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[doczenith1]

I also did some experimenting back in 2002. My results are for a gasser but should be similar.

I loaded a 5 gallon gas can (with 5 gal of gas) in the back of the truck and headed out for a weekend trip. On my way home I purposely ran out of gas. After pouring the 5 gallons of gas into my tank I drove to the nearest gas station which was only two miles away, thus not using much gas after running out. I made sure to fill the 5 gallon gas can to the same level as it was before filling my truck on the side of the road. Here are the results.

8794 - low fuel light comes on, overhead display (OHD) says 27 miles to empty.

8813 - OHD says 10 miles to empty.

8832 - OHD says 0 miles to empty. (wow 10 miles = 19 miles…)

8866 - ran out of gas, OHD says 16.1 mpg. (70 mph…must have been a tailwind!!)

Now, I reset the OHD when the low fuel light came on, to get the correct gas mileage for the last few gallons. This will be used to calculate the number of gallons left in the tank when the low fuel light comes on. You will notice the 'OHD - miles to empty' gets a bit confused when the fuel level gets low. From my calculations, there is about 4.5 gallons in the tank when the low fuel light comes on based on 16 mpg. I've found that the OHD runs about .5 mpg high, so the 4.5 gallons is conservative.

It took 29.3 gallons to fill the gas can and the truck. This is to the point where the pump automatically shut off. The most I've trickled in after the pump shut off is about 4 gallons.