Does "E" really mean empty?

[Mr95Gl]

Damn, some interesting things in this thread. For 2 years, my SHO must've died 10 times running out of fuel, and the pump is still going. Think I would've learned my lesson having to push a 3,000+ lb car into a gas station, in the busy streets of NY? Nope. Every fill up is from the E. Getting it up that incline in the station is always the interesting part.

 

[AREA 91]

How can it "pump air" if it's submerged in gasoline?

 

[Racer X]

...Getting it up that incline in the station is always the interesting part.

It's all about the running start man.

I've still got 2 gallons left when I'm at E.

 

[yamahaSHO]

How can it "pump air" if it's submerged in gasoline?

Read the post again....

 

[baySHO_510]

So... you were paranoid about clogging your fuel pump up...... with fuel.......



riiiiggghhhttt.....

Not clogging it with fuel DUH! Picking up sediment or what ever might be stirred up in the last few ounces of gas in the tank. Either way its not good for your car to let it run out of gas.

 

[jedhead]

I put in 18.9 gallons once in the tank. The engine quit and I coasted into the gas station. The gauge was one needle width below the red. My fuel pump died a couple months later. I am not sure the failure was related to me running the tank completely dry. I had to crank the engine a while before it would catch.

Bob

 

[naval-avi8or]

It's cooled by both submersion and pumping fuel thru it. Pumping fuel thru it lubricates the internal moving parts to reduce friction which reduces heat. The submersion is self explanitory. It has relativly close tolerance and it doesn't require much of a heat/temp increase to cause the parts to expand and then stop the pump from operating. Then it cools rather quickley and operates again. This of course becomes a problem when the pump is old and not working nearly as efficant as a newer pump.

 

[JustinSane]

This is true, however if you had to decide wich is doing the better part of the cooling it is most def the submersion, the surface area and contact time alone make that a no brainer. what i have always found to be the major cause of fuel pump failure is when ran very low the fuel pump can start to over heat, then with only a few gallons of fuel circulating from the engine back to the tank the fuel is no longer able to cool instead it helps to make the pump warmer from the engine heat, then we go to the gas pump and pour in nice cold gas from a under ground tank and BAM the fuel pump gets cooled down very fast dif metals in the electric pump contract rapidly at dif rates and it leads to a boat load of stress on the pump, this is why as a mechanic you will often find the owners with dead pumps all most always say they just got gas right before it died and you have to get a gas bath dropping a tank full of gas unless you can syphon most of it out. i mean my theory isnt in stone but after turning wrenches for 13 years i have seen this exact scenairo over and over.

 

[SASHO91]

Not clogging it with fuel DUH! Picking up sediment or what ever might be stirred up in the last few ounces of gas in the tank. Either way its not good for your car to let it run out of gas.

Well thats a given...

but the way you stated it... sounded the other way....

all this for a lousy joke.... I guess I should keep my mouth shut from now on... I guess Chris was right.

 

[shoteen95]

My gas gauge hasn't worked for at least a year now. It's always on E.

....so no, in this case, E doesn't always mean Empty

I have been calculating my mileage on every fill up for the last year though. I'm really liking the increased mileage that came with the warm weather....of course it doesn't matter now that gas is $3.55 a gallon.