Dunki

How far can you drive after the low fuel light comes on?

Thanks

frankjnjr

Exactly, what are you driving, and how fast do you want to go?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Acura's have a little reserve when the fuel light comes on...to find out the exact amount, read the Owner's Manual.
it will tell you.

Acura604

My car stalled out after running out of gas. Approx 40km after gas light come on....but I also had winter tires on which consume more gas.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

the owners manual will tell you exactly how much fuel you have left. it's usually like 2 or 3 gallons

Gadgetjq

Here's the only sure fire way and it'll be tailored specifically to your style of driving.

1. Fill your gas tank as you normally would and zero the trip meter
2. When the tank is about down to the 3/4 level or more fill it again and note exactly how much fuel you put in.
3. Check the trip meter and divide the number of miles by the number of gallons (and fractions) you put in the tank. That will give you YOUR 'real world' miles per gallon figure (you might also want to check that against what the car is telling you your mpg is...they'll be different).
4. Drive until the fuel light comes on. Stop as soon as possible and fill the tank again noting 'exactly' how much fuel you put in. Your tank is 16 gallons so subtract the amount of fuel you just put in from that. Now you know exactly how much fuel is left in the tank when the light comes on. Use that number and multiply by the miles per gallon figure you got earlier and you'll know how far 'you' can (theoretically) drive before the fuel pump is sucking air.

Now, all that said, you don't ever really want to drive that far. As mentioned earlier in this (or maybe it was one of the other dozen gas threads) the fuel pump is lubricated by fuel and you risk ruining it if you run it dry. There may also be debris on the bottom of the tank you really just want left there so give yourself a bit of a safety margin. Maybe divide the number you just got by 2 and that's how far you 'should' drive after the light comes on.

Simple!

thoiboi

Fixed

Dunki

I thought I wouldn't need to mention it's an RDX as this is an RDX forum. When the low fuel light came on, the car said I had 80 km left(50miles). When I filled up, it took 54 litres(14 gals), which should mean I had 7 litres(2 gals) left. I was just wondering if this was an accurate estimate from the computer and if it could be relied upon. I realize it depends on driving style, but I would figure on highway driving which would be consistent and at a steady speed. I have searched my owners manual in detail, and cannot find anything about this. I was just wondering what other people's experience was. I appreciate the advice about damaging the fuel pump as I did not know that. I guess it's a moot point since it wouldn't be very smart to risk fuel pump damage by doing this regularly. Thanks very much!
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RDX-Rick

You profile doesn't say what model year your RDX is, but this is from page 69 of the 2016 owners manual. Looking for information like this, is a case where the PDF manuals are better than the paper versions.

Dunki

Thank you. I don't think mine says that, but I'm going to look again!