When the low fuel indicator comes on, how many gallons are left usually? I notice the mileage range indicator just says "Fuel Low" so it's impossible to say.

 

I dont even think my light goes on.. It goes so close to what I would assume is no gass at all and doesnt light up. My solution is not to run it dry

 

It will vary from car to car but heres a little food for thought - the fuel pump lives in the tank. It is an electric pump and gets warm while it is working. It uses the fuel in the tank for cooling.

1 - Letting the tank run almost dry will cause the pump to not be cooled as effectively and will shorten it's life.
2 - No one wants to be "that guy" hitching a ride with a gas can because he thought he could make it 2 more miles

Low fuel comes up, time for a pit stop

 

My low fuel display came on right after I bought the car. I was in Bel Air, MD dricing to Glen Burnie, MD (About a 45 minute drive) It came on about 10 minutes into the drive. I got to the gas station and noticed the never game a ******* key for the gas cap.

To make a long story short, I was able to drive the rest of the way home, get a screwdriver to break the cap off, and was still able to drive to the gas station to fill up. I probably had less than .2 gallons left in the tank.

 

How much gas is left in the tank varies. The low fuel warning comes on when you have 50 miles or less until empty based on your current average MPG. So, if the DIC says you are currently getting 28.5 MPG then when the low fuel indicator comes on you have approx. 1.75 gallons left. The thing to remember is that since this is based on the computers calculation of MPG it will not necessarily be correct, especially if you start driving more aggressively. Best thing to do is simply put gas in once the indicator comes on so you don't have to worry about it.


The car had probably been used mostly on test drives so the MPG was more than likely off due to the car not being warmed up and being driven more aggressively. The low fuel light probably came on based on 50 miles left at like 25 MPG, so like 2 gallons left. However if you were driving mostly highway you would have been getting about 30 MPG or more. So in reality you had probably 60 miles maybe a little more when the low fuel indicator came on.

 

Never let it go below a 1/4 of a tank and no worries

 

you have about 3 gallons left when the light comes on, i've gone a full 100 miles with the low fuel light on once.

 

he was trying to say that the fuel cap had a lock on it. lol. and that he never got a key for it.

 

I have already explained how it calculates the low fuel indicator. If you drove 100 miles once the light came on then the computer was averaging your MPG at 15 MPG. You must have been driving like a bat out of hell or your injectors are configured way out of wack.

 

That's nice to know. I was wondering this in the balt b/c i found out when the tank was on E on my Dakota and the trip computer read 0 you would still have 2 to 3 gallons left in the tank maybe that's why there fuel pumps last longer...

 

i drove from chicago to texas and i pulled off the get gas during that sever thunderstorm this year in AK and soon as i stopped my car at the pump all the power shut down

on a different trip i pulled off the highway to get gas cus i was on fumes and the shell station was closed at 7pm i looked around the town everything was closed and all lights off the whole damn town was black then i realized i was in the same town as the maximum facility prison in illinois.

 

You could always just fill up as soon as it shows "Low Fuel" then simply subtract how much fuel you put in, with the total capacity of the tank and that will tell you how much was left... This won't be exact as if you have a 20L tank (on my motorcycle) I can get 21ish liters in it since the capacity of the tank is soemthing like 80% of the actual volume.

 

Thats the part were trying to figure out cuz on my dakota I ran it dry trying to find a gas station in the middle of absolutly nowhere and when i filled it up it held 3 more gallons of gas then what my manual said... It's nice to know how far u can go because i jus went on a trip and the low fuel light hit and i couldn't find a gas station on my GPS ahead of me under 50 miles away so i had to turn around for 20 miles, but if i would have known i had 80 miles to go there was one about 65 miles ahead...

 

Unless you drive the car hard, the low fuel indicator will usually be pretty accurate. My low fuel indicator went on, I drove almost exactly 56 miles, and as I pulled off the highway into the gas station I ran out of gas.

 

ive ran my G5 passed the empty line....but then i got gas

i would say just watch your needle...ours goes slightly below the empty line so when it stops moving you better get some gas

 

The other day I filled up after ~18 miles of "low fuel level" with town driving. Once I filled up it was about 11.9 gallons. How big are the cobalt gas tanks?

 

13.2 gal

I was running low the other day, but was on a tollroad that had no available exits at the time. I stayed off the throttle as best as I could and when I was able to fill up on gas.. 12.1 gal of gas. The needle was below the line and starting to cover up the top of the red low gas icon.

On that note, another word of caution: Just because it holds 13.2 gallons doesn't mean it has 13.2 useable gallons though (some of it can't sucked up sometimes, and acts as a sump to keep water and other junk from getting sucked up by the pump), how much is useable, I don't know. We can get out of this though that it'll still run with 1.1 gallons at least still in there though!

It was sure thirsty when I stopped!

 

bump

 

once im in the red i still got 2-3 gallons left over

 

Generally whenver it first hits, there are about 2 gallons left in both the SS and my old G5. It gives you a lot further warning than previous GM vehicles did (My old 95 Grand Am would run dry and die before it actually hit E).

 

It starts saying "Fuel Range Low" when you have 40 miles of gas left.

 

Oh, well i know when mine says fuel low, i've got about 5 minutes to find gas haha

 

personally.. when my low fuel comes on.. it means i have about 40 Miles to go...

 

hmm iv ran it pretty far on low fule before most iv ever put in on a fill up was 11.8 gallons and i usually fill up from low fule it takes 11.4-11.5 and thats driving about 21miles with the light on

 

My old Grand Am would tell me low fuel, as the car was shutting down.