You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[Weitz]

Survived the battle of dealing with a car dealer to buy a new vehicle. Was a mixed bag. Brand new sales guy who couldn’t have been nicer but didn’t have a lot of knowledge. Had to battle the sales manager to get the correct deal. But got there and got the vehicle I wanted for the price I wanted.

Car dealers grind my gears.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Survived the battle of dealing with a car dealer to buy a new vehicle. Was a mixed bag. Brand new sales guy who couldn’t have been nicer but didn’t have a lot of knowledge. Had to battle the sales manager to get the correct deal. But got there and got the vehicle I wanted for the price I wanted.

Car dealers grind my gears.

Go on...

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

I have a hard time believing that the amount of gas in the tank has any real impact on the long term life of any component in my car.

Don't people just fill up and run it until the warning light comes on and then go get gas? That's my system 95% of the time unless I'm planning some sort of extended trip.

No. I don't. Once it gets below 1/4 tank I'm stopping at my gas station of choice on the way home. I'm not clear why people need to see an idiot light turn on to remind them to fuel up when every car has a fuel gauge staring right at them in the instrument cluster. As said above it's not great for fuel pump longevity to be constantly running on empty as it can lead to the pump running hotter than it needs to.

[TorqueDog]

^Heh, I thought that was sarcastic. If a fuel warning light comes on, I'm clearly doing it wrong.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by you&me

Go on...

To?

[TorqueDog]

What did you buy, you wanker?

[Weitz]

A 2023 Explorer ST for the wife to haul the minions around.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Survived the battle of dealing with a car dealer to buy a new vehicle. Was a mixed bag. Brand new sales guy who couldn’t have been nicer but didn’t have a lot of knowledge. Had to battle the sales manager to get the correct deal. But got there and got the vehicle I wanted for the price I wanted.

Car dealers grind my gears.

Buying cars takes years off of a life man. I hate it.
I sold an old scrap car to one of these merchants and the guy was like guess how old I am, and I guessed 37 and he was 24!

Bro get a new line of work, this one is killing you!

[albertGQ]

Here's a question for the car buffs

When I bought our (new to us), 2014 Toyota Sienna. A full tank of gas would read about 710 km to empty

Nowadays when I fill it, it reads about 575 km to empty. Thats almost a 150 km reduction

What's the reasoning behind that?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Here's a question for the car buffs

When I bought our (new to us), 2014 Toyota Sienna. A full tank of gas would read about 710 km to empty

Nowadays when I fill it, it reads about 575 km to empty. Thats almost a 150 km reduction

What's the reasoning behind that?

You put on lbs?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Here's a question for the car buffs

When I bought our (new to us), 2014 Toyota Sienna. A full tank of gas would read about 710 km to empty

Nowadays when I fill it, it reads about 575 km to empty. Thats almost a 150 km reduction

What's the reasoning behind that?

Probably based on the cars computer average of fuel efffiency.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

No. I don't. Once it gets below 1/4 tank I'm stopping at my gas station of choice on the way home. I'm not clear why people need to see an idiot light turn on to remind them to fuel up when every car has a fuel gauge staring right at them in the instrument cluster. As said above it's not great for fuel pump longevity to be constantly running on empty as it can lead to the pump running hotter than it needs to.

Constantly running on empty != filling it up only when there's 5-10L left.

The light turns on at 10L. Even if you drive around a bunch there's 5L left, and 5L of fuel has a great deal of thermal mass.

If you drive a vehicle to empty, put 1L in and drive it to empty over and over you'll burn out your fuel pump.

If you fill it up and drive it to 5L left it'll be fine.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Here's a question for the car buffs

When I bought our (new to us), 2014 Toyota Sienna. A full tank of gas would read about 710 km to empty

Nowadays when I fill it, it reads about 575 km to empty. Thats almost a 150 km reduction

What's the reasoning behind that?

Your driving habits could potentially increase that range. When I was in college I got super serious about it and I added an easy 100 km to my average tank.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

You shouldn't let your tank get down to the warning lamp illuminating anyway.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Here's a question for the car buffs

When I bought our (new to us), 2014 Toyota Sienna. A full tank of gas would read about 710 km to empty

Nowadays when I fill it, it reads about 575 km to empty. Thats almost a 150 km reduction

What's the reasoning behind that?

Could be a lot of things, do you do recommended maintenance? My dad's Forester lost that much efficiency, and turned out to be clogged converters, but they didn't throw codes until long after that started. Bad O2 sensors or MAF(mass airflow) might do it to. I'd definitely check for any codes or take it in to have it checked if you drive enough for the poor efficiency to add up.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Weitz

A 2023 Explorer ST for the wife to haul the minions around.

Oh sweet summer child...until they do your bidding you are their minion.

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Constantly running on empty != filling it up only when there's 5-10L left.

The light turns on at 10L. Even if you drive around a bunch there's 5L left, and 5L of fuel has a great deal of thermal mass.

If you drive a vehicle to empty, put 1L in and drive it to empty over and over you'll burn out your fuel pump.

If you fill it up and drive it to 5L left it'll be fine.

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.

[Fuzz]

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.

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.

Spoiler!

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.

[Erick Estrada]

If you have removed and installed fuel pumps before (I have done several) you would know that some people in this thread don't quite understand the concept that fuel level does matter for your fuel pump. Fuel provides the lubrication and cooling required to maintain the pump. When the idiot light comes on it's likely the fuel pump is no longer completely submerged in fuel. Nobody is saying that running on low fuel is going to harm your fuel pump but you are refilling after the idiot light on every fill up then there's going to be more wear and tear on the fuel pump over time. That said fuel pump failure isn't exactly a common occurrence these days and if you are getting a new vehicle every 3-5 years or less it's likely not going to be an issue.

I have also seen caution that running low will cause debris in fuel tank to clog the fuel filter which I suppose is possible but every tank I have replaced a pump always looked remarkably clean even on a 15 year old car.

[surferguy]

Aggressive baggage fees on North American carriers. They want to charge me $150 from yyc to yvr for my surfboard so $300 return. Air NZ from yvr to auk - free.

Nickel and dime bull#### is bull####.

Probably going to be easier/cheaper to buy a new board and sell it before I come back. I can rent when I get to certain towns but that doesn’t allow me to randomly hop in the sea for a wave when on road trips.


Lame