How far you can drive on empty?

[adil]

Just found this nice infographics from "your mechanic" site, thought of sharing it here.

Just FYI 1 mile = 1.6 kms, so do your math accordingly.

[Allstar]

This is one fantastic post and good find, I always used to wonder that how much I can stretch in case of emergency. Thanks for sharing this graphic. Cheers man.

[Rahimdad]

Really nice find and this tells me that a car is left with a little over 2 gallons, As per my observation with most of the cars I have owned I would believe that there was little over a gallon as I could drive upto 50 Kms after the petrol light came on. However recently I just don't take a chance and fill in sometimes even before the light comes on, but recently I have to go to Baniyas Island in Abu Dhabi and with more than quarter tank remaining I passed a petrol station thinking I will get it filled in on the next pump. The next pump was not visible as my petrol light came on and I tried to drive at a constant speed lower than the road limit just to conserve fuel as I had no clue when I would get to see a petrol station again. Over 300 Kms to drive, petrol light on and not a petrol station in sight, to add to it the road was all dug up and a huge project going on. 10 Kms done after the petrol light had come on, 20 Km, 30 Kms, 40 Kms, 50 Kms and now my wife was like looking at me and cursing me for not filling up earlier. 60 Kms since the petrol light had come on and now I was getting worried as the car felt like it was going to cough up at any time, further more the challenge was to reach on time for the boat to depart in just under 2 hours with another 240 + Kms to go. Finally, it was in sight, a board that said the next petrol station was available in 2 Kms, but I could not see anything as far as my eyes could go, and due to the roads being all dug up a doubt started to set if the petrol station would still be there. Relief at last as the petrol station shone through just as the sun was setting. After filling the tank to the brim, i wiped my sweat and looked at my wife and exclaimed, It was all part of the plan, I know what I am doing, you should trust me more. I am sure my wife knew how I was thanking God deep inside for managing to survive and getting the petrol station when all hopes had diminished, but with a smile she just commented, can we move now, we need to reach there in less than 2 hours and I know its still a long way to go.

How I wish I had this information earlier, but i am sure in the situation we were in, we would be sweating it out all the same.

[brandan]

So average is 1.6 gallons to 3 gallons means 6-11 liters in reserve. Not bad it can easily fetch 50-100 kms, so we should stop panicking after seeing low fuel ⛽ light.

[cyborg]

I guess this reserve tank capacity is linked to size of the car, its fuel tank and its fuel consumption depending on the driver foot size.

Nice post, very unique way of looking into common issues.

[Barry]

I would like some of the figures to be a bit more accurate than 35-80 miles. 45 miles is a big distance!

I used to have a VW Polo and I wanted to know how far it would go before it actually conked out so I put a gallon jar of petrol in the boot and set out. I got quite a suprise when the needle went way below the zero mark. Running out of fuel used to be one of my favourite hobbies. Always had to be somewhere and never had time to go to the petrol station, too much rushing. Not to much trouble on a petrol car, just put fuel in again and go but caused a lot of problems in some diesels I had, especially older ones which would airlock and were a PITA to get going again at the side of the road.