Petrol Light

[aswearing]

you may have read a post about chancing fate and seeing how long you can beat the petrol light.

well, its fair to say i was beaten.

only just came off of the m18 when, while overtaking, revs decided to conk out. i can justify this by being a student and having a student accout and shyness from petrol stations...

anyway, ended up walking 30 minutes to the nearest station, buying the petrol can, and filling it with petrol, which went all over my hands.

then 30 mins going back. now i am never going below half a tank.

ever.

 

[pgarner]

unlucky

the worst ive had is had to go alonggggg way around for a short cut came off at juntion 44 on the m6 up the slip road and at the time they had just put in traffic lights at the roundabout and they werent set up poperly (taking ages to change then going through 1 set and getting stuck behind the next set 10m on front by the time it changed the 1st set were red again) so heres me sitting on the slip road and the car starts splutter and misfire. i had sat for 20 miles with the petrol light on thinking it would be fine never again

now i keep a 2gallon jerry can in the boot . dont worry it gets used up and fresh stuff put in every fortnight

 

[HDi fun]

I always think about filling up once below half a tank. Takes the panic out of things. Also, you can drive onto an empty forecourt instead of queueing.

 

[obi_waynne]

I wait for the red zone unless of course I have a long journey. I used to run on empty and hit a hill which caused fuel starvation and I conked out - it changes your habits when you have a long walk to a petrol station. My Audi tells me how many miles I have left but this can be erratic when you come of a motorway with 60 miles left into town and at town economy you might only have half that!

 

[HDi fun]

Likewise my car has a miles left display. They're generally only accurate when the say 0000 and the engine dies. I have an idea that this is a very bad thing with diesels so I avoid running out.

 

[customcarz]

i try not to run on empty as worried will konk out

 

[pgarner]

I always think about filling up once below half a tank. Takes the panic out of things. Also, you can drive onto an empty forecourt instead of queueing.

yeah i try an fill up when its around 1/4 and 1/2 tank and have the jerry can in case

 

[Chris Green]

I tend to wait till 3/4 empty, unless I've got a 5p-off voucher for Tescos, in which case I run it as low as I dare, but never into any red zone. If it got this low I'd buy a few litres from anywhere and still make something of the voucher - tightwad!

I remember years ago I had a Triumph with a so-called reserve tank. This was a ledge in the main tank behind which was trapped about half a gallon. You released it with a tap.

I was out with a girlfriend one night with the fuel running low. "Don't worry", says I, "there's a reserve tank!"

So it ran out and I flicked the tap in the boot. Nothing, nada. No reserve fuel.

Of course, as it was only ledge, what was in it had been slopped out by driving across a make-shift carpark, aka ploughed field at a rock concert!

 

[stamford]

I always add more when my gauge gets just below the 1/4 mark. Occasionally it might be pushed to the tip of the red zone. Having said that I judge the miles left in the tank and whatever the next journey is.

My old 1.4 Xsara can go an easy 50 miles on the light and that is accurate. My daughter has the car now and does the same.

 

[Chris Green]

I was in a Citroen dealer's a while ago when a customer came in shouting the odds. According to his trip computer he had 20 miles range left, but he wanted to know why he'd run out a mile from the garage.

The fact that he'd spent the last 15 minutes in a jam going nowhere hadn't occured to him when the range calcuatlion is based on recent performance. Those range estimates only get updated every so often, so if he'd been driving economically before meeting the jam, this would explain it. Of course, he wasn't impressed when it suddenly announced that he now had zero range!

Lies, damned lies and statistics, eh?

 

[Miniman]

I tend to wait till 3/4 empty, unless I've got a 5p-off voucher for Tescos, in which case I run it as low as I dare, but never into any red zone. If it got this low I'd buy a few litres from anywhere and still make something of the voucher - tightwad!

I remember years ago I had a Triumph with a so-called reserve tank. This was a ledge in the main tank behind which was trapped about half a gallon. You released it with a tap.

I was out with a girlfriend one night with the fuel running low. "Don't worry", says I, "there's a reserve tank!"

So it ran out and I flicked the tap in the boot. Nothing, nada. No reserve fuel.

Of course, as it was only ledge, what was in it had been slopped out by driving across a make-shift carpark, aka ploughed field at a rock concert!

Id stay away from tesco fuel mate, it may be a bit cheaper but its absolute #!#!#!#!e.

 

[pgarner]

hense why its so cheap