Yesterday I was driving up from Miami to SC, and had just passed Jacksonville, FL, when I saw my gas guage was low. Very low. Like “E”. I shut off the A/C, pulled into the right lane and slowed down, and prepared to get off the next exit and fill 'er up. Darned it all if the car didn’t start chugging fifteen seconds later and slowed down to a stop. I FREAKIN RAN OUT OF GAS!!! I have NEVER done that before. I will point out in a feeble attempt at a defense that the 1998 Firebird does not have a “low fuel” light, buzzer, ding, or electric shock device to alert well-intentioned drivers like me that the combustion triangle is about to lose a leg, so I sat on the side of I-95 northbound, at Mile 369, and called Shell Motorist Club, my AAA alternative.
The rocket scientist manning the phones asks me the zip code for Jacksonville. Looking around and seeing no Post Office in sight, I told her I had no freakin clue what the zip code is, I’m on the interstate. I gave mile marker, highway, northbound direction, nearest town, and the next freakin exit, and she needs a postal code. She puts me on hold, saying she’s got to look for the zip code. 25 minutes later (all on my limited cell phone time) I hang up and call back, a little less patient than I was before. There is no service available for me. 15 miles from Jacksonville, FL, no service for Shell customers. I can get my own service and bill them. Rocket Scientist lady didn’t think to get back on the line with me and give me some sort of update during that 25 minutes of muzak, and I asked Rocket Scientist #2 to convey that to RS#1. RS#2 asked me to stop yelling at her. I explained the concept of keeping the stranded motorist informed, or at least letting them hang up and calling back. We said goodbye. After that, I was considering how the hell I was going to summon a gas can from the heavens (*HP didn’t work to get the Highway Patrol), when an I-95 Service truck pulled up behind me. The guy gave me a lift to the nearest gas station, lent me the gas can, and gave me a ride back to the car, which sprung back to life after the elixer of the dinosaurs was administered. The guy is not allowed to take money (it is a free service) so I gave $20 to the cat in his neighborhood he feeds. One hour and ten minutes after slowing to a stop, I am again on the road, headed for Turkey Time.
Anyway, not enough venom for a PIT rant, but seeing as I’ve been driving twenty years without running out of gas, has anyone else actually run out of gas on the highway before? Please tell me I’m not the only one.
Not me, but very close. I managed to get off in the next city and pull into the station.
Funny thing was, my car died just as I stopped in front of the pump.
About three years ago I drove across country in a '72 jeep wagoneer. On a mountain pass between Oregon and Calafornia, I ran out of gass between gas stations. I filled up at the last stop in OR and didn’t make it to the first stop in CA. I did make it all the way to VA in that old jeep, but it cost me over $700 in gas. I sold that old beast for $200. It now lives on a farm with its original OR plates. Now I drive a dodge.
Four times that I can remember, twice on a freeway, once on an on ramp, and once in an intersection.
One of those times, I knew I had to get gas and was just pulling onto the exit ramp, when the gas dried up. I had just enough inertia left to coast down the ramp, into the gas station, and up to the pump.
Mom said I come by it naturally - my father tried to wean their first car off of gas several times.
I was riding my 1994 Yamaha XJ-600 Seca II back to L.A. from Lake Havasu back in 1996 or 1997. As I approached 29 Palms I decided to slow down. As I did so, the engine sputtered. I pulled into an abandoned gas station and tried to figure out what was wrong. After getting nowhere, I finally switched to the reserve setting on the petcock. The bike fired right up. There is no fuel guage on many motorcycles, including this one. I was used to getting at least 200 miles before switching to reserve, but I had failed to take into account that fuel consumption is a little bit greater when you’ve been cruising at 120 mph. :o
I almost ran out of gas this week on my scooter.
In fact, I got on the bike, started it, and noticed the needle was already on E-- which usually means it’s time for a fill-up. I had to drive all the way to work before finding a gas station that was open before 5 am, and plunked 4.11 L into the tank. This is quite a feat, since the tank only holds 4 litres even… Obviously my gas tank has overdraft protection.
Back in the days when mobile phones were a status symbol… …no wait, it musta been a little more recently because I had one…my old clunker Ford Falcon ran out of petrol when I was climbing the dreaded Mt Victoria Pass west of Sydney.
“Heh!”, thinks TLD, “In the middle of nowhere? Not a problem. I’ve got my PHONE!” I’ll just call the NRMA (Aussie auto club), and get a patrolman out here".
To cut a long story short, I waited on the side of the road for an hour, and when the bloke came, he towed me to the petrol station which was a hundred yards away around the next bend. OK, so I didn’t know the station was there, but if I hadn’t had my phone, I’d have started walking, and would have saved myself an hour.
Well, not on the side of the road, but this one is just as bad…
When I was living in St. Pete, I had an '81 Chevy Chevette with a broken gas gauge. I had stopped at Albertsons to do my grocery shopping, and when I left, I started my car and began to pull out of the parking lot. It sputtered to a stop. I tried to start it again. It started and moved a little further before dying on me. When I tried to start it the third time, nothing. I called my boyfriend and had him come pick me up, then I called my father. He was a mechanic, and whenever I had a problem, he was the first one I called. He said he’d be up the next day to look at it. (He lived about an hour away.)
When he got there, he took a look at the car, had me go fill the 2 gallon gas can we had, and when we put it in the car and primed the carbourator, all of a sudden, it worked.
I had my dad drive an hour to tell me I ran out of gas. I still haven’t lived that one down.
Well, I can’t beat making your dad drive for an hour, but I can provide this irony:
I was driving my little pickup to work, and noticed that it was low on gas. No time to stop, though, since I didn’t want to be late. Flash forward to the end of the day, I drive to the nearest gas station, about two blocks. My poor truck is struggling, I had to restart the engine at the stoplight, but it got going again. I went to turn into the station, which had an inclined entrance. That did it, whatever juice my truck had, it lost it on that last bit. So I’m sitting there with my bum on the road, trying to get my engine started again, until some helpful attendants came and pushed me the last 25 feet to the tanks. What fun!
I bought my first motercycle. I had never driven one before, had no idea how the darn things worked. Clutch, gas, break, gear shift pedal. I had the sales guy explain it all to me and off I went. Rather jerkily but I went.
Bike stalls about 2 miles down the road and won’t restart. When I call the dealer to ask what could be wrong. he asks if I had stopped for gas at the place next door then explains about that little valve under the tank with the spare gas.
I had never bought a new vehical before. Who knew they didn’t put gas in the tank.
Oh, yes UB I have. Fortunately I had a lovely lady to keep me company. Unfortunately, it was our first date. I was sure that I had more than enough gas, but noooo! I ran out of gas between Shreveport LA, and Texarkana, AR. It was about 10:00PM, raining really hard, and we were out in the middle of absolute elsewhere. There was no way I was walking anywhwere to get gas. We decided to get to know each other a little better while we waited for a State Trooper to come along. Actually, a local stopped, and as luck woud have it, he had a 5 gl can of gas in his PU. I thought $2.00 a gl was more than fair.
Twice in a month (or was it week?). Once on the way to work, then once on the way home from work. The trip home was bad, because no one stopped (until the guy and his girl in the jeep did) and it was pouring rain.
Most recently: My 88 Caprice guzzles the gas, and when it gets low I usually fill it, or put $10 in it. Well, I was low on gas one evening on the way home, and didn’t feel like getting gas. I’d get it in the morning. Next morning I get in the car and there is now about 1/8th tank more gas than the night before. Hmm, must have looked at it wrong. Oh well, I’ll get the gas in the afternoon. Nope. Didn’t make it to work. Luckily, one of the guys from work went that way and helped me push all 3 tons of car off the street. I had no idea i was out of gas. Sheesh.
The funniest time, tho was when me and the future Mrs. McEto were on our way somewhere. I noticed I was low on gas, and then said something. Then we passed a gas station. Then I ran out of gas. That was fun, climbing back up that hill. Yea! Woo Hoo. Man, what an idiot I was.
I’ve run out of gas several trimes. My van’s gas light comes on when you’d better get gas within the next 10 minutes or face the consequences. Once it happened in the middle of Indiana farmland. I kept waiting for an exit, and wiating, but none came. Finally the vehicle died, and I walked to the nearest farm. They put a couple galloins in my tank and wouldn’t take any money for it. And once when I was driving with a friend to Chicago, I filled up the tank and let her drive and fell asleep. I woke up and saw the tank was near empty, although I regularly get 20 MPG. I told her we’d better get gas, even thought hte gas light hadn’t come on. She passed an exit, and a mile later the van died. I don’t know what it was about her driving, but whenever she drove the van got about 4 MPG less than when I drive. I called one of the internet buddies we were to meet and he came and rescued us.
I have once. Ran out driving home from work. Here comes the funny part… wait for it… I worked at a Gas station. I was about 6 miles from home (which was 18 miles from work) so I started walking. This was about 7:30 AM, as I worked the night shift. I intended to just hang there until my parents got home, and have them drive me back to the car, but on his way to work my dad saw my car alongside the interstate and called a friend of his who picked me up about a mile from home and drove me back to the car with gas can in hand. I never let that happen again. My latest car does a ding when it gets low, and I’ve never put more than 14 gallons in it at a fill up(it’s a 15 gallon tank). In the car I had between them once though I put 15.2 gallons in it once (15 gallon tank). That must have been close.
When I was in high school, homecoming was the greatest time of the year. And every year, there was a bonfire the night before the football game. It was the sophomore’s job to collect all the wood.
So, doing my smore duty, I had just picked up half a load from the electric company (pallets, spools, and what not). Needless to say I ran out of gas. There was a group of us, so somebody had a gas can and ran to go get some gas real fast. By that time, we were seperated from the group, so we decided to go to some scraps from a friends house.
Well, when we were done loading up, my friend slamed the tailgate shut… DUN DUN DUN… and slammed his finger betwen my tailgate and a piece of wood. I had to take him to the hospital. To this day I’m glad I ran out of gas BEFORE my Al Unser Jr. style drive to the hospital.
The woman my dad sold his first airplane to ran it out of gas twice. Once on short final (i.e., she was in the air, but the engine was at idle anyway since she was about to land) and once as she taxied off of the runway. You never run out of fuel in an airplane. It’s in the regulations. (Yeah, people do it, but it’s a pretty boneheaded maneuver to let an airplane run out of gas.)
UncleBill, sorry you had problems in my neighborhood. At milepost 369, you were about 10 miles from Casa PlanMan. 'cept I don’t have a gas can. Anyway, you can get the Florida Highway Patrol via cell with either *FHP or *DUI. Two thoughts, we (I work for FDOT) should have more signs about this along the road, I’ll mention it to the right folks (not that anything will happen, but sometimes, just to stop my emails, they’ll do something I suggest - after all I’m only a lowly Planner, don’t have P.E. (Professional Engineer) after my name, so nothing I say can have value); and, bigger picture, there should be a national standard number - like 911 but for less than 911 situations - for cell phone users to call the local (or state) constabulary.
Although your experience with the rocket scientists (well, spacey, anyway) at Shell MC was maddening, your telling of the tale was indeed humorous. And why I stay with AAA Plus.
And to respond to the OP - no, never run outa gas, but PlanWife insists on refueling between 1/4 and 1/2 tank.
Ran out of gas twice with my first car before discovering that “needle at just under 1/4 tank” = “empty” if you’re an evil 1980 AMC Spirit. When the engine died, the needle on the gas gauge went to empty, so I wasn’t sure I was remembering where it had been right.
Nothing worse than running out of gas. The second time I ended up getting pushed by a cop car a 4 blocks to the all night Shell station. (Clonks more than you’d think it would because the cars can’t stay in constant contact, so it’s kinda like being rear-ended repeatedly at low speeds.) In hindsight, it seems to me like it could have damaged my car, or his car, or caused the locals to wreck while gawking at us…
I’m curious if this is peculiar to Fairborn Ohio PD, this particular cop, or has anyone else ever had this happen?
But I’m too embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve locked myself out of my car.
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I ended up getting pushed by a cop car a 4 blocks to the all night Shell station…I’m curious if this is peculiar to Fairborn Ohio PD, this particular cop, or has anyone else ever had this happen?
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My car broke down on a curvy mountain road in northern California. There was no shoulder where I had to pull off and cars were whizzing by me going 60mph. My cell phone was out of batteries but luckily I could still use it with the cigarette lighter plug-in attachment. Anyway, the California Highway Patrol officer who showed up in about 20 minutes pushed my car with his around a big curve where there was a shoulder and therefore safer to wait for the tow truck. All the car needed was a little push because I was going downhill and could just steer it once he got the car going.
I have never ran out of gas, but it turns out that my car had an oil leak and ran out of oil and the engine was destroyed. I wish I would have just run out of gas.
