Fuel light.

i have a 2003 318i and was wondering how far can you drive (approx) when the fuel light comes on.....not that i am going to as that is just a silly thing to do......

and is it strange that i want to now drive further when going"down the road for bread & milk" i went an extra 30km just to keep driving....should have bought a BMW years ago

Im not really sure how far you can keep going, hopefully someone else will chime in on that. Wanted to point out that running the car low on fuel dramatically shortens the fuel pumps life. Electric in tank pumps are cooled by the fuel so running them below say 1/4 of a tank actually damages the pump over time.

I know people do it and will say I have done it forever and my pump lasted 100k miles or 30k miles. But the point is if you dont run them low on fuel you wont ever have to buy a pump peroid. Ive got a few cars still that have 250,000 miles or more on the original electric fuel pump and doing fine still. Best practice is to treat 1/4 tank as empty and refill at that point.

Just something to consider.

Awesome, thanks for the feed back,

will definatly not let the tank get less than a quarter.

Originally Posted by robmac1972

i have a 2003 318i and was wondering how far can you drive (approx) when the fuel light comes on.....not that i am going to as that is just a silly thing to do......

and is it strange that i want to now drive further when going"down the road for bread & milk" i went an extra 30km just to keep driving....should have bought a BMW years ago

Usually it comes on with 55-60 miles left. About 1.5-2 gallons (5-8 liters).

You *should* fuel up when the gauge drops to half a tank....it will cost you less to fill up, and you'll never have to worry about running empty.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using BimmerApp

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

You *should* fuel up when the gauge drops to half a tank....it will cost you less to fill up

Sent from my SPH-D700 using BimmerApp

This is somewhat true, as in you're only paying "less" at each pump visit... ultimately you will be paying the same amount, it's just spread out... plus, if I were to fill up at 1/2 a tank I would be filling up every two days... and I absolutely HATE going to the gas station... I will continue to fill up every four to five days or when my car hits ~1/4 tank (I start to get nervous around that point that I will run out... very rarely does my reserve light come on.

I did get my car to 10 miles range, when I picked it up from the dealer after some work and I was in Downtown Portland where there are very few gas stations and a whole lot of traffic... I was sweating bullets! Never again.

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

You *should* fuel up when the gauge drops to half a tank....it will cost you less to fill up, and you'll never have to worry about running empty.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using BimmerApp

Filling up as oftern as this will cost more over time. Essentially, it's like depositing $25 each time the wife withdraw $25 in a $50 account balance. That's got to add up real fast.
So, stetching that $50 makes good economical sense.

The frequency over a six months period is far more than if it is done when or near the light comes on.


The best way is to know one's travel/driving cycle and budget for it, so close to reserve light one would be ready to fill up.

My 2 cents.

Thanks for the advice everyone, in my old car(mazda) i owned it for 6 years and the fuel light only came on once......i will definatly never let the tank get less than 1/4.

Originally Posted by new_kid

Filling up as oftern as this will cost more over time. Essentially, it's like depositing $25 each time the wife withdraw $25 in a $50 account balance. That's got to add up real fast.
So, stetching that $50 makes good economical sense.

The frequency over a six months period is far more than if it is done when or near the light comes on.


The best way is to know one's travel/driving cycle and budget for it, so close to reserve light one would be ready to fill up.

My 2 cents.

My point was, it costs the same to run your car on FULL as it does on empty....life is hard enough without contributing to potential problems that can be easily avoided....
Plus, I`m sure there`s a few geezers like me who lived through the OPEC Oil Embargos of the `70s, where people sat in line for hours to buy $2 worth of gas. That alone would make you serious about keeping your tank as full as practically possible. Don`t think that scenario can`t (or won`t) happen again....

Originally Posted by robmac1972

i have a 2003 318i and was wondering how far can you drive (approx) when the fuel light comes on....

I can go about 1,000 miles AFTER the yellow light goes on ... but, having lived through odd/even OPEC days, I take special precautions!


BTW, there is lots of good information in this E39 thread from the bestlinks, much of which should apply to the E46:
- How large is the fuel tank and reserve (1) & how much gas should be left to cool the fuel pump (1)

Originally Posted by bluebee

I can go about 1,000 miles AFTER the yellow light goes on ... but, having lived through odd/even OPEC days, I take special precautions!

Donna,

You must have lived in Jersey back in those days For the rest of the audience, there was severe gas rationing during OPEC....not only did you have to wait on ridiculously long lines to buy $2 worth of gas, but NJ also instituted an odd/even scheme, where only license plates with odd numbers could get gas today, and tomorrow, only even-numbered plates could gas up....
My solution was to have 2 sets of plates, secured to the bracket by Velcro strips.....it took me less than 30 seconds to switch plates....

I never really trust the gas gauge that much.. Every time I fill up I reset the trip and when it reads about 300-330 I'm getting close to done, depending on how I drive, typically when I'm close to that number the gauge reads 1/4 tank

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

Donna,

You must have lived in Jersey back in those days For the rest of the audience, there was severe gas rationing during OPEC....not only did you have to wait on ridiculously long lines to buy $2 worth of gas, but NJ also instituted an odd/even scheme, where only license plates with odd numbers could get gas today, and tomorrow, only even-numbered plates could gas up....
My solution was to have 2 sets of plates, secured to the bracket by Velcro strips.....it took me less than 30 seconds to switch plates....

Thats why I have a diesel truck. I can to the grocery store and buy vegetable oil, peanut oil, etc and run it for fuel if needed. Heck if it ever gets that bad I can plant some palm oil plants and make my own fuel

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

You must have lived in Jersey back in those days... NJ also instituted an odd/even scheme, where only license plates with odd numbers could get gas today, and tomorrow, only even-numbered plates could gas up....

If only I had the courage and foresight to keep two sets of plates in the trunk in those days (I was just learning how to drive when all that happened). Ooops. I've said too much.

Originally Posted by bluebee

If only I had the courage and foresight to keep two sets of plates in the trunk in those days (I was just learning how to drive when all that happened). Ooops. I've said too much.

Another trick I employed: The station would figure out how much gas they wanted to sell on that particular day, and they would have an attendant walk down the line of cars, counting them off, and eventually put a sign saying "LAST CAR" on the trunk of the car where they wanted to cut it off. I would pull up behind that car, and offer the driver $2 to pay for his gas ration for that sign....never had anybody refuse it....

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

Plus, I`m sure there`s a few geezers like me who lived through the OPEC Oil Embargos of the `70s, where people sat in line for hours to buy $2 worth of gas. That alone would make you serious about keeping your tank as full as practically possible. Don`t think that scenario can`t (or won`t) happen again....

Although I was a child during the 70's embargo, the memories will last me a lifetime. I remember very clearly my parents trying to find a few gallons of gasoline for our large V-8 powered sedan. Many gas stations sold out, reduced hours, and limited the number of gallons you could purchase. Long distance driving at night was a gamble.

Therefore, I have always owned relatively economical cars. My BMW almost never drops below the half tank mark. And yes, a low fuel tank can be hard on the fuel pump.

Originally Posted by alpinweiss

low fuel tank can be hard on the fuel pump

I am not sure if that has been proven yet.

My read on the threads is that it is easy enough to keep the tank at least 1/4 full most of the time ... but there are good arguments in that thread that the fuel going through the pump is what was designed to cool the pump. So you really have to look at the design - and at what BMW says in the technical literature.

Read the thread for more details if you're interested.

All I can say is I think the jury is still out (scientifically) on whether there is 'any' damage actually done to the fuel pump based purely on repetitive low-fuel situations. Certainly I've spent more than two decades testing it myself (on multiple vehicles) - and no harm has been reported yet by me (and I always use 87 AKI fuel from Costco, besides).

But, I'm the first to say that a study of one isn't much of a study so it doesn't really matter that I habitually run my tank to starvation (hundreds of times) and nothing bad has happened yet.

The main point is there are real details in that thread which discuss whether that often-stated thought is an old wives tale or not.

Actually we did test this back in the late 80's and its easy to prove though slightly expensive now. Not going to name names but the company was supplying the pumps so we had some "spares" to play with

Take an intank electric pump, these were gm pumps used in cadillacs for instance, and put one in fuel with the hose returning the fuel to the tank. Take the other one and dont give it fuel at all. Put 12volts to each pump. Eat lunch and drink beer for about 12 minutes if I remember right. Non-fueled pump failed. We tried 1/2 submerging etc and had mixed results since our "test" window time wise ran out that day. But we did manage to kill one pump allowing it to pump fuel but not being submerged. Took that one almost 2 hours to roast on a 95 degree day best I remember.

What brought all this on was a fleet vehicle company loosing new fuel injected fords on the ones not topping off fuel every morning like they were supposed to. They eventually made the drivers return the vehicles every afternoon for a few months and the failure rate dropped dramatically. Again not exactly a world wide test by some fuel lab but between those test, their results and keeping my tanks at 1/4 or more most of the time and the wife being in love with the low fuel light on her rides and her having pumps die and mine not dieing I feel safe to recommend not running below a 1/4 of a tank.

Most people with gm trucks from 96 to 2000 learned to be easy on their pumps too since those suckers are almost $400 a pump. Not fun to change either.

Also do some reading on the effects of low water levels on in ground submersible water pumps for wells. The failure rate on those are high in areas where the water table changes excessive enough to cause the pumps to get above the water level.

Most electric motors used in non submersible pumps are much beefier housing wise than submerged pumps because of heat issues.