How long can you drive on an empty tank?

[Daisymae23]

Inspired by the AIBU thread about running out of petrol…. Yesterday I realised I was on 0 having started the journey with 20 miles left and thinking I would just wait until I got on the motorway which was much less than 20 miles - prob 10 miles. I turned on my search on sat nav for nearest petrol station and it was 6 miles away. I got there fine but wondered if they build in extra mileage and how much? Not that I plan to do that again as freaked me out as I was on the motorway!

Different cars are different. My old car would show the petrol light and hit zero but I could get 20 miles out of it. The demo I had from work once would show the petrol light and conk out about 30 miles later. One of my colleagues discovered those when she had to call the rac.

It probably varies by car but it also depends on the terrain. If you go up a steep hill with a very low amount of fuel as it all run to the back of the tank and no fuel can get to the engine. This happened to me once when I was looking for a petrol station and had to go up hill (pre satnav).

I haven’t tested my newest car (1 month old)

You shouldn’t drive a car in an empty tank. All the debris sits in the bottom of the tank and you’ll suck this up & through the engine when low on fuel.

Yes I dont make a habit of it but dc was asleep in the back of the car on the way down so figured I would just do it on the way back.

I'm too anxious to ever find out. I always fill up when my tank is at a quarter empty.

I think there was a top gear on this I remember 30-40 miles

My car would probably do 20 miles plus but I wouldn’t go on to the motorway with it empty as you could be held up before the petrol station.

Yes I think this will be me from now on!!

Well technically you can’t drive anywhere on an empty tank as it’s…empty.

in reality with a gauge at zero it could be 1 mile or 50 depending on make and model. Not way to be sure

Dh once handed the car back to me with the petrol so low that there was a gap between the indicator hand and the bottom of the gauge picture. It made it to the petrol station 2 miles away.

This is why I never let my tank drop below 1/4 full.
DH always says there’s 30 miles left in his tank when his light comes on, but it’s not something I’d ever like to test out!

I remember this too. I seem to remember that Clarkson got way, way further than he thought he would.

I have a three door hatchback, 1 litre, I’m confident that I can drive 30 miles but I wouldn’t risk it over that.

I'm the same tbh

I did go to work once and ran out of petrol by the time I got there. I managed to get home fine, but that was only about 6 miles away. Haven't done it again since

I can get 36 miles driving at 30mph according to the app for my car.

You should be careful on the motorway though, it’s illegal to run out of fuel on the motorway and you can get 3 points and a fine if you do.

My petrol light comes on with 60 miles left. It's very cautious. Also does a panic beep when it's 4° no other temperature!

I’ll admit I used to let it go down to zero but the two times I have run out means I now generally fill it up when it gets down to 25/30 miles.

A quarter empty? Or a quarter full? Surely if it’s only a quarter empty you’ve 3/4s of a tank left so no need to rush to fill it up?

I can get 40 miles after the light goes on. I wouldn’t risk it any further though. I fill up as soon as I can but reset my mileage gauge when it beeps so I don’t panic about getting too low if I can’t fill up straight away.

My little Peugeot has a mile counter that tells you how far you can go after the petrol light goes on and counts them down. It does 30 miles on empty.

f

Eek I did not know it was illegal to run out of fuel on the motorway! Looking at a map now I’ve realised I was actually 5 miles to the motorway and I pressed the find nearest petrol station button on my car as soon as I got to the motorway so it was weird how quickly it counted down but I did hit every red light on my way there so may have had something to do with it. I was a total idiot so lesson learnt. I know which petrol stations have pay at pump so don’t need to get dc out of the car so was going to try and hold out for that one. Thanks for the responses! Will def try and be more responsible and less Clarkson 🤣

I always drive when low on fuel 😬 but never let it get to 0 miles. Ive been down to 3 miles before with an almost 3 mile drive to the petrol station.

The pp post about driving up a hill on low has terrified me 😄

Yes, quarter full - I knew what I meant