Sort of a fun and interesting poll. When do you usually fill up your gas tank? When the TL shows E, there's about 4 gallons left. With my Honda, I usually waited until the warning light came on which meant I had 2 more gallons to go.

 

i'm sorta between the first two choices. sometimes i'll wait till the light comes on, sometimes i'll fill up before it come on...just depends on if i'm close to a gas station i like i suppose..

 

I drive till 0 (zero) is shown in MID and then drive another 10-20 miles with 0 and then I go to gas station. At this point I can put 17 gallons in a tank.

 

I'll drive till I'm around 15-20 miles left on the MID. If I know I'm goin on a long trip and I have half a tank, I'll usually fill it up so I don't have to do it later.

 

I "usually" fill up when the needle is below 1/4 tank remaining and I am near my favorite gas station. I have waited till the light comes on, but I don't like that because I usually end up paying more for gas because I'm not near my favorite station.

 

I try to fill up whenever I can because the more gas I pump into my car now the more I figure I would save if I waited two days because god damn gas prices keep going up. I dont stop every time I see an inexpensive price per gallon, but if Im at half tank and see 2.77 ill jump on it and fill up. Also if I'm not going to be in sacramento for a week and in the Bay Area ill make sure I leave Sac. with a full tank because prices in the Bay are about 15 cents a gallon higher and I would like to milk the 2.77 a gallon tank as long as I can.

 

Usually when it reads 10-25 miles left on the MID.

 

I always try to keep at least 1/2 a tank of fuel. I also try to fill up at my neighborhood BP (Amoco) on Thursdays because they drop the price of their premium by 7-9 cents.. works out to around $2.18 - $2.21 per gallon now.

 

Generally, when I get down to 1/4 tank I will start looking for a gas station. I have never had the warning light come on (Idon't even know if it works).

 

I usually fill up when I go slightly below 1/2 tank mark. Sometimes I would let it drop to 1/4, but rarely. I guess I just like to be ready to roll without having stop to get gas. My friends almost always do this when we're supposed to go somewhere or meet up somewhere.

 

No hard-and-fast rule here, but usually the MID is at about 0 miles to empty when I refill. It varies, though, depending on where I might be driving in the next few days and where I am driving when it starts getting low, because the gas stations along my normal commuting route are about 15¢ a gallon more expensive than a couple of other stations about a mile in the opposite direction, so sometimes if I'm going in that direction I just go ahead and fill up so as not to have to make a special trip. Same is true in the fall when I go down to Charlottesville for football games--gas is about 20-25¢ cheaper in the next county over, so I will stop on the way home from football to fill up even if I don't need it. (Not worth driving down there just for gas since it's a 20-mile roundtrip and it would eat up the savings.)

If I'm below about a third of a tank and I know I'm going somewhere without a lot of convenient gas stations (like this coming weekend--going golfing in the mountains) I will also fill up earlier than I might otherwise.

On a general week-in, week-out basis where 99% of my driving is for commuting and the standard weekend errands, I seldom fill up before the idiot light comes on.

 

I let it go down till the point it starts to worry me, which is after driving around with the light on......

 

I read that if you let the tank get close to E, it will pull up all the junk at the bottom of the tank and contribut to clogging the fuel injector, so i keep it a rule to fill up at half tank or 1/4 to E.

 

I usually fill up around a 1/3 tank. I commute 75 miles/day and don't want to buy gas near my work, where it's more expensive, so I generally go to the station near my house. If I let it get lower, the MID says I've got about 100 miles left and I don't know how accurate that really is.

 

Isn't the fuel pickup at the bottom of the tank anyway?

 

Call me crazy.... I live in WA and work in OR. I hate getting gas in OR, because you aren't allowed to pump your own gas there. Oregon also doesn't have quality control regulations/inspections (Dateline NBC piece on that several years ago).

So I get gas whenever it's convenient for me. Whether it be 1/4, 1/2, or whatever.
Too bad the TL doesn't have a Gallons Consumed reading in the info center, like my other car. I've found that to be more accurate than the gas guage. I've run the tank out once (accidently), and figured out how many gallons I can use safely. I think I've been running on fumes a few times when something came up, and I was too stubborn to get gas in Oregon, becuase I knew I could make it back to WA. (albeit, barely) hahahaha...

 

I reset my trip 'A' every fill up, so when the mileage gets to 300, I start looking. The light comes on about 295 miles on a tank.

 

In addition, I like the way the more "balanced" handling with the added weight of a full tank (or half full at least) of gasoline.

 

Me 2. But, I usually pay attention to that little damn LowFuelWarning light, and try to fill up the tank as long as the selective gas station is nearby.