To have run the petrol down to 40 miles left

[Baby3or]

I recently drove 115 miles on a motorway back to London suburbs. I was watching the petrol number the whole way (it gives it in miles left to go before it’s empty) and at 70 I was considering stopping for petrol (lots of places on the motorway and then lots of places in city suburbs on the way to our house). I decided not to stop as baby was asleep and also our older child was keen to get home after a long journey.

we live less than a mile from a big supermarket with a petrol station and also plenty of other places to fill up.

husband had a go at me saying ‘what would I have done if we had run out of petrol / how had I let myself get in that situation’ I said I was fully aware how much was left and I made a decision not to refuel as on balance it was low but not empty.

AIBU??

We had to do about 20miles on zero miles left, we ere literally running on vapour. Petrol strikes in France!

I never fill up until the light is on unless I'm going on a long journey.

Depends where you run out of fuel.

I ran out on a duel carriageway. The car did slow pretty quickly which did scare me and could have been serious - but I did manage to get it to safety.

Hahaha! Mine too! I'd have no idea what to do in a new car- they look terrifying. Mines 2001 and perfect t for what it does

While being incredibly skint I've run mine down to 2, so tell your husband to chill out

I’m regularly slumming it in the 0’s I switch on the mileage counter as soon as I hit it, you’d be surprised how far you can go the dregs.

I've just got a 3 year old car. It IS terrifying! It's so bossy. The rear window doesn't have good visibility, I'm supposed to use a reversing camera which I hate. It beeps CONSTANTLY for one reason or another, except I drove all the way to the supermarket with the boot slightly open which it failed to notify me. I felt much more confident in my old rust bucket.

How do you think that would even work? The engine neither knows not cares how much petrol is left in the tank.

Yes not pleasant but you were fine.

Same. The petrol light is the “time to go to the petrol station” light in my head.

i drove all the way from Gloucester to Bristol with the light on once (forgot we needed petrol before I set off, was late so no time to stop on the way). Diesel car as well. Totally fine

This isn't true. The fuel pipe is at the lowest point in the tank (for obvious reasons) so any debris in the bottom tank will get "sucked in" regardless of how full the tank is. And this is exactly what the fuel filter is for.

We only live a couple of miles from the motorway so most of a long journey will be on a motorway. I'd be nervous if my car was predicting I'd only have 40 left because if there is an accident/roadworks with lots of stop/starts, the petrol will soon run down (been there more than once and it's not worth the stress, especially with small children in the car).
But as PP said, it sounds like the petrol thing isn't the real problem.

Thank you. Thought it sounded like an old gits tale.

My DH thinks I’m overly cautious for filling up when I get to about 20/30 miles left in the tank - he regularly runs his to 0 as he says there’s a good 20 miles still left then and it’s a waste of time to go to the petrol station more often than needed.

I think my car is on 32 at the moment and the red light went on a couple days ago. I'm less than a mile from a station though.
However I did once run out of petrol when one car I had was on 42. Luckily I was just pulling in to a petrol station!

Running a petrol car down to 40 is perfectly fine, even down to zero whilst not advisable should occasionally be OK.

However don't ever run a diesel to zero as you will have serious problems.

It's actually good to run the fuel tank almost down to empty now and then. Gives it a good clean out.

It’s also worth knowing how many miles to the gallon your car will do, urban and motorway (approx). Modern cars have much more accurate gauges and warning systems, but older ones you need a bit more human input. (Talking pre 2000’s here, we have a 1971 MGB, when this gets into red section of dial, we fill it up. There are no lights, bells or whistles😁)

Engineers will tell you that the more you run it down, the more 'crud' you get, the quicker your engine messes up, and the more oil changes you need to do, etc.

I see both sides, but once or twice isn't going to matter much.

ROFL - he'd hate me - I once delivered my kid to playschool with less than 5km left (I was essentially running on fumes) - luckily made it up to the petrol station 2km away to fill up.

I do tend to leave it until 20km or so even now (although with a plugin hybrid that's less of a thing than with petrol only) - just because I have to go out of my way to get to a petrol station, so put it off as long as possible.

I don't think many cars these days have a carburettor in them!

Cars have a least 10-15 mile range even when the light is flashing. He’s being a tad pedantic. You’re a responsible adult with children. If he keeps making a fuss let him go and keep filling it up. Give him a job to do to stop his whinging.

Motorways can get blocked, long diversions etc, never mind the badly planned allegedly necessary roadworks. For that reason I think you should have filled up earlier. Would not feel the same if you were just doing local journeys for a few days.

It is perfectly normal that’s why the AA gets called out to over 10,000 people who have run out of fuel every year, it’s not a big deal if you don’t mind waiting by the side of the road for a couple of hours.

I think it depends on what kind of driving you do. I posted earlier how I'll allow mine to run low but my job is driving. Most days I'm driving 100-300 miles. Today was a short one at 50 and I had 90 miles when I set off. I could have got there and I knew it was close to a petrol station but as I was near to a petrol station when I set off, I just went in. I can't be arsed with any stress and would have range anxiety if I had electric. I only have a 300 odd mile tank as it's a hybrid. I go to the petrol station every other day as a minimum. Urgh.

Always drive down to 5-10 miles in our diesel car, then fill up to 700-800. But wait till you have on EV, return home most days on <20