I’m an idiot (car related)

[Merryoldgoat]

I’ve just had my car collected for its annual service and MOT.

I’ve just realised that the fuel tank is nearly empty. I meant to refuel yesterday but given how little I’m out these days I forgot.

The light hasn’t come on but will soon I’m sure. Will it make the journey to the garage and back?

It’s probably about 6miles each way

YABU - the man will breakdown on the way

YANBU - it’ll be fine but you’ll get (rightly) told off when he brings it back.

I’m so annoyed with myself - I feel like my brain is a foggy bog these days.

How did people manage to wipe their own bottoms before the invention of mumsnet?

Depends on the car, @BarbaraofSeville

Get a petrol can and carry some with you. Then you can let yourself run out, and see how far you get.

I used to have an old car where the light never came on to indicate I was low on petrol. My latest one has and I felt confident, however one time I had a 15 mile journey and although the light had come on I felt assured all would be okay. Once I was on the motorway I noticed the miles left until empty was going down alarmingly quickly and I would not make it to my destination. I was forced to pull off the motorway and pray I would find a petrol station quickly.
Lesson learnt, now when it shows 100 miles left in petrol I fill up.
I have actually read that it is not good for your engine to let your petrol tank go slow low.

Welcome to the world of petrol light chicken. It's a game changer and can add a bit of extra excitement to any commute .

@BarbaraofSeville

For those of you with miles to empty count downs, has anyone gone past the zero level and still not run out?

I've got to 0 or 5 miles more than once, a couple of times in quite nerve wracking situations (on the motorway at night because I missed the exit to the petrol station I was going to fill up at and in the Scottish Borders because there wasn't a petrol station where I thought there was one, it was about 20 miles further on) but I haven't actually run out since I was a teenager running a car that I couldn't really afford so never had any money to put petrol in it.

Just wondering how close I was to running out. I wouldn't plan to leave it that late, but am also too lazy to go to the petrol station unless I actually need to, and also too tight to go to the expensive one today, when I might be passing the cheaper one tomorrow IYSWIM.

Ha! @BarbaraofSeville you sound like me, playing chicken with petrol stations in the Borders is always fun, less so when a road closes and you have a 50mile diversion (or the planned petrol station closes unexpectedly for 'family reasons'). You may have seen me, white faced, urging my car homes on fumes on occasions ;)

I don’t think it will be an issue especially if the light hasn’t come on yet. I’m sure the driver will appreciate a packet of biscuits (only if it’s possible to do so) as a thank you for saving you the trip into the garage. Failing that I’m sure they would be grateful of your appreciation. These guys are worked extremely hard and deal with a lot of entitled ungrateful people.

I have a friend who plays what he calls petrol roulette, to see if he can get the car down to 1 mile before he needs to fill up. It freaks me out so much everytime he does it with me in the car, I took to refusing to travel with him unless he could prove he had enough petrol. He is a dick though.

@crimsonlake

I used to have an old car where the light never came on to indicate I was low on petrol. My latest one has and I felt confident, however one time I had a 15 mile journey and although the light had come on I felt assured all would be okay. Once I was on the motorway I noticed the miles left until empty was going down alarmingly quickly and I would not make it to my destination. I was forced to pull off the motorway and pray I would find a petrol station quickly. Lesson learnt, now when it shows 100 miles left in petrol I fill up. I have actually read that it is not good for your engine to let your petrol tank go slow low.

Right. It introduces all the fuel tank sediment into the engine.

You get at least 50 miles once the light comes on, so you’re worrying for nothing

Nonsense. Fairly obviously, this depends entirely on your car. We have 2, one you will get 70km at least after the light goes on, the other...well if you wait for the light you've probably already run out of petrol.

@Miniwinnie

I don’t think it will be an issue especially if the light hasn’t come on yet. I’m sure the driver will appreciate a packet of biscuits (only if it’s possible to do so) as a thank you for saving you the trip into the garage. Failing that I’m sure they would be grateful of your appreciation. These guys are worked extremely hard and deal with a lot of entitled ungrateful people.

How on earth can you know this? Many garages charge for car collection, it's a service they provide to people who need it because their car is not working or the owner decides it's not worth it to them to drop off and collect for whatever reason. It's part of the job.

As for whether people who work in garages are 'worked extremely hard' some will be, some won't be. Most of the mechanics I know seem pretty happy with their lot.

@Winterwoollies

SoVeryLost

It really shouldn't be, a full tank should do roughly 500 miles (normal driving not taking into account heavy accelerating and breaking). It costs 40 quid to fill my tank but I can still do 500 miles on a full tank. It costs a friend almost £100 and she can only make it do 400 miles, on the occasions I've driven her car I get a much better MPG out of it.

are you under the impression that cars all have the same engine sizes?

No. However they all have different tank sizes and they should all do roughly 500 miles with a full tank driven at optimum conditions, some can do far better.

Lots of people drive on their accelerator and are surprised that I can do as many miles on so little petrol and when I see how they drive I'm not surprised that their MPG is through the floor. Not driving at 70 on the motorways makes a huge difference, 55ish is optimum for MPG but I'm not that fussed about MPG especially if I'm driving 100's of miles.

I stupidly did the same and phoned them, they said it was no problem and they took it to a nearby garage for fuel and asked how much I wanted put in. I baked them brownies for when I went to collect it

@Elai1978

I really think car maintenance and understanding of how they bloody work should be part of theory testing.

I quite agree, if you don’t have at least a basic understanding of how a car works you’ve got no business driving one.

There are questions on the practical test now.

@Winterwoollies

I think if people want to drive they have a duty to understand the massive piece of machinery they’re driving. Jesus Christ.

Thanks for this.

I understand that the car needs fuel. I can refuel it easily and had planned to today. I forgot about the service.

I don’t think anyone expects all car drivers to be a mechanic.

Do you understand everything you use? Could you take your computer apart if something was amiss and reassemble it? Could you repair your gas job if it was acting oddly? Your boiler?

Didn’t think so.

I hope being sanctimonious is fun for you. It’s not like I came on and said ‘what? A car needs fuel to run?!’

@psychopompos

How did people manage to wipe their own bottoms before the invention of mumsnet?

Well if this isn’t a case of reductio adsurdum I’m not sure what is.

@Elai1978

It really shouldn't be, a full tank should do roughly 500 miles (normal driving not taking into account heavy accelerating and breaking). It costs 40 quid to fill my tank but I can still do 500 miles on a full tank. It costs a friend almost £100 and she can only make it do 400 miles, on the occasions I've driven her car I get a much better MPG out of it.

Nonsense, some cars will do 200 miles on a full tank whilst others 3 or 4 times that under similar use. It’s also quite possible for 1/4 of a £100 tank to do fewer miles that 1/4 of a £40 tank, consumption is the key rather than the size of a tank.

So actually you are agreeing partially with me, the previous poster that I quoted was stating that a 1/4 of £40 worth of petrol would do less than a 1/4 of £100 tank of petrol.

Consumption generally is linked to the size of tank for example a car that does 56MPG (as advertised, rarely do they do that in real world driving) will have a much smaller tank than one that is advertised as 28 MPG. I'm surprised people didn't learn all this in driving lessons...

Absurdum obviously. Twatty tired fingers.

Just give them a call and say you're sorry you forgot to put fuel in, please can they put in £20 and add it to your bill? Problem sorted!

@WhereverIGoddamnLike

I'm guessing that the people on here dont realise that driving with your fuel so low is dangerous for you. It causes the fuel pump to run hotter and wear out faster, or just totally break. Stoo driving for miles with your warning light on and put fuel into you cars!

Sorry but I have got to ask where you got this theory from?

The FIP is either electric or driven by the engine - the amount of fuel in the tank has no bearing whatsoever on its performance. It runs until there is no fuel - then the engine stops and it stops.

There is no reason at all to panic when the yellow warning light comes on. Even if you run out of fuel it will not damage the engine or the pump. Only thing it will damage is your wallet paying for the rescue truck to come.

Depends on the car. My car is old too (2004) and the fuel light comes on about 10 seconds before it actually runs out of fuel.

Every other car I’ve ever had though has done a good few miles after the light comes on so you’ll probably be ok.

It’s going to be fine with that level of mileage to go

But should you possibly be low at some time then it’s worthwhile thinking ahead of what of you run out:

Petrol engines are ‘fine’ if you run out then it’s a long walk to a garage, fill up a petrol can, walk back to the car, fill up, start and go
There is the risk of ‘dirty’ fuel getting in with anything nasty that’s been sat in the tank

Diesel engines are more of a problem. The recommendation is to not run out of fuel
But if you do then you need to pump the diesel in through the system to clear air.
More modern cars may automatically do that, and you have to switch the ignition to just ‘on’ for a little longer before trying to start.
For other cars you may need to go under the bonnet and pump a rubber valve, poke about with a couple of tools etc

If you have a disel then look up your car on google/YouTube to prewarn yourself before you are stuck with no signal

It’s going to be fine with that level of mileage to go

Or not. Can people stop making declarations that may or may not be true?
( would be helpful all over this site, tbh)

Lights are very unreliable! I set off yesterday with 60 miles of fuel, according to the readout, I intended to fill up when I was out. After 3 miles it read 40 then a couple of miles later it dropped to 30, the warning light came on and the warning alarm went off!

My dh annoys me by occasionally bringing my car home with 5miles left on the gauge, i always manage to do the 7miles to the garage but I wont lie I'm sweating as I do it

@ThatchersCold

Depends on the car. My car is old too (2004) and the fuel light comes on about 10 seconds before it actually runs out of fuel.

Every other car I’ve ever had though has done a good few miles after the light comes on so you’ll probably be ok.

This wasn’t super comforting but I’m guessing I’d have heard by now if it hasn’t made it.

I’m going to call and apologise in a min after my next meeting.