Wife ran out of gas

[measureman]

With the price of gas today I fill up at a 1/2 tank.
Thats about $36
I just don't want to see $65 or more on the pump.
I know I'm fooling myself.
But I won't run out while driving.

 

[Kurtatron]

Why is there no mention in the OP about looking at the gas gauge? Shouldn’t an indicator be lit and the gauge be at E or below? That should have taken all guess work out of this.

 

[UncleDave]

People do this ALL the time. They cant seem to figure out the little gauge thats there to help them.

Some people just make running on the edge a daily habit.

The same people that cant figure out liquid fuel, will also struggle with energy based vehicles.

Seems they are somehow continually unaware of their vehicles state of operation in the most basic of ways.

 

[Oillover]

Why is there no mention in the OP about looking at the gas gauge? Shouldn’t an indicator be lit and the gauge be at E or below? That should have taken all guess work out of this.

+1

There seems to be an abundance of hysteria and drama in the OP's post due to a lack of simple reasoning and logic.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Always cracks me up when i see cars on the side of the interstate with something headed the wrong way in front of it trying to jump it off... has that ever gotten one of the side of the road?

Trying to make a long story short, condensed and paraphrased from what his dad told me...

Friend of mine's car suddenly died during a trip back from college at night (roughly 1990). He got it to the side of the interstate. It seemingly had power but it wouldn't turn over. He flagged someone down to jump start him, apparently someone as non-mechanically inclined as he is, and he killed his own battery trying to jump my friend's car. They then tried flagging down someone else (again, at night on an interstate!). Someone stopped on the road... then got rear-ended. Cops came, tickets were handed out, tow trucks cleaned up the mess.

The problem? My friend had been in an accident a few days prior; the car was barely drivable and completely unroadworthy but that didn't stop him from trying to drive it home so his dad could fix it, but he did not accurately convey how bad the damage was. It was hit sideways on the front corner so the entire front subframe was moved over about 8". The headlights (the ones that worked) were pointed at the ground. The hood was tied down with a knotted t-shirt. The fan no longer worked. The radiator was cracked and had duct tape on the plastic end caps, and it leaked like a sieve. His plan was to stop every 15 minutes or so (of a nearly four hour trip!) and refill the radiator. Nope, he overheated 20 minutes into the drive and locked up the engine on the highway.

So yes, I agree. If you made it to the highway the chances are slim to none you suddenly need a jump on the side of the road. That's not how cars work.

 

[Wolf359]

A lot of people that dont know Jack but feel macho looking under the hood of a car. I love those kind of people they're looking under the hood of a 5 year old car that doesn't start and they'll say something stupid like it's the carburetor. Btw that is one of worst things to do is drive around on fumes.

Well cracking open the hood is a universal sign of distress so even if you don't know what's wrong, the open hood indicates that there's a problem. That actually happened to me once, I was driving over a bumpy road and afterwards the car stalled out and I coasted and pulled over. Had no idea what was wrong so I just opened the hood and figured I'd have to somehow call a tow truck and this was before cell phones. I wasn't really expecting to fix it but was just staring at the engine when I noticed that the wire to to ignition coil had come off. Hooked it back up and I was on my way.

I've also never run out of gas, but I was in a car once with a friend of mine and his gas gauge was reading low so I told him to get gas instead of trying to chance it. He felt that there was enough gas but decided to pull into a gas station. The car stalled just as we got to a pump. He still claim that wasn't because we were out of gas.

 

[Dave Hess]

Every Sunday I fill up my wife’s car so there’s no worries of running out of gas.

 

[y_p_w]

Back in HS, I borrowed my Dad's VW Beetle on the weekends and always and return it in the evening with gas gauge arrow pointed at "E".

If you ever listened to Car Talk, their staff would apparently have manufacturer-supplied cars they had in to test and maybe review. They would take turns driving these cars and had some sort of unofficial competition to see how little gas would be in the car when it was parked. I think a perfect result would have been what my wife achieved, which was it getting right into the parking spot but then unable to start for the next guy.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Oh, and another story regarding same friend and the same car, more on-topic.

Me and another friend of ours borrowed his car once in high school for something. He never put gas in it; the tank was always floating at about 1/8 on a good day. We drove away in his car and immediately noticed that the tank was on fumes. So we pulled into the nearest gas station, dumped out all the loose change in his ash tray and put a little over four dollars worth of gas in his car, paid for with a pile of pennies, nickels and dimes. He got mad at us afterward for cleaning out all of his change that he 'needed' for absolutely no reason.

People are weird. My friend was weird and dumb.

 

[y_p_w]

Well cracking open the hood is a universal sign of distress so even if you don't know what's wrong, the open hood indicates that there's a problem. That actually happened to me once, I was driving over a bumpy road and afterwards the car stalled out and I coasted and pulled over. Had no idea what was wrong so I just opened the hood and figured I'd have to somehow call a tow truck and this was before cell phones. I wasn't really expecting to fix it but was just staring at the engine when I noticed that the wire to to ignition coil had come off. Hooked it back up and I was on my way.

I've also never run out of gas, but I was in a car once with a friend of mine and his gas gauge was reading low so I told him to get gas instead of trying to chance it. He felt that there was enough gas but decided to pull into a gas station. The car stalled just as we got to a pump. He still claim that wasn't because we were out of gas.

Sure. However, I think what my wife (or maybe someone else) did was put up the prop rod in one of the holes right in the center front. I test drove a BRZ once where almost all of them on the lot had dead batteries, although we finally found one that was OK. But only after they used a jump starter to start it up. I wasn't quite sure of the feel and promptly stalled it about 100 feet from the dealer. But of course with a dead battery the hazard lights only lasted about 10 seconds. So I propped up the hood to signal there was an issue, although they jumped it and drove it back to the dealer where hopefully they charged the battery. We walked back to the dealer and they actually found a BRZ with a charged battery.

We weren't worried about anything really. The people who helped out my wife included the instructor's husband for my kid's class.

 

[Oily_Thing]

Back in HS, I borrowed my Dad's VW Beetle on the weekends and always and return it in the evening with gas gauge arrow pointed at "E".

0/1

 

[WeyounDS9]

I wonder what certain women will do when in a couple decades everything is suppose to be electrical?
The energy management is so much more demanding, ranges so much shorter and "gassing up with just a can" on the side of the road nigh impossible.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

I keep 1/4 tank of spare fuel in the tank, rarely letting it get below that level…

Always have had a habit of keeping each vehicle on FULL since the 70s. Guess OPEC did that to me. I usually hit the SHELL station that is about 2.5 miles away when I see 3/4 of a tank mark. Ran out of gas one time on my street one evening leaving to work a 03:00pm to 11:00pm shift and thank God my car stopped about a block from the house so it was not that hard to deal with. Also have only locked my keys in a car once. I guess once for that type of mess is enough to learn. It is probably near impossible these days to even lock your keys in on purpose with all the "smart cars, smart phones etc... connected to our cars, our homes and on and on......" One of my sons pointed out me the other day how times have changed when we saw a movie that showed a "Bell Telephone" booth on a city street corner! LOL

 

[Astro14]

I was ten years old when the embargo started. For two years, running out of gas was a constant threat. We always kept the tank at or above 1/4.

Living in rural Vermont just reinforced that imperative.

 

[y_p_w]

I wonder what certain women will do when in a couple decades everything is suppose to be electrical?
The energy management is so much more demanding, ranges so much shorter and "gassing up with just a can" on the side of the road nigh impossible.

They're much better at determining how much capacity is left compared to a dial that may still have fuel remaining when it's below a certain level. And it's possible to have a "limp" mode that reduces performance and shuts down a ton of systems just to get to a place to charge. Not sure about who newer electronic displays work, although I've rented cars that only had an electronic display with discrete bars.

However, I've driven cars with estimated remaining range. It is kind of weird when it starts flashing at about 30.0, but then goes right down to flashing 0.0. I think that's the way of it telling the driver (Don't mess with me!).

 

[supton]

I still wait until the light. Filling up at half tank? When I was commuting into office I'd be filling up every 2 days if I were to do that.

Then again, where I live, there's a fuel station every 10 or 20 miles. At pretty much any point in my normal travels I can easily toss a rock and hit a gas station. If I lived someplace else, or was worried about supply, then maybe I'd change my ways.

 

[64bawagon]

It costs no more to keep the tank over 1/2 than it does to run it low (besides the initial investment)
My wife is not authorized to drive any vehicle thats below 1/4 tank. If for some strange reason she finds herself in that situation she must get approval from me before driving it.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Oh my, I feel confused about the OP's story and his wife. But let me share my own really really stupid "run out of gas" story. Hope it takes some heat off the OP and I'll take some flaming... I can laugh now, years later.

About five years ago I took my girlfriend on a romantic weekend spontaneous drive to remote areas for some sightseeing. We both had to work Monday, so had to be back; she was starting a new job. Long story short, we drove for hours all around and had a lovely time. But I grossly underestimated range and distances between gas stations on our return trip. At one point I could have filled up but the station's prices were twice the normal price, so I decided to wait until the next station. HUGE mistake. Always fill up in such situations. We had no cellular reception. We had hours to drive home, and it was already 9-10pm.

I was distracted for a long time, but looked at the gas gauge and it read 1/8th tank. My GPS said there was no gas station for a distance far greater than the remaining fuel. We were probably 100-200 miles from any civilization. It was dire. She was able to search and search and found a station 20 miles in the opposite direction so we took a gamble on time and distance in the wrong way. We arrived and the station was long-ago out of business. The situation was very very bad. There's just no way for a rescue allowing time for us to get back and to work on time at that point.

She was panicking. I was remaining cool on the outside but panicked on the inside, saying prayers. I am not making this up, we were driving on probably 1% remaining fuel, and it was now 10:55pm. We drove past an unmarked miracle gas station that was just about to close at 11pm! I had to do a fast U-turn and get there. I ran in, prepaid, and filled up. It was an absolute miracle to fill up. As we left they were turning off the lights and closing for the night. A miracle to get there.

We got back around 2am, exhausted, and immediately went to bed. She woke me up at 5am, saying HER car was out of gas and she needed help. She had this habit of turning her car on and letting it warm up while she got ready, and it ran empty. But on this occasion, she moved her car behind mine in my garage so she could keep a better watch on it! So at 5am, with her rushing to get to her 1st day, she was out of gas, blocking me in. I had no extra gas in any cans.

I said I'd push her out of the way. She put it in neutral and I moved it about 2' but could not push it further. I looked at her tires and noticed that in her haste, she dropped her purse which slide right behind the rear tire! I had rolled her car onto the purse, crushing a bunch of stuff and busting a bottle of water! We moved the purse, moved the car, and I drove took a gas can to the station and returned to fill her tank and she somehow made it to work on time.

CRAZY NIGHT/MORNING!

 

[Owen Lucas]

I forgot to mention the reason why I got the call and text from a strange number is because she forgot her phone at home and asked me to bring it.

And I guess a reason why she didn't believe that she was out of gas was because she managed to get it to a parking space, and didn't necessarily believe that it would somehow be out of gas at that exact point. I was telling her that there can be some weird things going on and there can be fuel in the system, but not enough to start or in the right place if it's low.

Put an airtag in each others vehicles, these things are amazing.

People are weird. My friend was weird and dumb.

What ever happened to this weird friend? I know off topic but always wonder what comes of these people.

 

[The Critic]

honestly, there is much to unpack here...unless a gas gauge is dysfunctional, why would anyone get under 1/2 without looking to refill? that lesson was drilled into me by a dear uncle who was a cold war, curtis lemay era, usaf sac tanker navigator.

Nowadays I let it get to 1/8 before I consider refilling. We go at least a month between refills and I prefer to turnover as much fuel as possible....since fuel does have a shelf life.