How much gas left after the gauge says 0 miles??

[awake33]

Actually, it does...

Ok, let me better clarify what I was saying.

While the system is using the gas in the tank in a manner equivalent to a large heat-sink, the expected heat dispersion from the designers is less than a couple %, and is merely a bonus and not a main contributor to cooling. The main cooling, and lubrication for that matter, comes from the fuel being pumped through the system.

Simple economics would tell you that there would be an inordinate amount of warranty claims if fuel tanks in ANY make or model of modern vehicles required that a fuel tank NEVER be run low (let alone dry). Obviously, for the sake of argument here, we are excluding diesel engines.

 

[jarettp]

Pulled up to the gas station with "1 mile to empty" reading on the dash today. I was sweating bullets the whole way. While I'm filling up I see that the tank capacity on my car is 18.6 gallons. It took 16.75 gallons to fill it back up. That's 1.85 gallons of gas for "reserve". That's a bit high isn't it? I could have gone another 30 miles on that!

 

[Tony407]

Well, if my '12 Focus is any indication of how "accurate" your Explorer's gas gauge is, you'll run out of gas when you allegedly have 7 miles to E. Needless to say I was slightly upset when this happened...

 

[peterk9]

Pulled up to the gas station with "1 mile to empty" reading on the dash today. I was sweating bullets the whole way. While I'm filling up I see that the tank capacity on my car is 18.6 gallons. It took 16.75 gallons to fill it back up. That's 1.85 gallons of gas for "reserve". That's a bit high isn't it? I could have gone another 30 miles on that!

See my post #72 for an explanation of why this is the way it is.

Peter

 

[blwnsmoke]

Thanks. If it's something I can fix I'm going to do it an save myself the heartache. The last time I had my car in for service, it was doing the door ajar thing, but of course, the day I brought it in, that morning it had stopped and they were not able to diagnose. With my luck it would happen again.

Mine was very intermittent.. to the point that it would ding and I'd look down at my display and I already missed the warning because it went away almost immediately.

Nothing like my truck alarm going off at 3am in the campground last fall to wake everyone up.. and what was worse was I left my keys locked in the truck so I couldn't even quickly shut it off... DOH!!!!

At one time it happened and the warning stayed on for about 10 seconds so I grabbed my phone and took a pic of it.

That was enough for them to replace the sensor and all has been fine.

They did say that they hooked up their computer and ran tests on all 4 sensors and were able to confirm that one wasn't communicating properly like the other 3. Not sure if they were being truthful or not but they replaced it so I wasn't going to complain.

 

[gofastandfalldown]

First time poster on this forum...

I recently purchased a 2013 Explorer Limited. When driving yesterday I ran out of gas but the indicator said I still had 47 km left in the tank and the gas gauge showed 1/8 tank left. Then I filled up the "empty" tank but it only took 60 litres---the owner's manual says it is a 70 litre tank. It's almost like there was still 10 litres left in the tank when it stalled.

Anyone know if this is a known Ford issue or anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

 

[1995E]

Did you run out of gas while you were driving? Or did you park it on an incline and tried to start it and it had no gas?

 

[blwnsmoke]

^x2.. how exactly did you run out? What were the road conditions or where were you?

Reason I ask is that if you were on an incline and while driving and the fuel flowed to the side that the pump is NOT on, it will be pumping dry. I had this problem with my last F350 while heading to work (ironically I manage a large gas station), there is a 1 1/2 mile stretch of 2 lane road that I'm heading up.. I've had my truck shudder before going up because the little fuel I had ran to the back of the tank and the pump is on the front.

That's the only thing I can think of... but more info is needed.

 

[Machine090767]

^ ^ This is why I always fill up when down to a 1/4 tank left of fuel. ^ ^

 

[peterk9]

First time poster on this forum...

I recently purchased a 2013 Explorer Limited. When driving yesterday I ran out of gas but the indicator said I still had 47 km left in the tank and the gas gauge showed 1/8 tank left. Then I filled up the "empty" tank but it only took 60 litres---the owner's manual says it is a 70 litre tank. It's almost like there was still 10 litres left in the tank when it stalled.

Anyone know if this is a known Ford issue or anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Welcome to the Forum.
Did the low fuel warning not come on before it got to the point where you stalled?
When the gauge shows 'Empty' there is still a small amount of 'Reserve' gasoline left. Your Manual explains it on page 217 if you have the 4th printing edition.
It is also explained in post 72 of this thread to which yours has been moved.

Peter

 

[613GT500]

First time poster on this forum...

I recently purchased a 2013 Explorer Limited. When driving yesterday I ran out of gas but the indicator said I still had 47 km left in the tank and the gas gauge showed 1/8 tank left. Then I filled up the "empty" tank but it only took 60 litres---the owner's manual says it is a 70 litre tank. It's almost like there was still 10 litres left in the tank when it stalled.

Anyone know if this is a known Ford issue or anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Bad gas, but you should have had shuddering?

 

[reserved50]

I don't think having a low fuel level makes much of a difference but running it out of gas does. On a first gen Exploder I ran out of gas on a "hill"...front end parked downhill to a river bed . The fuel was sloshing around and it sputtered only for a few seconds, after that it would sputter once every several minutes and needed a new fuel pump.

 

[gofastandfalldown]

Did you run out of gas while you were driving? Or did you park it on an incline and tried to start it and it had no gas?

I was just driving normally on a flat road. I was deliberately running the tank low and planning to fill up in the next few miles. I wanted to get an idea of how much fuel was left in the tank when it reads nearly empty. My previous Explorer (2006) would still have 4 litres ( 1 US gal) left in the tank when it showed zero km remaining. This doesn't mean I run it to empty all the time, I just wanted to know how accurate the fuel gauge was. Guess I found out!

When it died on me, my first indication was a large red display "No Oil Pressure". Right away I realized I was out of gas an luckily I coasted into a gas station right beside me.

Some vehicles have a fuel pick-up tube in the gas tank and it can corrode or break off, which then means the fuel pump can't get at all the fuel. Wondering if Explorers have this.

 

[Machine090767]

My explorer's manual claims that at 50 miles left until E, the message center is supposed to change to "LOW FUEL LEVEL"
and a tone is supposed to chime every once in a while.
Closest I got was 52 miles left.

 

[613GT500]

When I had the case of bad fuel from an out of town station and wanted to get all of the crap out, I drove until DTE was 0, plus some and the tank still had about 1-1/2 gallons left.

 

[peterk9]

When I had the case of bad fuel from an out of town station and wanted to get all of the crap out, I drove until DTE was 0, plus some and the tank still had about 1-1/2 gallons left.

That sounds about right. That would be the "reserve".

Peter

 

[dco43054]

First time poster on this forum...

I recently purchased a 2013 Explorer Limited. When driving yesterday I ran out of gas but the indicator said I still had 47 km left in the tank and the gas gauge showed 1/8 tank left. Then I filled up the "empty" tank but it only took 60 litres---the owner's manual says it is a 70 litre tank. It's almost like there was still 10 litres left in the tank when it stalled.

Anyone know if this is a known Ford issue or anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

As others have said, you should have about 1 US gallon or a bit more left in the tank when you hit 0 mile to empty. My '11 had 1 gallon, my '16 has about a gallon and a half. Sounds like your gas gauge is not reading correctly.

 

[Napalm]

So it's a bit easier to cypher if nobody's has mentioned it before.

Capacity listed for the 2016 explorer is 18.6 gallons - notice your gage is marked with what would be even increments for 4- leading to 16 sub steps to empty. Therefore the gage marks off the first 16 gallons of use - the remaining 18.6 as listed as the capacity is the overage. How much is in the pump well, and reserve capacity to help keep the pump submerged during maneuvers. (on an actual sports car that's a serious issue and often the tanks are baffled, for sloshing but that's another thread)

The miles to empty is calculated to stop where E stop - so mile until you run out of those 16 gallons. Based on the current running average of consumption also listed on another screen and calculated by the computer.

you can then fairly safely assume you have run 2 gallons times that number to find your next gas stop. After that you'll be lucky to keep going.

Most cars use some variation of this idea - gages marked off in X increments to some equal value. so if 6 increments to come up with 18 gallons and a capacity of 19 or whatever the the tank design comes out to (often it is driven by other issues and the capacity is just an afterthought).

etc etc. Also as mentioned modern pumps do want to stay submerged for cooling needs - since there is a motor under there and the whole thing is double insulated. SO yes there try to pick some round integer value and keep some capacity for pump life - this is also to try to keep you from running your car completely out of gas. And modern fuel injected cars (since the 80's) have a pressure modulated return system so you can really damage more than the pump if you happen to let it run dry.

 

[kk239]

https://www.yourmechanic.com/articl...s=cj&mktg_channel=AFL_CJN&publisher=Skimlinks

The Explorer is about 2/3rds down the first column.

 

[MikB]

1/16th of a tank? I think not. When the warning light comes on in mine, I have a good 1/8 tank left. That goes for my Ranger for that matter. Last fill up, I put in 14.96 gallons just after the light came on. With an 18.6 gallon tank, that leaves almost 4 gallons left. Not 1 gallon. I tend to believe that the warning light is really a fuel pump saver light as there is plenty of fuel left in the tank to keep it cool and those that extend driving will only do so for a short period before they get nervous about running out of gas.

Also, that chart does not refer to what model years it covers so maybe the 4th gen Explorer had only 1 gallon left when the light came on. Just pointing out that the info is incomplete.