Distance left, what happens when numbers go to 0.

I am wondering how accurate is the computer estimated distance left. How low the number have you reached before arriving a gas station? Has anyone ran out of gas completely on X3?

I know it's bad for the engine, and I will not try it. But I ran out of gas completely on my 10 years old toyota several times, and its engine just smoothly stopped. It did not cause any serious damage because it now has more than 230K miles and the engine is still running fine.

By the conservative calculations by people on this and other forums, it seems that you still have about a gallon of fuel left when the DTE reaches 0 (in fact it starts showing "----"). So, you still have about 15-25 miles left driving range.

What I try to do once in a while (usually before and after the winter) is to go down below "----" on all of my cars, to make sure that the tank has as little fuel as possible (but not borderline dangerous), add some Techron and top-off with fresh gas so that I have virtually NO water (or water vapor) left in the tank. It always worked for me.

I was sweating when my car got down to 36kms remaining... that's about as low as I want to go.

In the '11 manual BMW says:

Refuel no later than at a range 30 miles/
50 km, or engine functions are not ensured and
damage may occur.

I just ran mine about 6 miles past --- so that much I can personally attest to but for good humor I put 17.46 gallons in to fill the tank and I think we only have 17 gallon tanks so she was on fumes big time.

Originally Posted by Jen4BMW

I just ran mine about 6 miles past --- so that much I can personally attest to but for good humor I put 17.46 gallons in to fill the tank and I think we only have 17 gallon tanks so she was on fumes big time.

Our X3s have 17.7 gallon tanks.

Yesterday I pumped 16.15 gallons when I had 36 estimated miles left. So 17.7-16.15=1.55 gallons left in my tank. 1.55 gallons x 23.5 (my average mpg)= 36.4 The estimation is about right!

But I will never dare to challenge the manuel's 30 miles.

For most BMW's the fuel pump is located IN the fuel tank. Its the fuel in the fuel tank that actually keeps the pump cool. So driving with less than 1/4 tank of gas can overheat the pump; the fuel actually keeps it running cool, and debris or sediment from the bottom of the tank can block the pump’s filter, causing it to get overworked.