Longest you've gone without stopping for gas

Started by tidecat, February 17, 2013, 07:52:49 PM

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agentsteel53

I just did 373 in my Taurus, on 13.6 gallons.  27mpg isn't astonishingly good, but it's a good 60 miles longer than I'd ever stretched it.  I just had a head gasket job (blew a gasket climbing I-8 a few weeks back... dang!) so I think the engine being taken apart and put back together again really helped the mileage.  my last trip, I averaged 27mpg instead of my usual 23.
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kphoger

On our most recent trip, which was to Branson, we used two tanks of gas, and each of them had more miles than I'd ever gone on one tank of gas.  That, at first, seemed pretty impressive, since the drive included air conditioning and Ozark driving.  However, each fill-up also took more gas than I'd ever put in the tank before.  I'd never put in much more than 17 gallons, and that's by going about 20 or 30 miles with the empty light on.  The most recent fill-up took 19 gallons, and the light had only just come on.  What would cause such an unexpected change?  Do gas gauges actually change like that, to where the empty light comes on at a different point?
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#77
Quote from: kphoger on July 22, 2013, 04:07:54 PMI'd never put in much more than 17 gallons, and that's by going about 20 or 30 miles with the empty light on.  The most recent fill-up took 19 gallons, and the light had only just come on.  What would cause such an unexpected change?  Do gas gauges actually change like that, to where the empty light comes on at a different point?

Your gas gauge might be getting old.  Mine was well past "E" on the latter part of the Wichita road meet drive despite the trip odometer (reset at the last fillup) reading just 154 miles--and I usually get at least 270 miles on a tank even with heavy A/C use.  The needle moved to a more reasonable level the next time I started the engine.

Owner's manuals tell big fibs too.  I was driving a 2009 Honda Fit over Labor Day weekend last year when I encountered a 70-mile fuel desert on US 64 in northern New Mexico driving east.  (I could have filled up soon after starting out in Farmington, but none of the service stations I passed looked like it had easy in-and-out, pay-at-the-pump, or was on the right side of the road, etc.)  When I finally filled up at Dulce, which is the first opportunity to refuel after Bloomfield, I put close to 12 gallons in a tank for which the owner's manual listed a nominal capacity of 10.5 gallons.  It had been over 570 miles since the last fillup.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

agentsteel53

Quote from: J N Winkler on July 22, 2013, 09:24:19 PMnone of the service stations I passed looked like it had easy in-and-out, pay-at-the-pump, or was on the right side of the road, etc.

I see your standards are the same as mine.

I also sometimes add "bathroom accessible without key".  I've been known to walk up and say "you want me to beg to use your bathroom.  you just lost a customer."
live from sunny San Diego.

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formulanone

Quote from: kphoger on July 22, 2013, 04:07:54 PMDo gas gauges actually change like that, to where the empty light comes on at a different point?

There's probably no pre-determined point, except for the one set by the manufacturer of the fuel metering unit. If it's warning you at totally variable points on the gauge, or giving false readouts, it's gone bad.

I've heard of Car & Driver mentioning that some models just have lights warn you earlier than other cars, but I can't recall for the life of me what that might be. Some economy cars eschew the light, so you have to pay attention...

Every car I've owned with a low fuel warning light tends to light up with about 1.5 gallons to go. My Scion shows the tank in a LCD display of eighths, and the last eighth blinks slowly at first, then quickly a few miles later, and then every half-second if you're really stretching it! If I encounter that last scenario, only about one-half gallon of fuel remains, the second one means I've left about one gallon and a little change.

There's one notable exception I've run into, and that's our minivan. The Mazda 5 tends to light up the warning light and display 1/12th remaining, but when we "fill" the tank, roughly 12.5-12.7 gallons are required. The manual shows 15.9 gallons. We had the fuel tank replaced due to an unrelated issue, and filled the very-nearly empty tank up with 15.7 gallons. So the fuel warning light seems to go off about 3 gallons early!

agentsteel53

I once had a rental Chevy (either a Cobalt or an Aveo) suddenly drop its "estimated fuel left" digital readout from 47 miles to 1 mile, with no intermediate value ever shown.  I was near a gas station, so I stopped...

I had about 4 gallons left.
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1995hoo

Some people on the Acurazine forum were complaining that the "miles to empty" display in the third-generation TL displays a zero reading well before the car runs out of gas. I've never tried to push it, but it makes sense that they'd have it display zero ahead of time for a couple of reasons. The main one I see is that any such computer-generated statistic is only an estimate and can never be more than that. The computer has no way of knowing when you might hit traffic or something else that will radically change your fuel consumption–for example, you're driving along averaging 25 mpg and then you hit a traffic jam where an overturned truck blocked the road and you sit there averaging 0 mpg (let's assume it's too hot outside for you to turn off the car). Obviously, the "miles to empty" readout from before the traffic jam will no longer be accurate.
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formulanone

Quote from: 1995hoo on July 23, 2013, 03:09:59 PM
Some people on the Acurazine forum were complaining that the "miles to empty" display in the third-generation TL displays a zero reading well before the car runs out of gas. I've never tried to push it, but it makes sense that they'd have it display zero ahead of time for a couple of reasons.

Same on my Scion (it warns of between 0-10 miles left at the moment the gauge reads 1/8-remaining) and apparently most Toyotas/Lexuses; I've heard the concern dozens of times from my customers. Like you said, I think it's trying to be cautious to the point of not inconvienencing the driver, although I usually leave my multi-function computer on either miles/trip/tank fuel economy (not that instantaneous one).

1995hoo

Quote from: formulanone on July 23, 2013, 03:15:54 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on July 23, 2013, 03:09:59 PM
Some people on the Acurazine forum were complaining that the "miles to empty" display in the third-generation TL displays a zero reading well before the car runs out of gas. I've never tried to push it, but it makes sense that they'd have it display zero ahead of time for a couple of reasons.

Same on my Scion (it warns of between 0-10 miles left at the moment the gauge reads 1/8-remaining) and apparently most Toyotas/Lexuses; I've heard the concern dozens of times from my customers. Like you said, I think it's trying to be cautious to the point of not inconvienencing the driver, although I usually leave my multi-function computer on either miles/trip/tank fuel economy (not that instantaneous one).

I don't look at the "miles to empty" all that often either. I've had the car since 2004 and so I generally have a pretty good sense of when I'll need to fill the tank regardless of what the display says or whether the idiot light is on. The other thing is, as I said somewhere prior in this thread, I've kind of reached the point where I'm less interested in seeing how far I can make it on a tank than I am in minimizing the number of stops, so I just fill up when I stop for lunch (if we're on a long drive) or prior to leaving (if we're going more than 100 miles roundtrip). Perhaps that might shift again in the coming years as I reach a point where an extra stop or two to stretch my legs or back becomes a necessity!

I usually have the display set to show the main odometer, trip meter "A" (unless I'm driving for business in which case I use trip meter "B" to keep track of what I need to write down for tax reasons), and the outside temperature. Speaking of which, the outside temperature also tends to be an estimate. Last Thursday it showed 109°F at one point after I'd stopped to buy beer; about ten minutes earlier, I'd made another stop and the display flatlined as "---°F," which is what it does when it determines the temperature is over 111°F. Neither reading was accurate, of course; the high was only in the high 90s.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

kphoger

Quote from: formulanone on July 23, 2013, 03:00:11 PM
Quote from: kphoger on July 22, 2013, 04:07:54 PMDo gas gauges actually change like that, to where the empty light comes on at a different point?

There's probably no pre-determined point, except for the one set by the manufacturer of the fuel metering unit. If it's warning you at totally variable points on the gauge, or giving false readouts, it's gone bad.

Right, I get that there's no predetermined point between different vehicle models.  But it strikes me as odd that the light always used to come on at about the point I could fill the car up with 16.5 gallons, where as now the light in the exact same car, twice in a row, came on at about the point I could fill it up with 18 gallons or more.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

MrDisco99

I think the longest I've gone was Key West to just north of the end of the FL pike.  According to Google that would've been 433 miles.  2006 Corolla LE, 13 gallon tank

Jardine

Back in the 80s we had a Chevy pickup, dual gas tanks, and an LP kit.  We could go 1500 miles with out refueling.

The LP setting didn't have as much power as the gasoline, but on level ground you wouldn't notice.  Pickup started much easier on gasoline, once it was all warmed up you could switch to LP and drive all day.

When we traded off the pickup, we kept the special LP equipment, but never put it on another rig, it wasn't compatible with, IIRC, fuel injection and maybe the newer electronics.

vegas1962

In the spring of 1982, my father and I did a week-long golf trip to Myrtle Beach with two neighbors, driving round-trip from metro Detroit.  We rode in our neighbor's mid-1970s era Olds Ninety-Eight, which had had the catalytic converter removed to allow it to use regular gas.  Leaving the NW suburbs of Detroit, our first gas stop was in Lake City, TN, approximately 493 miles by Google Maps.  Considering we were four guys in a car not known for high mileage, plus four golf bags + luggage in the trunk, I was impressed.  Gassed up in Lake City, then drove to Laurens, SC (230 miles) and stopped for the night.  Filled up the next morning, went the remaining distance to MB, did all our driving around MB on that tank and didn't gas up again until the day we left to drive home.

On the return trip, leaving Myrtle Beach with a full tank, we drove to Jefferson City, TN for dinner with my grandparents who lived there at the time, then made our planned overnight stop back in Lake City, TN (about 440 miles total) again with no gas stop.  We filled up in the morning and returned home to Michigan without another fill-up.

PHLBOS

#88
Quote from: vegas1962 on November 07, 2013, 06:04:33 PM
In the spring of 1982, my father and I did a week-long golf trip to Myrtle Beach with two neighbors, driving round-trip from metro Detroit.  We rode in our neighbor's mid-1970s era Olds Ninety-Eight, which had had the catalytic converter removed to allow it to use regular gas.  Leaving the NW suburbs of Detroit, our first gas stop was in Lake City, TN, approximately 493 miles by Google Maps.  Considering we were four guys in a car not known for high mileage, plus four golf bags + luggage in the trunk, I was impressed.  Gassed up in Lake City, then drove to Laurens, SC (230 miles) and stopped for the night.  Filled up the next morning, went the remaining distance to MB, did all our driving around MB on that tank and didn't gas up again until the day we left to drive home.

On the return trip, leaving Myrtle Beach with a full tank, we drove to Jefferson City, TN for dinner with my grandparents who lived there at the time, then made our planned overnight stop back in Lake City, TN (about 440 miles total) again with no gas stop.  We filled up in the morning and returned home to Michigan without another fill-up.
Assuming that the Olds Ninety-Eight you were in was likely a '75 model; it obviously was not equipped w/the 455 V8 but rather the smaller 400 V8; oddly, the '74s & '76s are listed as only having w/the 455.  The Olds Nintey-Eights of that era also had a 26-gallon gas tank.  Couple that with your listed miles and such would yield 16-18 mpg (assuming all highway miles).  Doable w/the 400, not so much w/the 455.
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ARMOURERERIC

Columbia SC to Chesapeake VA (Western Branch), 1985 Olds Toronado, April 1992

roadman65

Orlando, FL to somewhere in the Lower Keys of Florida.   300 plus miles, but this was back in 97 with a Ford.
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I94RoadRunner

Lake Delton, WI (I-90/94 at US 12) to Taylorsville, IN (I-65 at US 31): Went via US 12 (wanted to drive the new Baraboo bypass) through Madison, then I-39/90 south, continued on I-39 to Bloomington-Normal, then east on I-74 to I-65 south
Chris Kalina

“The easiest solution to fixing the I-238 problem is to redefine I-580 as I-38

Pete from Boston

About 525 miles in my then-11-year-old 1987 Honda Accord.  Probably could have kept going – it got 36 mpg highway. 

jpi

Most recently, Steph had to go to PA solo for a family issue ( I could not get time off) She drove our 09 Kia Spectra, left Lebanon, TN with a VERY full tank and made it to Troutville, VA (exit 150 of I-81) and was on empty. A distence of around 425 miles.
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I94RoadRunner

Another long distance was just last week on my road trip back from Florida: Riverview, FL (just south of I-4 on I-75) to just west of the FL 87 exit on I-10 (just east of Pensacola). Not sure if it beats the Delton Lakes to Taylorsville, however still a respectable distance
Chris Kalina

“The easiest solution to fixing the I-238 problem is to redefine I-580 as I-38

leroys73

Over 1000 miles in my Chevy 1/2 ton Pick up. On a trip from Lawton, OK to Canada I left home with one tank holding 20 gallons of gasoline, the other holding 36 gallons of gasoline, and another holding 62 gallons of propane for a total of 118 gallons of fuel. Too bad I did not have one of the larger propane tanks.
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ZLoth

#96
Last Fall, I went from Costco, Citrus Heights, CA to Costco, Roseburg, OR on a single tank, which was 416 miles. From there, I went to Costco, Sequim, WA, which was 389 miles. This was part of a road trip, and my car, a 2005 Chevy Malibu, was doing around 35 MPG on the freeway.

Go ahead and laugh at the Cosco-centric part of my trip. The Roseburg Costco was 3.2 miles away from the Best Western hotel, and I made sure to top off the night before as I was on the road again at 7 AM the next morning.
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catch22

Western Detroit suburbs to Charlotte, NC - about 635 miles, back in 1984.  I had a Ford Ranger pickup, equipped with V-6, 5-speed manual, and the aux gas tank.

PenguinXL2

I think I've drove from PA to TE.(not Texas)

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