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General How many miles on red light?
Which red light is it? Could be something as simple as say a dodgy connection on your brake pads but then again it could be a lot more serious...
Welcome to the FF by the way!
ScoobyChris
Established member
IIRC the red light signals that you're down to the last 4 and a bit litres/1 gallon so you should easily manage another 30 miles. However, all cars are different and you should never trust me or anything I say
Let us know how you get on
Chris
Let us know how you get on
Chris
I've run out of petrol twice in my panda. Its not very forgiving at all, every car i've had previously usually does around 20 miles or so when its down to the bottom. My advice is as soon as the light comes on fill up
I got somewhere in the region of 35 miles out of it - enough to get me out of Northern Ireland and back in to a country where we have 24 hour stations... it appears theres no petrol available after midnight on a Sunday in NI!
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ScoobyChris
Established member
I've done about 20 miles with the light on in my 100hp and when I went to fill it up still only managed to get 29.90 litres into it!
Chris
Chris
KozmoNaut
Member
I've done ~50km with the light on in my multijet and it by then it wasn't even half way through the red part of the gauge.
Filling it up completely (giving it a few extra squeezes, diesel was cheap that day) took ~31 litres. I could have gone another 80-100km easy, what with the reserve probably being 4 or 5 litres
Filling it up completely (giving it a few extra squeezes, diesel was cheap that day) took ~31 litres. I could have gone another 80-100km easy, what with the reserve probably being 4 or 5 litres
Red light means there's 5 litres left (i think, on the MJ) so half a litre over a gallon means anything between 30 miles (100 HP) and 65 miles (multijet) at least. Best not to let it run too low or the fuel pump will suck up all the gunge at the bottom of the tank and/or air bubbles (not good)
I did about 40 mile on the yellow with my 1.2 and it took 33.21 at the pumps to fill back to the brim.
Trev
Trev
I always thought it was an orange light myself...
And mine usually goes 30-35 miles once it's come on.
And mine usually goes 30-35 miles once it's come on.
I've taken mine down to one notch away from empty... still could only fit just over 30 litres on. It comes on way too early IMO.
Also noticed that it stayed for ages on the second to last notch, and given that there was still over 4 litres left in the tank you can go a very long way when the light is on.
Also noticed that it stayed for ages on the second to last notch, and given that there was still over 4 litres left in the tank you can go a very long way when the light is on.
Actually teh whole thing about sucking up gunge from the bottom of the tank is a complete urban myth. The inside of the tank is the one part of the car that will look like new 15 years later when the rest has rotted away.
I've taken out a few petrol tanks on 15+ year old cars and not found a spec of dirt let alone gunge on the gauze fuel pick up... absolutely pristine.
It doesn't really do the engine any harm if you run out of fuel, on a petrol car. Obviously on a dismal you don't want to do that!
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Must be a sales pitch on behalf of the petrol companies! Depends on the quality of filtration of the fuel i suppose, there must be some sort of sediment that collects? Probably in the states where their fuel is so unrefined, you might as well fill it with cow muck!
Still, if you start sucking up fresh air, it's not good for your engine. I ran out once, started miss firing and engine was sluggish afterwards for ages. Not on this car, don't worry.
Still, if you start sucking up fresh air, it's not good for your engine. I ran out once, started miss firing and engine was sluggish afterwards for ages. Not on this car, don't worry.
ScoobyChris
Established member
I'll confess to being an armchair mechanic, knowing very little and likely to be wrong, but I would have thought that the fuel feed would be at the bottom-most point of the tank, otherwise you wouldn't be able to use all the fuel in the tank? This would mean that any gunk wouldn't last in the tank very long at all and would end up lodged in the fuel filter?
Would also mean that sucking in air would be unlikely unless you redistributed the fuel in the tank, eg under hard cornering, and I know this is a known problem (aka fuel starvation in the old Scoobies).
Chris
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There is no sediment that i've seen, urban myth basically... petrol is renowned for its cleaning properties, the inside of the tanks i've seen and the fuel pumps/pickups have always been absolutely gleaming.
I've run out of fuel on older cars i've had when the fuel guage doesn't work (had 3 cars in a row like this), never had any issues once i'd got some fuel through, though they were all non-injection engines (back in the 80s/early 90s).
