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??

Have fond memories of the time I ran out of fuel on the motorway at 11 pm. Had to walk about 2 miles to the services so it could have been a lot worse. I was just walking up the slip road with my petrol container when a sarcastic policeman stopped to give me a lift. I do think he could have offered to pay for the fuel!

That was a car with a faulty fuel gauge - not entirely my fault!

But the joy of being single is there's no one to berate you for these things - you can just enjoy the experience in peace

Nooooo he's talking rubbish. Morning happened. I'd ask him why he's babysitting you? I let mine go to zero and then some

I filled mine up at 20 today. It's not usual for me as I don't like being in a situation where I can't just jump into my car and go and and see my mum 60 miles away but sometimes I just don't feel like stopping off and filling up.

Mmm I have to be honest I never let mine go below 50, I have a diesel and running out can be really bad. 'The miles to go' is based on average consumption, so Is massively unreliable if you generally do short journeys at low speed then have done a long journey at motorway speeds. As an example on a recent rarer long journey my miles to go increased from 310 to 390 by journeys end, then the following day when I was back to normal driving dropped to 260, even though I only drove 15 miles that following day. That said, your husband is a knob.

I pulled into a fuel station yesterday with 11 miles left on the tank 🤣. I don't usually like the amber light coming on, but yesterday was an exception

Doing that is not good for the car

Lol, I often go to 0 then one part of my head says oh there's 35 mikes in the reserve, the other part of my head says Noooooo, you are going to run out of petrol, quick,quick,disaster is coming. I nearly came unstuck once with a very old mini where the LED lights on the gauge started to go. It said 0 and I was miles from a petrol station. Then I realised it actually said 60 but the winky lights of the 6 had faded and died.

You still have 50 miles left after it gets to zero

Those who are regularly running on fumes, please take heed. All the 'muck' gets pulled up from the bottom of your tank and eventually blocks your fuel filter. I speak from experience 😳

You might personally prefer to fill up before the range gets as low as 40 miles, but would you berate your partner for not doing the same? I seriously hope not.

This isn't about his fuelling preferences, it's about his behaviour towards the OP when she made a decision he didn't agree with.

Going down to zero isn't great for the car, but going down to 40 is fine.

Personally I wouldn’t. That’s because I once was driving my car and it said 35 miles left. Little did I know that the petrol gauge had gone faulty and it was actually lying. It actually had 0 and I ran out of petrol on a fuel carriageway doing 60. Pretty terrifying putting your foot down and nothing happening except the car dramatically slowing. Even more so now that smart motorways are everywhere. I like to know roughly in my mind when I last put some in and also check frequently that the miles / ticker is going down as it should. Anything less than 1/4 or a tank and I top up.

*duel

I wouldn't want to leave a car like this, but we are all different.

Our nearest petrol station is less than a mile away, but it's very expensive. I usually go to one about 7 miles away, and tend to fill up whenever I happen to be passing.

Interesting. It is diesel I should add. I just wrote petrol in my OP as I was in a rush to type it out and didn’t think details like that mattered.

I used to have a vintage car - standard herald (before triumph took over)
It had a reserve fuel tank so if you ran out - you just opened the boot and moved a lever and it gave you an extra gallon of petrol
These days my car beeps at you if you drop below 75 miles - so I just fill at either Tesco or Sainsbury’s when doing a food shop to get the extra loyalty points
This week that meant Sainsbury’s at 120 miles left as I wanted to use the double points coupon
All that said I would not tolerate his attitude - you do you!

We have 2 cats. I tend to drive one till the petrol light is flashing then get in the other. Drives my DP mad! He is a good sort though and just fills them up!

I've let it go to zero once or twice, I took a photo once because I was so happy I'd made to the petrol station on zero - your husband would hate me, but then again I wouldn't put up with his shit, sorry you have to.
Hope you get to LTB xxx

Cars obvs. I don't have any cats

For those who run their tank down to 0, don't do this! The car will be having to filtler through a lot of gunk. Best to top it up before it runs empty, maybe about 20 miles left.

You’re trying to make this about misandry. It’s not

No I;m making it about common sense ( deliberately running low with two DC in the car when you can fill up safely and courtesy if someone else uses the car .
And the commonest cause of breakdown on the motorway is ,,,,,running out of fuel.

And the "I was right to do this" not "Oh I got away with it this time" attitude

I;d be pissed off if my DH/DS/DD/ whoever did this.
But this is MN . .

A lot of years ago now I had all sorts of trouble with my car because I regularly ran it low of fuel. Apparently the bottom bits of the tank can get dirt in it and muck the car up.
After that, I've never let the car get too low of fuel, and it annoys me that my DH doesn't believe me about 'dirty fuel'.
I'm sure cars are probably different now, but I don't want to risk the problems again.

Remember the days when we had absolutely no idea how much petrol we had left?. The nerves of the pointy thing bouncing precariously in the red which may move depending on your cornering. The preying you make it to a petrol station in time…

you DH is being a bit of a doofus btw but I am sure he as just worried about you!

Mobile phones and my laptop I sometimes let run to zilch ( on advice on the IT dept)
But I;m not driving my phone on the M25 !

I regularly run my car down to less than 10 miles left 🤷‍♀️ if I was driving on a motorway to somewhere i wasn’t familiar with then I’d probably be more cautious but if I knew I had X number of miles until I was home and knew I had more than enough petrol to get there then I’d just sort it out another day.