Left home in the car this morning, trip computer predicted range 95 miles, destination 140 miles away. Couldn’t be bothered to divert to a petrol station at the start of my journey not in much of a hurry and know a nice convenient one near the end, so decided to ultramile it – long motorway trip, never going above 60, lots of time following (not too closely) in the wake of lorries.

80 miles to go range is up to 120 miles. 40 miles to go a long uphill results in range dipping to 40 miles. 10 miles to go range is under 20 miles. Onto the slip road range is 9 miles. Pulling to a stop at the roundabout with 1/4 mile to go range is 0 miles.

Predicted range after filling up:

(nominal 70 litre tank, though I only squeezed in 65 litres, so that equates to over 90mpg, which is presumably what I’d been averaging over whatever distance it calculates).

Where’s the fun in that? (Making progress etc.)

I bet you would not be posting that if the fumes had run out… 😆

There’s probably a safety margin- you can drive a mondeo for miles on 0.

I’ve twice coasted into a petrol station on the motorbike, absolutely dry… Not pushing it in, that lacks class, just… Going over the top of the last hill firing occasionally on one cylinder, then rolling down into the welcoming embrace of the garage, sort of thing. It gives the most astonishing feeling of wellbeing, it must be what being religious feels like.

aracer are you one of those guys that logs every single ride he ever does?

Collect stamps?

Spot trains?

I used to get 30 miles out of my old petrol focus once it had got to zero – I tested it once to see how far I’d get before it spluttered. Isn’t the “reserve” tank like 5 litres or something?

How manky is your dashboard?!

I once tried this in mrs j’s Kia. The bloody thing goes from 30 miles to go to zero in a single change. Shat myself on the m6 the first time it did it 😆

I once coasted my car right up to the pumps having run dry, feeling all smug about what a great tale it was going to be.

Then found out I’d left my wallet at home, and there was no cash in the car. Not even change to be found under the seats. Nothing.

Manager refused to let me put in £5 and return to pay him back, so I just say there blocking a pump until my wife could come along and make fun of me rescue me from myself…

Haven’t run out since, although now we have kids I’m much less entertained by the prospect of dicing with being stranded.

I also learnt that my big mistake was asking the manager, rather than just telling him after the fact. Seriously, I had gone in side and got my face all over the CCTV, and asked a favour. No one who’s trying to steal £5 of fuel does that…

😆 a long motorway trip doesn’t provide any of the thrill of making progress™ without licence risking speeds. Doing this was strangely involving in a way the trip usually isn’t.

@matt, no it’s a topic about cutting it fine, not cutting it too fine!

Yeah I’ve done 5 miles or so on 0 before now, which was reassuring (as is the way I only get 65 litres in when it registers 0), but not on an occasion where I needed to be somewhere like today!

@al, no I’m rubbish at keeping records, I’m not sure why this post would give you that idea, stats are from memory and may not be 110% accurate.

It’ll be even better once your engine’s run in.

Pah, that’s nothing. We came back from Cyprus to Leeds Bradford at 02.00 one Sunday morning to be picked up by my stepson, in my car which he’d managed to drive on virtually empty from Boroughbridge. ‘Where’s there a petrol station that’ll be open on the way home’ he asked! (WTF!!) I drove from the airport to Harrogate on zero miles left in the tank & the needle bouncing off the red bit. I’d left the bloody car with about 1/4 of a tank but he’d used it twice for work cos his car was unwell! Divvy!!

I got 3 points for running out on the motorway slip road just 500yards from the petrol station.

Last time I played petrol roulette

There’s easily twenty miles left in that.

I once ran out pulling into the garage forecourt. Had to push it the last ten yards or so up to the pump. That’s cutting it fine.

I got 3 points for running out on the motorway slip road just 500yards from the petrol station.

What on earth was the endorsement?

A few months ago my car was having a sporadic problem with a flat battery. I’d been working in Poland and came back at midnight to find the battery flat. After stroke of luck in getting a jump from aa van that just happened to be in the same carpark assisting a member, of which I’m not, I drive about half a mile before the fuel light came on. The trip computer read 60 miles range left and with about that to drive home I decided I could make it rather than risk the car not starting after filling up. That was until I added another 40 miles by taking the wrong exit into the motorway. The computer went to 0 at 25 miles to go. At 15 I pulled into a petrol station to find it closed for refit. At 10 to go and running on vapour I found a open station and filled up with the car running. I had jump leads but suspected jumping the car by the pump was a dank sight more dangerous than any supposed risk from fueling with the engine running.

What on earth was the endorsement?

It’s illegal to drive on a motorway knowing you’re going to break down.

Is your fuel filler cap on the passenger side OP?

His filler cap is on the driver side judging by the picture

Well I used to be a fuel light Russian Rouletter…

I found an early Mondog would go exactly 10 miles after the warning light lit before conking out, a Passat will go exactly 1.5 Miles further if you have already done 60 miles after the warning, a Saab 95 really did have a 50 mile reserve, a Honda Blackbird is quite heavy to push with 180 miles on the odo but zero go juice in the tank and very recently, a V70 will take just over 70 litres of supermarket jungle juice in a 70 litre tank if you wait long enough before refueling.

I am, however, reformed 🙂

Would easily have done another 30 miles

My Megan will do over 50 miles after the trip says zero and I have done 60 when pushing it.

My Triumph Herald had a ‘reserve tank’ where you could flip a lever in the boot and move the petrol pickup to the bottom of the tank to get a final half gallon out of it so I never worried about running out.

I ran out of fuel in the middle of a small village, got out smugly and went to flip the lever to ‘reserve’. Only it was already on reserve from the previous time I’d done it.

It was a long walk to the nearest petrol station.

was the day I moved from UK to NL, tanking up the van (forget if it was belgium or holland), and caught a glimpse of someone coming in to the petrol station a bit hot, and squeezing between the van and a car on the opposite pump to get to the ones in front of ours.

was funny watching him fill up from about 3m away from the pump with car virtually abandoned diagonally between sets of pumps.

can’t cut it much finer than that. can just imagine the thought that went thru his mind when he thought “yes, can just coast in”, and then “ar5e biscuits”, as he realised every “near” pump was occupied but those closest to the shop had been vacated.

I don’t think I’d be too worried about there not being a vacant pump once I’d made it onto the forecourt – not hard to push a normal car, or you can always do it on the starter (been there, done that).

There’s got to be a couple of pounds of dust on that dash. Clean that off and you’d get a few more miles out of it.

His filler cap is on the driver side judging by the picture

Could be a left hand drive car. 😉

Gary_M – Member
Is your fuel filler cap on the passenger side OP?

akira – Member
His filler cap is on the driver side judging by the picture

samuri – Member
Could be a left hand drive car

WTF are you lot on about ? Is it the arrow (I’d assumed that meant how many miles “to” (need) the next fuel pump 😳 )

WAIT !!
Durrr – I see the little diagram now

When I was a delivery driver one of the other lads played fuel light roulette.

Stupid thing to do as we had fuel cards so he wasn’t paying but basically he thought he jump on the motorway with the fuel light on so he could get to a garage where he could claim nectar points 🙄

He ran out on the carraigeway, rolled down a slip road and stopped on the hard shoulder. Realising his massive cock up he tried to save the day by walking to a petrol station to get some diesel. When he eventually found one, bought a can, filled it with diesel and was returning to the van, our supervisor rang him as the customers hadn’t had their deliveries.

At this point he had to confess to which he got a right roasting off the office but nothing compared to when he got near the van and saw it being dragged away by a police recovery wagon……

It was took to a garage where they couldn’t get it started, burnt out the starter motor and he ended up with a bill for recovery, starter motor, fuel and the time of a colleague who had to come out and rescue him.

Speeder – Member
My Megan will do over 50 miles after the trip says zero and I have done 60 when pushing it.

That’s going to give you a bad back if you’re not careful.

Surely with the time taken doing 60mph behind lorries you could have gone via the petrol station and not spent the whole journey expecting to break down?

@hooli There’s always one. Do you have to be so damn sensible? 😀