Originally Posted By: dishdude
Worst thing you can do to your fuel pump.
"Tank on empty" website
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It's the dumbest, worst and most-expensive thing you can do to your catalytic converter!
Check your Owner's Manual. I'll bet it gives a warning about too-low fuel, and it's for the cat, not the fuel pump.
I used to cry when I ran my old suburban way down on gas. It held over 40 gallons and that was back in 2004 when prices were jumping but the pumps would stop at 50 or 75 dollars. Now I have had a suburban again for about two months and have only filled it up from empty once and it wasn't that bad.
I have had vehicles that had such poor range that I often let it get down to the fuel low light and found out how far it could go after that. I drove over 30 miles to work and only had a 22 gallon tank and used e85 in a truck. I had to fill up around every three days.
I had an s10 once that if you got down to 1/4 tank you had better be close to a gas station because it dropped fast after that. You could only go like 5 miles after a 1/4 tank. And this only had a 15 gallon tank. I learned that if you had less than a half tank you threw in a gas can and hoped you could make it the 15 miles to the next gas station from home.
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Worst thing you can do to your fuel pump. I always refill around 1/4 - haven't lost one yet.
normal, day to day, I fill up around 1/2.
on my normal vacation route(normally go to the same place) i have semi-set fill up locations, the first is about 6 hours from home, normally make it there with about 1/4 tank remaining. the next stop is after my over night stay, get there with the light on. I get to my destination on that fill, with about 1/4 tank left.
repeat in reverse on the trip home. do that at least once a year.
I think the one stop year before last, i put 20.5 gal into what the manual says is a 20 gal tank.( that trip, my normal big fuel stop was closed for repairs, had to go another 20 mi or so further down the turnpike to get to the next station. THAT was on fumes)
so far, no worries...
I did not click on the link but the best way to destroy a fuel pump is to run it dry.
I always wait for the low fuel light to come on before refuelling. Refuelling sooner than that is a waste of time. 
I also found that site recently when looking at a new Highlander.
I can usually go 50 miles after the gas light illuminates on our '02 Accord.
Less than 20 on the '94 Grand Am.
~ 35 miles on the '01 Ranger.
Good information to know on vehicles.
Only once did I severely push the gas needle to "E." That was on my 1974 Dodge Dart while driving from Florida to Idaho. I refueled somewhere in Arizona and heading north towards Grand Canyon on a Sunday in March 1977. I got caught between gas stations and thought I'd make it to the next one no problem. Well, the next one was 50 miles away, and was closed when I got there. Now I was looking at getting to the next town another 20 miles or more away with the gauge not much above "E." That needle got well under "E" when I finished climbing a small mountain, only to see a town in the distance. I coasted in neutral all the way down that mountain to save what few ounces I had left. I never did anything close to that stupid again. And gas was 47c-58c per gallon on that trip. Get the gas while you can.
In my 18 years of driving, I've never driven the car low enough on fuel to ever see the "low fuel" light. I almost wonder, however, if the light on my Civic is dead as I once put in within a gallon or so of a full tank without the light coming on.
My father, however, would regularly drive his cars until and with the light on and used to say "don't worry, there is still more in the tubes". I remember as a kid thinking "Oh, cool. Still fuel in the tubes". As a teen, when I learned more about cars, I used to laugh about that fuel in the tubes comment.
Originally Posted By: Donald
On older GM SUV and trucks, running out of gas might cost you a new fuel pump.
Since our trucks are dispatched to completely unknown jobs we fill up almost every morning. I have never understood running out of fuel in an urban environment unless you have no funds at all...
I always fill all of our vehicles up around 1/2 tank, maybe a little less on occasion. I never let them go below a quarter of a tank. It gives me the flexibility to fill up when I want, where I want, and not be in a situation where I have to fill up at the next station, no matter what. Neither my wife nor I have ever run out of fuel.
Being in a rural area with the closest gas station about 20 miles away, letting it get low enough to trigger the low fuel light would be foolish. There are times in poor driving conditions when I have no doubt that if the fuel light came on at home, it wouldn't have enough fuel to make it to the nearest service station. It's not something that I'll ever test, either.
I live in NY on the NY/MA border. I wait until I drive into MA to do some shopping as its cheaper in MA. There is a Stewarts in NY a mile from the border and people often go there and buy a gallon of gas, just enough to go over the mountain to MA where they fill up.
What happens when they run out of gas on an expressway with no shoulder and roaring traffic behind them. Good way to get rear ended and hurt.
I buy gas with 1/4 of a tank. Not brand loyal at all.
But I have noticed that several of the "bargain" gas stations are now top tier.
Valero and 711 have top tier gas near me. Same with Shell and Costco. I think one more, I can't remember.
You guys would go nuts in my F-150, front tank gauge doesn't work, when it runs out I switch to rear...
As a FYI it's never suddenly stopped, will get lazy and power drops to maybe half but it's NEVER stalled... Once I flip to rear tank it picks back up as if nothing happened(and gage reads full as that sender works)... When rear tank gets down to 1/4 or a little less, I refill both... No nanny lights, better keep your eyes open...
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