The low gas light scares me a lot, HELP!!!

[Mario Calero]

Last weekend I made a test about gas mileage: I empty the gas tank and put in it one gallon of gas, then I took a ride until the car stopped, she made 27mpg, then I put in it another gallon on my way back ( turn around and run the same streets back), this time she made 30 mpg, both rides were half town and half highway, I can assume the car is making about 27 mpg which is good for a car of its age.

However at the end of Sunday and I put in it about 3.5 gallons of gas enough to run over 90 miles, at this time ( Wednesday) I've just run about 30 miles in three days ( I just run no more than 10 miles a day, shorts rides ) and the low gas light turns on after a five minutes ride, it gets bright yellow but according to my notes, I've just spent a gallon in three days, so my question is:

When the yellow light turns on and gets bright, Can I assume she is just warning me that there are low gas ( say 2, 2.5 gallons of gas ) enough to run over 60 miles to look for the nearest gas station , is it so ?

I've always thought that my car had very bad gas mileage because I've always put in it no more than 3.5 gallons of gas a week and soon the yellow light comes out and I think the car is going to stop anytime. Last weekend I made this test with just one gallon and it made 27mpg average, two times, 30 mpg the second gallon! :rocket:

This must be a silly question but honestly I don't know.
For how long does the car turns on the low gas light? Can I assume it still has plenty gas?

I live in Managua, a very small city, most rides here don't exceed 10 miles, I don't use to full up the tank for economical reasons, just 3.5 gallons a week, but then the yellow lights scares me a lot, What do you think guys?

I have a Honda Accord LX 1987, A20A, mechanical with carburator.

Mario Calero
Managua, Nicaragua

[ZackieDarko]

at least your gas light works alot of us have broken lights :(

[Vanilla Sky]

you have like 2 gallons left. you can still mke it 50 miles AT LEAST with the fuel warning lamp on.

[truetune]

you also need to include the start up process start up takes a lot of gas in comparison to just running with a carb you could easyly use more gas on start up then when taking a short trip in your small town, espicaly if its stop at store buy stuff then go out to car and start up again to get back. but yeah you have plenty of fuel left its just there to warn you typicaly our cars have 3 gallons for reserve so even after you hit empty you gots 3 left. I don't have a working gas guage welll an accurate one. on full take its at 3/4s I know its full cuz I put 13gallons in. I drive my car offten till she starts to hick-up at stop lights ( I know Im bad owner )

[leia]

The light comes on at like 2 or 2.5 gallons left, thats what its suposed to do.

[Strugglebucket]

mine comes on about 30 seconds before i run out of gas. it's kind of funny.

[LiTtLe xOx BitT]

see you learn something new everyday, I never even knew i had a gas light. Is there any way to test to see if it works other then driving it until it dies?

[SteveDX89]

Uh, just fill the tank to the top and you don't have to panic everyday.

[speedpenguin]

Uh, just fill the tank to the top and you don't have to panic everyday.
With gas prices the way they are, I recommend filling up as often as possible because the longer you wait the more you're going to pay per gallon.

[MessyHonda]

With gas prices the way they are, I recommend filling up as often as possible because the longer you wait the more you're going to pay per gallon.

yup ever since i got my car i dont even know the limit on it...i only put 20 bucks cash...when i got it it would get me close to 9 gals now its like 7.5gals. the less stuff you have in your car the more faster it will be...the rule is like for every 100 pounds you take off you make it 1/10th faster on the quarter mile

[speedpenguin]

Yea, but the faster you drive the more gas you use.

[HostileJava]

Uh, just fill the tank to the top and you don't have to panic everyday.


The more gas in the tank, the heavier the car and the more gas you use to accelerate :)

I don't know about you guys, but I could actually see my car sinking before I lowered it whenever I filled up the gas tank from close to empty.

[FORFREE]

You acually use the most gas at 35mph and below and at 65mph and above so ur best bet is to do between 40mph-60mph so that is when you will use the least amount of gas if you are concerned about the price of gas.

[stat1K]

isn't it bad for your engine to only run a couple gallons in it at a time. i don't mean like 7 or 8 but like 2 or 3 i was pretty sure would be bad for your car? but i fill mine all the time and i don't see it sink. i also drive alot more than most people so i dont know. i have had the car for 2 years and i have put 61k miles on it. :confused: i get about 31/32 mpg highway and my gas light comes on at around 2gallons left... i believe the owners manual says it comes on at 2.4 or something i'm too lazy to look.

[2drSE-i]

its not bad for it unless you starving it of gas, like the hiccuping as described before.

[ghettogeddy]

i fill up every 2 weeks 250 to 300 miles per tank im happy with the gas milage i get

[FORFREE]

well when u run u gas tank really low it is not good b.c it sucks all the dirt and crud off the bottom of the tank

[MessyHonda]

well when u run u gas tank really low it is not good b.c it sucks all the dirt and crud off the bottom of the tank

yup that happen to my uncle he would let the gas go super low and he cloged his fuel filter. i just changed mine and it all depends on how you drive. i get 320 if i dont shift over 2800rpm...on freway its like 60-65. also make sure you have the correct tire presure. i have 15 inch tires so i run it at 35 pounds on all corners

[bakedboarder34]

yeah the actual tank on a honda accord is 16 gal. if any of you didnt know, and the light usually comes on around the 12-13th gal. consumed, the best way to figure out your milage is to just fill it up all the way, reset the tripometer, run it down, dont fill it at a quarter tank cus thats probably not accurate. then divide the miles by the gal. used, if you look on fuel economy.gov you can check what other people get, or if your a nerd like me you can keep a record, i just get the reciepts from the thing, its easy and you dont need to worry about the gas gauge as much, id do it like 3-4 times to get an idea of how far you can go. i can go around 300-350 on 10-12 gal. putting me between 27-30 in the city. pretty good for a car thats almost 20 years old. i get about 32-36 on the freeway. (1987 Accord Lx carbd'(well duh)4 door sedan)

[MessyHonda]

yeah the actual tank on a honda accord is 16 gal. if any of you didnt know, and the light usually comes on around the 12-13th gal. consumed, the best way to figure out your milage is to just fill it up all the way, reset the tripometer, run it down, dont fill it at a quarter tank cus thats probably not accurate. then divide the miles by the gal. used, if you look on fuel economy.gov you can check what other people get, or if your a nerd like me you can keep a record, i just get the reciepts from the thing, its easy and you dont need to worry about the gas gauge as much, id do it like 3-4 times to get an idea of how far you can go. i can go around 300-350 on 10-12 gal. putting me between 27-30 in the city. pretty good for a car thats almost 20 years old. i get about 32-36 on the freeway. (1987 Accord Lx carbd'(well duh)4 door sedan)

nice work..your car must be nicely tuned...mines not and i get like 32mpg on freeway

[BeatThisLXI]

Careful, not all accord tanks are 16 gal. Mine's an 11 gal tank.

[A18A]

^:welcome:^

i think these cars are 15.9 gallon tanks.

my other car has been starved of petrol for 4 years and still ran good. starved as in 1 gallon till it died and so on..

the most i ever put in this car was $20 which was about 3.5 gallons, and my light never works for some unknown reason, the car gets driven around with the needle under the red mark, but yet we only take it about 5k's drive.

in a couple weeks my cars gonna have the most petrol it ever had all year lol

[MrBen]

Pretty sure they are ALL 15.9 gallons. You may put in 11 gallons at the gas station, but that doesn't mean there isn't residual fuel in the tank and lines.

[MessyHonda]

yeah the max i ever put was like 13 gals when my light went on. took 35 bucks to fill it up. i remember reading my owners manual and it says 15.9g and the light goes on when u have like 3-4 gals left in the tank

[BeatThisLXI]

Pretty sure they are ALL 15.9 gallons. You may put in 11 gallons at the gas station, but that doesn't mean there isn't residual fuel in the tank and lines.


Good point man, never thought about that one. But I guess thats why they make you an admin, lol.

[BITESIZE]

I used to always fit it up full, but I only do it if I'm going out of town. I put $20 in a week. The 98 Accord goes about 350 miles on $20. Good car, deserves a cookie. Btw my hatch gets 23 mpg on a good day....If I drove it like a grandma I'd probably get 40 mpg...lol.

[A18A]

yeah the max i ever put was like 13 gals when my light went on. took 35 bucks to fill it up. i remember reading my owners manual and it says 15.9g and the light goes on when u have like 3-4 gals left in the tank
IEY@*Iyt (*^#r &I^*^%R holy shit, that would probably only move the needle of mine like quarter way or a bit under half way now that its cheaper

[MessyHonda]

IEY@*Iyt (*^#r &I^*^%R holy shit, that would probably only move the needle of mine like quarter way or a bit under half way now that its cheaper

damn that blows that you guys dont get cheap gas....but you guys have all the high performance engines....B20, and the JDM type engines that put more power to the ground....just does not make sence to me.

[A18A]

yer plus we only got a small country so we dont need to do as much driving as you guys, but thats still no excuse :<

[blaze one]

Straight from a 1988 Lxi manual :

Tanks are 60L or 13.2lmp or 15.9US gal.

When the NEEDLE indicates (E)empty , a usable reserve of ABOUT 1.1USgal. remains in the tank.

Fuel Reserve Warning Light
If the fuel light glows , it means you have ABOUT 2.6USgal. or LESS fuel remaining.


So with the use of the words " about " scattered through out there manual . I would assume that even honda cant say that there guages are Perfectly acurate .

Someone would have to get a rate of flow meter and put it inline with the fuel line to get a perfect reading of how much fuel they really used .

[HostileJava]

Someone would have to get a rate of flow meter and put it inline with the fuel line to get a perfect reading of how much fuel they really used .

Why use the gauge to see how much fuel your using? It doesn't even have gallons marked on it. Just see how much gas you have to put back in the tank till it's full.

[Jasonf860]

Ok, so i read earlier in the post someone ask if there is a way to test the light other than run it till it dies. I've never seen mine come on, but I've never had to put more than 12 gallons in at fillup. Seems my gauge is a bit off cause that is how much I put in when it's on E. Maybe I'm just not running it low enough assuming the light is more accurate than the gauge? Thoughts?

[A18A]

my light never comes on, but i think half of ours never do. only thing i can think of is test the bulb lol. or maybe the whatever-its-called-that-makes-the-light-come-on thingy just isnt used to being on and it just might not turn on, on my other car when it was still going, i put about just over a gallon in and ya gotta run it till its warm before the light comes on and then it only comes on slowly like dimming on, never seen it as bright as it should be though

[Jasonf860]

Weird, maybe i'll try and figure out a test for it.

[2drSE-i]

i didnt think mine ran until 6 months ago. im pretty sure they all work. When mine comes on i get 13 gallons in it.