Gas gauge

Quote from Bigdog

sounds good until you pump in 9 gallons of bad gas....if you’re on a trip far away from home....how are you going to get rid of 9 gallons of bad gas? Your trip will be over ending with a tow truck and a long stay in a garage. Costing hundreds of dollars. Been there and done that. I’m speaking from experience not hypothetical. Only my experience was with 30 gallons of bad gas. Which is all the more reason to always buy from national chain gas stations. Not the cheapest place in town. And high octane.

In 40 plus years that has never happened to me so I refuse to live in fear of it. But then again I won't get the flu shot either...

Quote from Bigdog

sounds good until you pump in 9 gallons of bad gas....if you’re on a trip far away from home....how are you going to get rid of 9 gallons of bad gas? Your trip will be over ending with a tow truck and a long stay in a garage. Costing hundreds of dollars. Been there and done that. I’m speaking from experience not hypothetical. Only my experience was with 30 gallons of bad gas. Which is all the more reason to always buy from national chain gas stations. Not the cheapest place in town. And high octane.

In over 50 years of fueling cars, trucks and motorcycles I have never had one that stopped running because of "bad gas". I did have a 1971 Z28 Camaro that did run crappy one time when I got a bad tank, but that was the only time I ever even noticed any difference in any of the gas I have pumped into vehicles I have driven

Quote from Edward Neal

In over 50 years of fueling cars, trucks and motorcycles I have never had one that stopped running because of "bad gas". I did have a 1971 Z28 Camaro that did run crappy one time when I got a bad tank, but that was the only time I ever even noticed any difference in any of the gas I have pumped into vehicles I have driven

I got a bad tank on the way to Huntsville last summer, it took a can of Sea Foam in each of 3 tanks of gas for the Sling to start running right again.

Quote from Edward Neal

In over 50 years of fueling cars, trucks and motorcycles I have never had one that stopped running because of "bad gas". I did have a 1971 Z28 Camaro that did run crappy one time when I got a bad tank, but that was the only time I ever even noticed any difference in any of the gas I have pumped into vehicles I have driven

Same here. I've had the occasional period of rough idle I attributed to questionable gas, but never anything more severe than that. A guy I used to ride with (somehow) put diesel in his Harley once. Now THAT resulted in a trip to the dealer on a roll-back .

Quote from SZurlo

Same here. I've had the occasional period of rough idle I attributed to questionable gas, but never anything more severe than that. A guy I used to ride with (somehow) put diesel in his Harley once. Now THAT resulted in a trip to the dealer on a roll-back .

Couple of years ago while filling up one of the guys (not me) filled the Slingshot with diesel....caught it before he started the Slingshot --- we spent some time sucking it all out and added a little 'sea foam' and filled with 93 and went down the road. Got lucky. We were in Maggie Valley.

Quote from EjFord

Couple of years ago while filling up one of the guys (not me) filled the Slingshot with diesel....caught it before he started the Slingshot --- we spent some time sucking it all out and added a little 'sea foam' and filled with 93 and went down the road. Got lucky. We were in Maggie Valley.

here in California the normal gas nozzles have a bulky shroud to recover the fumes around most of the end of the nozzle for smog control - - this shroud is not used on the nozzles that pump diesel - - - as such I think it would be very difficult to make the mistake of pumping diesel

vs

Most of the nozzles for gas are black or red.... with diesel nozzles being green. at this station all the nozzles were green. WE were lucky enough to catch the problem in time to get it fixed by just removing 'most' of the diesel from the tank.

just for fun I was just looking at my owners manual to see what it says about the fuel gauge and the low fuel light and this is what I found:

Fuel Gauge Display - The segments of the fuel gauge show the level of fuel in the fuel tank. When the last segment clears, a low fuel warning is activated. All segments including the fuel icon will flash. Refuel immediately.

Low Fuel - This lamp illuminates when approximately one gallon (3.8 liters) of fuel remains in the fuel tank.

Capacities: Fuel 9.8 gallons (37.1 l) Fuel Remaining at “Empty” on Gauge Approximately 1.0 gallon (3.8 l)

So my gauge has 8 bars and when they are done I should have 1 gallon left - with a 9.8 gallon tank that would imply that each bar is roughly equal to 1.1 gallons

Quote from SoCal

Where to go Ed! The only difference between your gas gauge my gas gauge is when mine starts blinking it resonates scorn from the passenger seat 😜

I have never actually seen mine blink or had the low fuel light come on - on my drive home tonight it dropped to two bars and the range says 100 miles. My ride to work is 15.5 miles each way and I will either gas going in of not then coming home - - I dont even like it when its just one bar let alone no bars and blinking lights

if the bad gas is bad because of water only....it’s a problem that can be fixed with sea foam or other similar stuff....might take a while but ......if it’s bad because of dirt....and you clog an injector or all of them you’re screwed....

Years ago one winter I had dirt or ice or something....holding the needle valve in the carburetor open and I had an inch of gas on top of each piston....took weeks for the gas to evaporate because the temps were in the teens....and the van was sitting in my driveway...

Quote from SoCal

Where to go Ed! The only difference between your gas gauge my gas gauge is when mine starts blinking it resonates scorn from the passenger seat 😜

Several years ago the Wife and I were on a trip going south on I65 in KY and she was looking at the gas gage (we were driving her Lincoln Mark and all of a sudden the car got very quiet! I quickly moved over to the right lane and down the exit ramp and (ran the stop sign) costed up to the gas pump. My right arm is still soar from the beating she gave me.

Yeah, we've all done something (stupid) like that.

My best was I had a mid-70's Ford truck with 2 tanks. I would get down to where it was almost empty on tank #1, then switch over to the other tank. I'ld run that dry then switch back to tank #1, knowing I had to get gas soon. Until the time I forgot I had already switched. Doooohhhhh!!!!!

One of my blunders was when I borrowed my brother's '63 Ford pickup to go hunting out in the back woods. I got a flat and when I went to put on the spare, I discovered there was no jack. So I found a log and placed it across the ditch on the side of the road, drove the straight axle onto it, dug the dirt out from under it a bit and changed the tire. When I got back to town I called my brother (no cell phones back then) and read him the riot act for having a hunting rig with no jack. He informed me that I borrowed it from him a month earlier and hadn't returned it yet. Dohhh!

I'm glad to know I'm not the 'only one' to goofy things....

Yeah, unfortunately, I've got quite a few stories like this. Just the above was the best one. (Other stories include Gas stations closed on Christmas, and passing a sign that says next gas 25 miles when the lights already flashing.)

As a side note I suspect the reason why my wife worries less about getting low on gas is because she knows it will not be her that ends up walking to the closest gas station -

I ran my very first motorcycle (Honda CB-360T) out of gas. It started sputtering, so I went to flip i to reserve like I always did, and it was already on reserve....

Quote from SZurlo

I ran my very first motorcycle (Honda CB-360T) out of gas. It started sputtering, so I went to flip i to reserve like I always did, and it was already on reserve....

had the exact same thing happen to me in my 1964 Porsche 356C - - much like a motorcycle it had a "reserve" lever to flip. unfortunately it was located up under the dash on the firewall and my friend had accidentally hit it with his foot without my knowledge - - -

I remember years ago stopping to check on a biker sitting on the side of the road in the middle of no where. He had just bought his first fuel injected bike and didn't realize there was no reserve on his new bike. He was pissed and complained the whole way to the gas station and back that he was going to take this "piece of ####" back to the dealer and get my old bike back.

I only had that "crap, I forgot to switch over from reserve when I filled up" once. Luckily I happened right at a gas station when I realized what had happened and I was able to coast into the pump so I came out OK, but made me check that I flipped over from reserve when I filled up from then on. Sort of like I now double check that I'm not driving off without my gas cap on now after losing the cap on the sling not long after I picked it up. I seem to have to learn that lesson to make it stick with me.