out of gas

[littlewaywelt]

Well, yesterday I pulled one of the biggest bone-head maneuvers in a car possible. It has never happened before and I frankly thought it never would. I ran out of gas on the New Jersey State Parkway. I've pushed the limits of how far can I get many, many times, so it seems odd that I would run out of gas the one time I wasn't trying.

Driving home from a weekend at my mother-in-law's I deviated from our normal schedule of a fill up prior to getting on the highway when the our usual station was closed. I became so engrossed in a book on tape, that I never noticed the gas gauge until the end when the car died at 85mph. There was no warning from the trip computer or the red/orange triangle and in fact when we pulled over onto the shoulder the cpu read 15 miles as the range. The pullover was uneventful and the Volvo Roadside Assistance had gasoline delivered to us in 25 minutes.

I'll post the exact capacity of the fuel tank when I get home and look at the records.

<insert Homer Simpson "doh" icon here>


And I should add the vibration in the car after adding the 2-3 gallons and heading down the highway was extremely noticible.  It went away after a few minutes.  Did I damage something by running out of gas?

[PAUL_RD]

Hi,

I don't know if anything might have been damaged, but I have experienced running out of fuel in the XC when the warning light wasn't glowing and the trip computer said that I still had 50km (30 miles?) to go.

When my car was brand new, I ran out of fuel three times in the first six months.  In my case the fuel tank was faulty.  

The dealer fixed the problem and told me that the tank on the XC has a 'reserve' compartment from which fuel is drawn once the main tank is empty. Apparently the warning light and the reserve tank come into play at about the same time.  

With my car there was a blockage in the fuel pump, and the petrol wasn't flowing from the reserve compartment.  The  result was that the car stopped even though the fuel gauge still showed above empty, and of course the tank wasn't really empty.

Fixing the problem involved pulloing out the tank, and since then I can now safely run till the gauge reads empty, and the car hasn't runout again (touch wood).

I hope that this is useful.

Cheers,

Paul.

[cmon4day]

Just the other day I was driving and looked at the gas gauge and it was low and the idiot light was on.  I went the drivers information center and the miles to go read "--".  I immediately pulled into a Chevron and filled up.  I have a 18.2 gallon tank and I put in exactly 18.2!  Whew, that was close.

The moral of the story is don't rely on the reserve tank to get you the extra mile or you'll end up like littlewaywelt.


Vic

[littlewaywelt]

Need some help here.

I've noticed that when the car is cornered very hard the throttle seems to go dead for 1-2 seconds. Could running out of gas have introduced an air pocket or bubble into the fuel line or does this sound like I damaged something else? Would this type of problem go away on its own, or do I have to drop a wad of cash at the dealer?

[XC70Viking]

If you have DSTC system, try to switch it of and try again. When I tried my dealers car and pushed it a bit, I got the same feeling but that was the DSTC system in work...

[littlewaywelt]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (XC70Viking @ Feb. 23 2004,10:21)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">If you have DSTC system, try to switch it of and try again. When I tried my dealers car and pushed it a bit, I got the same feeling but that was the DSTC system in work...[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I don&#39;t have DSTC, though I wish I did. &nbsp;It definitely feels throttle related. &nbsp;I just push the throttle and nothing.