Hey everyone,


With my trip computer saying I had 25 miles to empty, I ran out of gas/petrol on my way to a fueling station. 2006 S-Type 3.0 U.S. model.


The check engine light came on as I ran out of gas, and was on after I put fresh gas in it and drove home. Didn't drive it over the weekend. Got in it to go to work this morning and the CEL was off when I started and came on again at some time during the first 5-10 minutes of my drive in to work.


I'm hoping its just a misfire or knock sensor code from this incident, as would be expected on most cars when running out of gas. Car runs fine.
I'd like to read and clear the codes after work today.




Three questions:


1) Should I be concerned about anything more? Is there some component or sensor that I could have screwed up by running out of fuel?


2) Might there be anything that will need to be reset at the dealer or using proprietary software that a regular OBDII code reader can't handle?


3) Any other precautions I should take? i.e., is there anything I could potentially make worse (erasing some kind of factory setting, etc.) by just hooking up an OBDII reader and reading/clearing the codes?




Thanks!

 

Read codes. Yes you may have damaged either or both fuel pumps as they rely on being immersed in fuel to cool them. Just hope they're OK!

 

Since I believe that this is the very first thread that someone has admitted to actually running out gas in the almost 6 years that I have been here, I wouldn't worry just yet.


My reasoning is this quite frankly, my wife has in 6 years ran our S Type out of gas to the point where I have nearly coasted into the gas station more times than I care to admit. I have commented a few times that when the "talking gas gauge" asks for me to go fill her up that there is the "fuel pump fault" lamp burning brightly in the instrument cluster. I put in the almost 15 gallons of fuel, start the vehicle and all is well. Do I recommend this, Oh HELL NO, but it happens and we have not had any ill effects as of yet.


But again, what do I know!

 

Well, so far so good. I left work, the CEL was on from the start, I filled the tank all the way up, drove it a bit and connected a code reader.

I had the following codes:

P0430 Catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 2 CONFIRMED

P0087 Fuel rail/system pressure too low CONFIRMED (well, duh!)

P0430 Catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 2 PENDING


I cleared them, crossed my fingers, drove home . . . no CEL . . .

And on the way in to work this morning still no CEL . . . fingers crossed!

 

Rick,

I've literally scared Jan into always filling up when her fuel gauge gets to 1/4 tank remaining. I've told her for years that if she waits for the yellow "low fuel" warning light to illuminate on the dash, she'll burn up the fuel pump and be stranded on the side of the road. Thus far it has worked....

It's probably too late for you to deploy this tactic on Joyce since she has ignored the light and inconvenienced you many times over the years....

 

Tony - hope they're all not really permanent but were due to the fuel issue. Clear them and see if any come back. If they do, post again...

 

Jon that is a battle I have long succeeded too. There is no way that my loving wife will ever succumb to running the damn car out of gas. Insert a shoulder shrug it is what it is my friend.

 

Time for an update - some happy, some not so happy:

The happy part is that the engine runs fine, in about another 300 miles of varied driving conditions, no Check Engine Light. Yay.

I thought my Jag was fine, all was well . . . .

Until a couple of hours ago, on our way home on a long trip for New Year's.

As the fuel level got low, but not so low that it was ready for the low fuel light to come on -- around when it said 67 miles to empty -- the following things happened together at once:

- The fuel gauge stopped working (like it was shut off)

- The trip computer stopped working. It only showed distance, average speed and average MPG

- The message center gave me the following warnings (paraphrased):

* Fault in fuel pump circuit (or maybe "Fuel pump circuit fault")

* Something along the lines of 'trip computer error' - only it was longer, like "Error in trip computer" or "Trip computer malfunction"

Aaaannnddd . . . . about 20-25 miles later the car ran out of gas. We had been in the middle of nowhere and just barely made it to the outskirts of a town that had an open gas station (remember, this is the evening of Jan 1). Had not passed a gas station from when this first happened.

So in short, it looks like instead of a low fuel light, I now get two messages - fuel pump circuit fault and trip computer missing information (or something like that) . . .

And, the gas gauge and trip computer seem way off, somewhere from 25-40 miles.


JagV8 - you mentioned that the fuel pumps could have been damaged from running out of fuel; is the fuel level circuit and/or the warning light system somehow tied in to the fuel pumps? In other words, could I have damaged something on my fuel pump and it is affecting the message center and fuel gauge?

Is this a problem anyone else has had before?


Thanks!

-Tony K.

 

Sorry, I don't know. I just make sure never to go so low on fuel.