HOW FAR CAN YOU DRIVE WHEN THE FUEL WARNING LIGHT COMES ON?

HOW FAR CAN YOU DRIVE WHEN THE FUEL WARNING LIGHT COMES ON?

Running out of fuel can be a bit of an embarrassing situation as it’s usually brought on by forgetfulness, lack of money, disregard for the fuel gauge, or a combination of those factors.  Fortunately, most modern cars have a fuel warning light and when it illuminates, your thirsty car is demanding to be refilled.  So, when the light comes on, is it possible to tell exactly how much further you could go before refilling?

 

It’s all a bit of educated guesswork as to the exact distance your car can travel til empty.  You should be able to complete your journey, whether it’s a commute to work or school, or doing some shopping errands, or to the next service station if you are on a long trip.  As a rough guide, you should be able to travel another 15-20 kilometres before refilling the fuel tank.

 

For a more educated approach, take a look at your vehicle’s technical specifications, which can usually be found in the owner’s manual.  It should tell you how many litres are left in the tank when the warning light comes on.  This is the amount of reserve fuel and the light comes on when it reaches this level.  There is no standard for the size of a fuel tank reserve, but it’s usually somewhere around 15% of the total tank size should you not have a manual.  You can then work out your car’s normal fuel consumption to work out the distance your car can travel when low on fuel.

 

If you were to look at a Toyota Corolla, the fuel warning light comes on when there is 8.3 litres left in the fuel tank.  Let’s say, that car could travel at 8 litres / 100km, it might be possible, yet a bit risky, to travel a considerable distance before refilling.  If you don’t trust your own calculations, you can get some help online at http://www.tankonempty.com/ ,  it gives a fairly good guideline of how far you can go when that fuel warning light comes on -  just search for your car if it's not listed.  You will need to convert from miles to kilometres though.

 

A couple of notes of caution here.  Constantly running your car off its reserve fuel tank may cause damage to your car’s fuel pump.  If you happen to live where there is a marked change between day/night-time temperatures, a near empty tank will build up in condensation which could effectively begin to clog the fuel pump.  All good reasons to keep your fuel tank topped up.