real easy solution. Drive until your light comes on and fill up as soon as possible. Subtract the gallons put in from the size of the tank.. presto.. you have how many gallons are left in the tank when the light comes on. Now drive thru 10 tanks of gas, devide miles driven by the gallons it took to fill it every time. add all those numbers up and then devide by ten. That is a pretty accurate average MPG you get. Now you can figure aproximatly how many miles you can drive with the light on!!

 

That's a lot of work. It's easier to drive it till it stops so you'll never forget your limit

 

I almost did that on my '99...

I filled it up at the gas station, and I subtracted, and behold I only had about .85 gallons left in my tank.

Why? I was on the thruway and the next service station wasn't as close as I expected it to be. I almost crapped my pants.

 

Grab a gallon can of gas and run it empty, its one of the 1st things I do when I buy a new vehicle.

 

Not only is it not healthy for the fuel pump but you're also running the risk of pulling all that gunk out from the bottom of your tank when you're running close to empty.

 

Usually the low fuel light is not only an idicator of a low fuel level in the tank, but also references the intank sending unit that looses it's prime and overheats below a certain level with fuel sloshing around. It's more of a safety feature/ parts protection information center than anything else. Fuel pumps now days are darn expensive, and they are liquid cooled by the very thing you're running out. I myself try not to run below 1/4 when possible.

 

hmmm... where do you suppose the fuel pump is located, at the top of the tank???

You are the second person to make this point, and you are both very incorrect. The fuel pump is (obviously) located at the bottom of the tank. They actually sit down in a little well so that they always have gas available (like if you park on a hill and your tank is almost empty). Any "gunk" at the bottom of the tank would be immediately be sucked up by the pump no matter what your fuel level. Which is why we have fuel filters inline.

But I could understand the theory that it is not real healthy for the fuel pump to run it empty. But unless the ambient temperature is above 100°F I doubt it would be an issue. The fuel pumps get thoroughly tested in development and I'm sure that overheating the pump is a big failure of a pump, what with gasoline being explosive and all.

To answer the original question. I don't have the fancy readouts that tell you how many miles till empty. But I've found when I fill up right when the light comes on (I have the aprox 35 gal tank... I always forget if it is 34.7 or 35.4 or what exactly) that I can only put about 31 gallons in. So I usually figure I have at least 20-30 miles after the light comes on. Or about 3 days of driving to work and back

 

Doesn't always work. I did that with a new Escape when they first came out and found myself pushing a bright new Escape down main street to a gas station. Some pickups apparently don't go all the way to the bottom of the tank and you can run out of gas before the tank is empty.

With my F-150, I can run about 50-60 miles after the low fuel light comes on but I found out the hard way that it quits after 35 when I am towing my travel trailer.

 

That's way I feel my answer is the best

 

I have a 30 gallon tank on my truck. The other day I pulled in the gas station and the computer said 1 mile remaining. I put 29 gallons of gas in exactly.

 

Ive gone almost up to 100 miles on the low fuel light (95% highway, 5% city driving), you dont have to beleive me if you dont want to, but the trip read 305 when It came on and I drove to work/school/home for 3 more days and it read 384 when I filled up yesterday (thats driving pretty conservatively, easy acc. etc. .etc. . ). lately Ive been trying to only fill up every 1.5-2 weeks if at all possible. I keep a log everytime I get gas of things like price, how much gal., trip, mileage, where I got gas, date, things like that I also log oil changes, and filter cleanings in there too. .

I frequent the low fuel light, but have yet to run out that up there is the longest I have let it go b4 filling up, I usually will stop and fill up cause I dont want to find out what its like to run out. .

 

If he hadn't said it, I would have...

 

So you're getting 1MPG?

 

[QUOTE=osbornk]Doesn't always work. I did that with a new Escape when they first came out and found myself pushing a bright new Escape down main street to a gas station. Escapes suck my wifes company car did the same thing on the interstate.

 

I do the same....