alrite so this is the third time i've filled my car up, and i realized that i'm filling at about 12 gallons or so when the max capacity of the tank is 14...my question is what is the difference between the Refill Light goes on when i fill it, but i know that the gas light goes on to, does anyone know how many miles you can still drive with the refill light on before the gas light goes on; or if you even need to pay any attention to the refill light?

 

on any or at least Honda/Toyota the low fuel light comes on with a gallon left and u can drive for another 12 miles so I read in the manuals

so this is about right I think

 

well

i can push 16 gallons in my tank. and i drive it to the light a lot since im always low on $$ and gas prices are going up...

the light usually turns one 2-3 times before u actually run on empty. the 1st time, the light wil lstay on for bout 10-15 mins? i dunno bout mileage, didnt pay attention but i know for sure that my gas light went off and turned back on a 2nd time. i was to scared to run it anymore so i filled up...

thats jus my experrience

 

the light comes on when you have a reserve of two gallons left. it's in the manual. so you theoretically can drive another 40-60 miles with the light on, depending on streets or freeway driving. and the light comes on and stays on til you fill it.

 

The post was a bit confusing to me. There is one light. It comes on when there is around 40 miles worth left and stays on til you run out.

I have notice a ton of questions lately that are clearly covered in the manual. Are some people not getting the manual with the car???

 

people are just too lazy to read it

 

Hey Skippy - are you driving the same car as we are? Maybe you're getting ripped off on gas. I have a hard time believing you're putting anywhere near 16 gallons in the tank. The capacity is significantly lower than that, and although they might not be counting the amount of gas in the fuel lines, etc, I seriously doubt you could run it all out either way. My car says it's out (light on and driving a little extra) and I've never put in more than maybe 12.5 gallons.

In either case, I've read the whole manual and I'm pretty sure it doesn't state range after the light comes on - they don't want you running out of gas all the time so they're not going to print how far you can drive with the light on. The people who are guessing it's about a gallon are probably right though.

 

The most i have fit in my tank was a touch over 13.5 and that was with the needle well below the slash, damn near touching the Light.

16 gallons just doesn't seem possible but i'm not the one arguing the point

 

I've driven the car until its so low on gas that the idle drops off and it feels like it's gonna stall. Seriously I've driven with the light on for days at a time, you can go like 70 miles, no kidding, and thats city driving. But in either case, you can fit 16 gallons in. I've put over 15 1/2 in. It takes patience though, the fuel pump will automatically shut off, the only way to force more fuel in is so take the pump out so just the tip of it is in, not the whole shaft. Then just let the fuel splash down there. It'll take a lot more fuel. I dunno why the shutoff is so early. But you can def splash down like another 3 gallons.

 

^^ that def does not sound safe, ur leaving fuel in the pipes and lines leading to the gas tank, no need to overfill the car

 

Most I've ever pumped in this car was 13.6 gallons. I'm talking about fuel by the way.

 

I've heard it's not good to force gasoline into your tank, as pressure could build as the temp rises, as well it can saturate your fuel filter. Discuss.

 

You cant fit 3 gallons in the spout... you can look underneath and see the size of it and tell that. Running until it was cutting out one day (had to see how far it would go when I bought it ) I pumped till it stopped, then pulled it out and pumped until it was getting about as full as it can get (pumping to the very very top of the spout will cause it to leak on sharp turns.) And it took a little over 14.5 gallons... which I believe is right about what the manual states.

 

im not too sure about this but the refill light triggers something in the ecu to cut off fuel injectors when you try to go WOT in the lower gears. this kinda happened to me before a couple of times so i try not to go WOT when my light is on

 

I doubt it triggers anything... you were just very very close to running out of gas.

 

Actually I'm pretty sure DuMa is right, the ecu cuts off extreme gas consumption when you are low on gas. The same can be said with Mazda 3's.

3's also have a neat feature of cutting off A/C compressor when you go into WOT in order to reduce resistance. But that's not what this subject is about .

If he was "very very close" to running out of gas, and he went into WOT, rather than a performance lost he'd have just ran up the rest of his gasoline and dried out his fuel filter.

 

There was also a big discussion around here about there being some sort of charcoal vapor filter (or something like that) at the top of the tank, and topping off (which i'm assuming this is just an extremely excessive case of) could saturate it and screw it up. I don't know if it will throw error lights, but it's not a good idea. I think it's in the manual, but I'm not going to my car to check - I'll leave it to the people who are actually doing this

 

Not necessarilly.. I have seen the same thing happen on late 70s model vehicles... which obvioulsly have no cutoff. If you are extremely low, and the pump is not siphoning well due to the input not being covered completely, you are sucking air as well as fuel. This will drop the fuel pressure at the rails.... it will not be a big deal until you open up the throttle, in which case your fuel to air ratio will be extremely lean. Which is also why a car running out of gas will idle, but fall on its nose when you press the throttle. Now, I am not saying for 100% certainty that the tC does not have a cutoff... but the above explanation usually stands true.

I have seen the AC cutoff.. my saturn has it as well... very nice feature on low hp engines.

 

haha

 

Won't you save money if you fill it up more often. If prices are going up you will pay more for that futere gallon to fill the tank.