Quote:
Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I'm pleased someone is backing me up on this. The gas indicator light usually comes on when you still have like 80km+ left to go; it's hardly "running on empty". To me it just seems inefficient to fill up more constantly than you need to, but to each their own I suppose.
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Just so people understand why it can be an issue, below is a typical fuel pump, the motor is the cylinder at the bottom. The rest is going to represent tank volume to the top. So you can see for 80-90% of the volume, the pump is submerged, but if you get to the last 10% less and less is. Now, running down occasionally isn't going to cause an issue, it's years of doing it.
I think this was probably more of an issue back before people used credit and debit cards so much, and they'd throw 5 or 10 dollars in, and always drive around on the last bit of the tank. That's when you really can do damage. This is probably less likely these days. Anyway, it's not something I'd really ever stress about, just the reasoning behind the warnings.
Side note, when I first watched one of our mechanics pull a fuel pump out I was incredibly confused to see exposed wires loose in a gas tank. I couldn't comprehend how every car didn't just explode as soon as the pump runs. But fuel is non-conductive, so it works.