I ran out of gas today... been a long time since that has happened to me :-\

The fuel gauge was above the empty or red zone, and the digital readout on the speedo said 42 miles until empty. How can that happen?

Any idea what needs to be checked? Thanks!

 

First question... How much fuel did it take to fill it?
On my 3.0 it will say less than 10 miles to empty then take a tad over 15 gallons to fill a 18+ gallon tank. That is by design, according to the dealer and sources here. The fuel pump (in your case pumps) uses fuel for cooling, therefore running dry can overheat the pump(s). Is your 06 still under warranty? I wonder if the float stuck? Causing the gage to think you still had fuel. One positive, if you do have to service the main fuel pump or the secondary pump they are real easy to get to. Just pop out the rear seat cushion and there are access panels right in the floor.

 

Not much consolation for you but I've run my 2004 STR pretty low and it WAS into the red and indeed down to range 15 miles (which was why I chickened out). However, it had been more like 50-something when I'd last turned the engine off. I'd then parked overnight and restarted, driven a couple of miles and the range absolutely plummeted (different type of roads, much slower speed).

The STR has an extra pump and control module (see the wiring diagrams) so you have 2 pumps which MAY have overheated (but probably haven't). Unless you want to remove things to check, it's hard to be sure whether it's actually out of fuel as opposed to just not pumping it out. In the second case, you'd be looking for a problem with it not getting the fuel out (such as pump overheating and shutting down?), in the other case it probably would have to be the level sensor. If that's cheap and easy to replace I'd go for that. Pumps will likely not be cheap.

 

When I filled it up, it took 18.83 gallons. I think that is more than the published capacity...

Are the fuel gauge and the unit that calculates the "miles until empty" fed by the same component?

The car is under warranty still (CPO), so I'll ask the dealer to figure it out. Now I just need to find the time to let them work on it...

 

Wow that is strange and scary. I push the limits when it comes to low fuel! Was the gas light on? Usually when mine comes on it says about 15 miles to empty. Sucks, cuz my wife's Saab's fuel light comes on when there is 50 miles to empty, have a little more wiggle room with when and where to stop for gas. When the STR's light comes on I basically have to stop immediately.

 

Seems like a lot of variation?? My 2005 STR will go to zero miles and I have never put over 15.5 gallons in it. So I regularly run it to zero miles left plus a bit more. My old SHO also wanted you to fill up in the 15 gallon range. It also had a 18+ gallon tank.

Published size for the S Type is 18.6 gallons I think.
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The light never came on, and I never heard any audible chimes (I think I read somewhere that there was supposed to be one). Even after the car died, the light didn't come on.

 

The computerized "distance to empty" varies so widely from car to car and even from current road conditions, driving style, etc. Plus, when you drive it to nearly empty your pumps are pulling the dirtiest gas in the tank (impurities, sediment, etc. become more of a factor as your tank level drops to almost empty). Why take a chance? Fill that sucker up when your gauge drops to a quarter tank remaining. That's my philosophy. But I can never get my wife to follow that rule - she'll drive home with the light on and expect me to run out and fill it up for her....

 

From 2005 handbook (see p145): fuel tank 18.4 (US gals) including an unindicated 1.4 (US gal) reserve.

 

The "empty" reading on your petrol tank is quite deliberate when there's still a gallon or so left in. The makers do it that way so that all the ****e (can I say that here?) in the bottom of the tank isn't sucked up into your fuel filters, causing aggravation. That's all it is.
Leedsman.

 

This should be an easy one...Keep the receipt for the gas purchase over 18 gallons.. To answer your question, if the float/sending unit got stuck on, lets say, a quarter tank, then the trip computer as well as the gas gage thought there was fuel left. The trip computer is actually just a simple calculator...pretty good one at that. Every time I've checked it against miles driven and gallons used it has been dead on. That said, Tbird's experience is correct, you could, in theory, drive an S, or any modern Jag, for a while with the trip computer showing 0 miles remaining. Google Top Gear's one tank race. On that one all three raced each other over 750 miles with the only rule being you could only use one tank of fuel. Jeremy used an XJ diesel and spent most of the last leg of the trip with the computer showing 0 miles remaining. It was actually quite funny because he wanted it to run out by his house...So he was hollering at the car to stop...Anyway, at the end he they measured the remaining fuel and found he could have still gone about 90 more miles..
These cars are calibrated to keep a few gallons on reserve, so, Bull, you should be OK running it down to close to zero. Then again, if the float sticks....well that is another issue and how would you know?

 

I kinda figured they calibrated it to show zero even though there was more in there........probably in an effort to stop idiots like me from going down to the last drop!

 

I am 99% positive I get a chime. Josworth is correct, if that floater got stuck, thats the reason. I actually thought that there were electronic sensors judging the amount of gas in the tank and no floater. Lear something new every day.

 

I think they are acurate to a point but not 100%.
Take a look next time you get home on what its says is left and then in the morning when you leave take another look after it recalibrates itself. Those two numbers are never the same, ours is usually lower,sometimes by quite a bit.
My other vehicles with the same system also do this. My point is that mabe they(all vehicles) tend to have brain farts as we drive. Once is is stopped and allowed to "catch up" it might give a more accurate read.
Just an observation by me. Give it a look and see what yours does.

 

Not only do you get a chime but the NAV screen lights up with a LOW PETROL warning and lists all the locations nearby so you can pickup gas, that is if you have NAV.

I ran mine to zero once, which I normally don't like doing because I was in Beverly Hills, and they charge like 1 buck more for gas cause you are IN Beverly Hills.

So it ran to zero miles but I made it about another 12 home to my local gas station.

I bet the dealer figures this out in no time.

 

So when do our cars get on the "reserve tank"? When the low gas light comes on and the nav shows you gas stations (nav only i guess)? is that our reserve signal? or after the DTE (distance to empty) says 0 miles? Wanted to know this for a while now.

 

I do have NAV, but I'm not sure it did anything. Audio was displaying on the screen when it ran dry. After it died, it still just displayed Audio controls.

I had only driven 1 mile when it ran out of gas. I had just started the car was actually on my way to fill-up. When I parked it early that morning, it looked just like it did when I got back in to drive... 42 miles until empty.

Thanks for all of the good info folks! I'll see what solution the dealer comes up with now...

 

Based on my fill ups, the reserve kicks in @ 0 DTE. My warning lamp goes off at about 16 to 20 miles to empty. My guess is it goes off when the computer thinks there is about 2.5 gallons left...But even that seems a bit low... I'm going to watch mine closer now... When I wait for the light, I'm putting 15+ gallons.. Never 16.. So it may even try to keep more than the 1.4 gallons of reserve.

I just pulled a receipt out of my wallet from today... DTE said 66 miles this morning..I remember that... I filled up a mile from my house and got 12.861 gallons. The computer says my average MPG is 20.8...

66/20.8=3.17 add that to the 12.861 and that is 16.031...add in the 1.4 reserve and that only adds up to 17.431.... Where is the other gallon??

OK back to work....

 

I have gotten ito Joyces car twice. The yellow light was on and the DTE stated "fuel pump failure" I knew she was on fumes and I managed 3/4 mile to the nearest gas station. Filled her up and all lights messages gone!

 

It's not brain farting. It's calculating your distance to empty based on the fuel economy figures you achieved over the last 30 or so miles. For me, when I come home from work, I have a 15+ mile highway commute, and 2 miles off the highway into my neighborhood.

Now there can be at least a 10mpg difference between highway and city driving, especially in overdrive etc. The next morning when you start the car the trip resets. You back out of your driveway and start heading 25-30 mph on local roads, it knows how much gas it has left (besides the reserve that you aren't supposed to get into) and recalculates based on the slow city speed (or your average mpg). Until you develop a history with this trip.

The more fuel you have onboard - the greater the potential discrepancy in miles. 15 gallons on the highway will take your 150 miles give or take more than than the same 15 miles burned in the city.

Oh and Jeff... This would also prob explain your DTE figure being off. Were you driving stop and go or slowly? That 66 miles was prob calculated over 4 or so gallons of fuel. Plus I think the computer thinks zero = 2.5 gals aboard. Under 1 gallon = potential overheating of the pumps, so while the reserve is "1.5" gallons, I think there trying to hide a gallon to save the fuel pumps.

As to the OP taking on 18.83 gallons after running the car bone dry. Does the filler neck count as fuel capacity? If it's an 18.5 gallon tank you could easily be holding 1/3 of a gallon in the filler neck. Especially if you get a gas attendant that's trying to round up the total to the next dollar..

George