the govs goal of getting all
older cars off the road permanently.
Jim

There is a lot of talk on the boat sites about how Ethanol blended fuel is hurting older 2-stroke outboard engines. It breaks down older rubber hoses and seals. I put Sta-Bil with Ethanol treatment in my boat anytime I know it's going to site for more than a few weeks. Even still in many cases I have to use starting fluid to get the boat to fire the first time if I let it sit for any length of time.

I also dumped a full bottle of the Sta-Bil in the Cutlass before parking it last fall. Modern gas is crap.