Has anyone notice that the specs in the owner's manual says 18.5 gallon for fuel. I tried letting the fuel goes all the way down till the needle hits the "E" mark, when I fill her up, it would only take a little over 15 gallon ???

 

What year TL is this? I think I read 17.X for my 2002.

 

The 2002 capacity is 17.17 US gallons. The fuel light usually comes on with about 3 gallons in reserve. The gauge would definitely be on "E" and the light would be lit if you got 15 gallons in there.

 

I have gone over 60 miles after the low fuel light came on. the neddle was below the E. The fuel tank filled up at a little over 16 gallons.

 

i think 02 gas tank capacity is 17.8 the last time i read.

 

The most I have even pumped into the tank was 17.559 and that was pushing it, I think if I wouldn't have found that gas station I would have been walking, hehe

 

65L in metrics

 

I've run out of gas twice now. LOL The capacity on my '02 is much closer to 17 than 18, tho I'm sure there's some variabiliity there from car to car.

eCo

 

Guys,

On a side note... isn't running the fuel pump with low gas bad for it... I think the pump uses gas for lubrication....

I always fill up at the 1/8th mark and at the most inbettwen that and the "E". I like to play it safe.

TLS RULZ

 

i usually fill it up a little below one third
around 40L of gas...that's 10 gallon

i herad it's not gd to have too little gas in tank

 

More importantly, the fuel pump is COOLED by the gas. If running to empty (I mean literally- not just close to E, but light on for 30 miles) is a habit, expect some service down the road.

 

that makes no sense... if the fuel pump uses gas for cooling... which is something new to me, but if it does... as long as gas is running through it, it doesnt matter how much gas u have in the tank... gas is gas... u dont start running less gas when ur tank is down to 2 gallons, as opposed to 15 gallons... the only way it would be bad for the pump is if u managed to run on fumes... and u cant really do that for any amount of time.

 

Of course, it makes sense. With a reasonable amount of gas in the tank, the fuel pump is IMMERSED in fuel, and as such, conducts its heat to the surrounding fuel in the tank. It's not the gas that goes through the pump that provides the majority of the cooling. The case temp of the fuel pump will be significantly higher when not immersed in gas.

 

isnt this terrible for everything!!

 

What he said!

Many manufactures submerge the fuel pump in the tank for this exact reason, and while running it down to fumes a couple of times won't hurt much, constantly running on E *could* shorten the life of the fuel pump. I stress the word could because I don't know of anyone who ever had to replace one....

 

Damn Matt, you must have had the gas pushing against the gas cap door. This is straight from the Acura Owner's Link web site (and also confirmed in the Helms manual) for 2002 Models:



As I posted above, the tank is actually 17.173 gallons (convert litres to US gallons by multiplying by 0.2642), but Acura rounds it up to 17.2.

 

hehehe, I meant pushing about running out of gas. I wasn't trying to push more gas in, lol!

Yah, it is very possible the cutoff on the fuel pump didn't stop soon enough. I have been to a few gas stations around here where it hasn't auto-shut off and gas gets poured down the side of the car (and me!). But that hasn't happened in a while, those are back in the good ol' days with the Geo, hehe.

 

Yeah, I'm expecting the tranny to blow any day now. LOL

I have a hard time believing the fuel pump needs to exchange heat with the surrounding fuel for reliability. For one thing, the power duty on this kind of pump is tiny. As a consequence the heat produced will be miniscule and should be trivial to dissipate - either in air or fuel. Lastly, assuming the temp did rise a tad at low gas levels, those parts would have to really be crap to not withstand a very modest elevation in temperature for the few minutes you could run like that.

But thanks for your concern.

eCo

 

Actually, I was amused by those that think it's more time-efficient to run out of gas, than to stop once every week or two and fill it up.

 

Take a quick look at this article from Popular Mechanics on how to properly replace an in-tank fuel pump. Last paragraph in the "Pump Out" section:

Or this article from an A.S.E. certified mechanic. Section on fuel filters:

 

This article doesn't say the pump is externally cooled. It just states don't run it while "dry". So yeah, one shouldn't leave the ignition on with an empty tank.

And this is just a recommendation with no data.

I'm sorry, but I still think this a non-issue. Call it a mech. engineer's intuition.

Regards,
eCo