When I’m doing a road trip, the last thing I want to do after sitting in a car for a long time is to go sit in a restaurant for a while & make the trip even longer, especially on the outgoing leg. I can fill my tank in 4 mins; if a stop (including bio & food/drink purchase) is more than 15 I’m not happy. I subscribe to the “Yo-Ho” (song) theory of stopping - “Get in, get out, quit @#$%& about. Yo Ho, Yo Ho, Yo Ho”
I can do that in a weekend!
In a couple of weeks I’m doing 650+ miles in the 26 hrs after I leave work on Fri to do a race on Sat morn, & then another ≈170 on Sun
And much as I love getting the trip over and done, I’d rather leave the car for a little while and be able to use both hands to eat and drink. OK, my mindset was different when I was in my 20s, but as I approach 70, two 5-hour drives are much more appealing than one 10-hour drive. Which has nothing to do with the OP…
It’s situational, but I voted “when low fuel light/alarm signals,” which isn’t really true (I usually get to it before that happens) but closer to the truth than 1/4 tank left is. (I’m usually at a bit less than an eight when I refuel.) Even completely “empty” with 0 miles left according to the readout on my Mazda 3, I have never been able to put more than about 11.5 gallons of gas into a 13.2 gallon tank, so there’s still plenty room to spare.
In the winter, especially with the possibility of a storm looming, I will refuel at half or even more.
My mother had a car like that back in the early 80s (IIRC it was used when my family acquired it).
Especially in seriously adverse weather conditions where power outages are a concern (such as that series of atmospheric rivers that tried to drown my area in January) or when I know we’re going to be taking a long drive, I start getting antsy around half a tank, pretty close to freakout by one-fourth. DH is slightly more relaxed, but shares the sentiment some have expressed that it’s not a battle he cares to have with a passenger who’s seriously anxious about “GET THIS CAR FED”.
I couldn’t find a selection on the poll that applied, so didn’t enter it.
We’re sort of “preppers” in that we like to keep supplies on hand and avoid anything getting too low. We have a heavy duty truck used for towing etc., but not as a daily driver. So we keep at least 3/4 of a tank in it at all times except long trips (about 750 miles remaining).
These aren’t strictly enforced rules, but my wife and I usually fill at the 1/2 mark on our respective cars. My daughter’s car gets fueled after the needle is bent against the ‘E’ peg, the warning light is burned out, and the audible warning is hoarse from issuing cautions. Or when she parks behind mine, knowing I’ll see this when I get in to move it, and go fill it myself.
I voted “have replaced”, but it was on a car from the 60s, and due to normal aging. Not for the reasons we’re discussing in modern cars. (No I’m wondering how dopers would differ on the definition of “modern car”.)
Replaced one in a Chevy Blazer. It was already old when I bought it used. The fuel filter was quite clogged and got replaced first but fuel flow was still weak so I had the pump replaced. The guy who did that said the tank didn’t have more sludge in it than usual. He thought maybe it sat with an empty tank for a long time and the pump got seriously sludged up as a result.
Yes, this is techically correct. The problem is when the fuel pump sucks air it will heat up. Like driving on a curvy road. The car will not lack fuel pressure so the driver may not notice. It is still bad for the fuel pump, and dropping the gas tank to replace the pump is a labor intensive, meaning expensive deal.
Most people now do not even keep a car beyond the pay-for date, sometimes not even that long. If you have a car that you would like to keep longer, don’t let it run low on fuel.
I’m not sure I buy the “crud will get into the engine” reasoning. I mean, isn’t that what the fuel filter is for? I figure the worst that would happen is that the filter might get clogged prematurely.
That’s what should happen. But that’s bad for the fuel pump too because it’s trying to pump through the clogged filter, and if nothing else pump may run hot because of the low rate of fuel flow.
I think it’s not that easy to ruin a fuel pump just by running it low a few times. I also think newer fuel tanks and gas stations should be delivering very clean fuel. You can run new efficient cars over their lifetime with 1/2 the fuel or less than cars I learned to drive in. So something else is a factor if a fuel filter clogs up like the one I had to replace.
Trying still to determine how often this happens, and how increased risk going from just over quarter to just over Empty poses of its happening before the car otherwise died, now near 200K and in decades past maybe 100 to 150Kish?
And given that it means 25 to 33% more fill up stops, over the (12 to 20?) years of a car’s life is it worth it?
I mean sure a fuel pump could be a thousand dollar job. Not cheap. If say it increased the risk from 5 to 10%, then the value of that would be about $50. At a cost of the time of maybe 120 more trips to the gas station, maybe 5 minutes each trip depending? So ten hours? Using those numbers values my time at $5/hour and even as a new driver my time was worth more.
At zero chance to 100% certainty, boundary condition, it’s $100/hour. And while I value my time that might be worth it … but at this point in my life I wouldn’t work an extra hour a week for that, so maybe not?
Yeah I hate wasting time filling up the car. Love that my PHEV needs that so much less often and that my wife’s EV never does!
Personally, I’d say if there was a computer controlling aspects of the engine’s operation. Or maybe fuel injection vs a carburetor. There is no science to that. Just my $0.02.
I think that’s about right. Assuming we’re talking about ICE vehicles, computerized EFI is the minimum requirement for “modern”. Anything less is primitive or antique even.
Now where “modern” shades into “current” is a lot harder. All, or at least mostly, computer screens for UI? That’s current. High output per unit volume engine with a redline so high it used to be associated with motorcycle engines? That’s current. etc.
Which has nothing to do with the OP…