Today I drove back from Luxembourg to my home town Enschede. I was almost out of fuel, with my computer telling me only 25km remaining... on an empty autobahn with no fuel stations nearby.

I decided to navigate to the nearest fuel station and found one eventually in a small town with only 10km remaining. The fuel meter was virtually at 0, I was just in time! I put 66 liter diesel in the tank.

I wonder: Is there still a reserve beyond the "0 km remaining" display? Or is it really over and out when the needle hits 0? Who has experienced a real empty tank? I believe the tank should be 70 liter, does this mean that there is a 4 liter reserve?

 

I've actually driven on "0" for over 10 miles and nothing. When I go to fill up the tank it tops off at around 17.8 gallons and I believe the tanks capacity is 18.5 or somewhere around there. It looks like theres a gallon or so left in there after the computer reads "0"

 

Thanks for the quick reply. That makes sense, it's in line with my experience (70-66=4 liters left after the 0km reading, which is approx 1 gallon).

 

After you've come to 1km left, then ----km appears on the display and after that I've driven at-least 10 km... And I finally found a gas station. I don't remember how many litres I managed to put in the tank after that nightmare...

 

Thinking back about 7-8 years, I believe my E30 had about 2 gallons remaining when it showed zero on the miles remaining display.

I came to this estimate by subtracting the number of litres it took to fill up from the maximum capacity of the tank. The resulting number is the remaining number of liters you have left to go looking for somewhere to fuel up. Its anyone's guess as to how much of that remainder of fuel is actually usable. I'd assume at least a liter or two won't get you a reliable measure of fuel to the engine to be safe.

 

I can't say exactly what's left in the tank after the zero reading but clearly there's something. Keep in mind that the countdown reading might jump from a single digit number like 5 or 6 straight to zero without showing 4, 3, 2, or 1 since it's calculated based on MPG which can fluctuate.

One thing to keep in mind -- running the car with little to no fuel in the tank can cause the fuel pump to run hot since I think the pump is submerged in the tank and is cooled naturally by the fuel that surrounds it. If you often run on empty, you might be shortening the life of the fuel pump...

 

You're absolutely right on this one. In addition to not getting the cooling from the fuel, the fuel pump will be ingesting some air as well, and this isn't good for its mechanics either.

 

Believe that the fuel tank capacity of 70 litres includes the reserve. Not advisable to drive with tank almost empty as the car can stall suddenly in the middle of a freeway or something and can easily cause an accident let alone potential engine damage. I try to make it a habit to top up whenvever I have a quarter tank left.

 

I had it showing "------" once and filled up 69.66 Liter... into a 70.00 Liter tank.

It all depends on how you drive, but until the counter shows 0 you can drive!

 

i had a simalar experiece with my E36 some years ago, and the range said 0 mls but i went almost 8-9 miles to get to a pump in coventry, im sure there is a emergency amount, maybe not 4 litres reserve

Wont risk that in my E60,