[MP81]

I completely agree why risk it? I have only ever seen the low fuel warning 3 times in 85,000 miles. However you are not going to damage your fuel pump when there is still so much gas in the tank or all the people who do take it that low all the time would be having issues.

A fuel pump uses the fuel to cool itself - so when you start to run low on fuel - it's running, but not able to cool itself as easily. Some vehicles might be okay, but some aren't. 3rd and 4th gen F-Bodies are notorious for chewing up the pumps if you regularly run it to 1/4 of a tank or below. When mine was going (primed to 3psi instead of 46 psi), I pulled the fuel filter and the gas that came out was silver.

 

[spacedout]

A fuel pump uses the fuel to cool itself - so when you start to run low on fuel - it's running, but not able to cool itself as easily.

The fuel pump shouldn't overheat as long as it has a constant flow of fuel. My 1991 Buick lesabre at 1/4 would almost die when taking a corner hard since the fuel pump pickup would loose fuel for a second. This is one of the reasons I never go below 1/4-1/2 tank.

The other reason? I was 20 miles from town and my 1986 lesabre that I had recently bought used said it had a 1/4 tank, 5 miles down the road I ran out of gas with the needle still on 1/4 tank. Not fun walking from the middle of no where in the upper peninsula of Michigan to try and find a phone(no cell service).

 

[ssnscruzeeco2015]

I am confident the act of completely running out of fuel is what causes the damage. I just go to 90 Km past the warning, which is triggered around 10 to 12 of the tank capacity, I go to until it settles on 3.9% for the first time.

What would that be 1 to 1.5 inches of fuel depth when the warning comes in? How much of the actual electrical motor is submerged in fuel then? However it seems that the fuel flows through the motor assembly to also provide direct cooling to the motor. Which supports the idea the low fuel level is not being the culprit. Running out and having air flowing through the impeller and then through the motor I can certainly agree on.

The shop guys have always told me the it is the lack of liquid at the impeller that causes the damage. it is required there for lubrication while running.

Keep in mind I buy gas once every four days. I have no interest in turning 5 stops a month into 10 plus, that is a lot of time over a course of a year lol.

30 years of driving with this habit, have not lost a fuel pump yet.

 

[Kelpie]

I fuel up when the gaug
e is around 1/4. This takes about 10 gal.

 

[obermd]

After nearly 79,000 miles, 9.3 gallons per fuel stop.

 

[chevrasaki]

Over 18,377 miles I'm averaging 8.23 Gallons per fill. The majority of my refuels are between 6-12 gallons depending on a number of circumstances. I try not to let it get too far below half for a few reasons. The first is the fuel pump, which needs fuel for lubrication, and the second is I would rather have a half a batch of bad gas than a whole tank. I also like never having to worry about being low on fuel, or having to fill up when I'm already late (not that I am ever late) or just in case there's an emergency etc. Also my job requires that I drive my car between 50-150 miles per day and they like to call me in randomly so I gotta be ready for that.

 

[ranger024x4]

I honestly havent driven the car enough yet to get in a pattern on how much it will take to fill. As of thursday, I will have had my cruze for 2 weeks and have put 397 miles on it. Havent touched it in a week because of the snow here in va. I think ive filled it up twice but mainly because I was passing a gas station with a low price and decided to fill it up. Both times it had over a 1/2 tank.

Im pretty bad at tracking mileage on that fuelly app but I plan on trying to do a better job with this car.

 

[chevrasaki]

I honestly havent driven the car enough yet to get in a pattern on how much it will take to fill. As of thursday, I will have had my cruze for 2 weeks and have put 397 miles on it. Havent touched it in a week because of the snow here in va. I think ive filled it up twice but mainly because I was passing a gas station with a low price and decided to fill it up. Both times it had over a 1/2 tank.

Im pretty bad at tracking mileage on that fuelly app but I plan on trying to do a better job with this car.

Not sure what you're coming from, but for me, I had a cobalt with a 12.9G tank which averaged 27 mpg. The low fuel light would often come on between 280-320 miles. It surprised me that I can get 300 miles out of the Cruze and I'm barley below half of its 15.6G tank. The combination of slightly more gas and more MPG almost doubles my range.

 

[ranger024x4]

Not sure what you're coming from, but for me, I had a cobalt with a 12.9G tank which averaged 27 mpg. The low fuel light would often come on between 280-320 miles. It surprised me that I can get 300 miles out of the Cruze and I'm barley below half of its 15.6G tank. The combination of slightly more gas and more MPG almost doubles my range.

Haha! Cool! I had a 2010 cobalt lt and would get about the same as you.

 

[chevrasaki]

Haha! Cool! I had a 2010 cobalt lt and would get about the same as you.

Nice! Mine was a 2009 2LT coupe. I loved that car! Even though it gave me a lot of problems. I talk about it in depth in this post. #27

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/9-ge...m/150074-what-worst-car-you-ever-owned-3.html

 

[obermd]

I honestly havent driven the car enough yet to get in a pattern on how much it will take to fill. As of thursday, I will have had my cruze for 2 weeks and have put 397 miles on it. Havent touched it in a week because of the snow here in va. I think ive filled it up twice but mainly because I was passing a gas station with a low price and decided to fill it up. Both times it had over a 1/2 tank.

Im pretty bad at tracking mileage on that fuelly app but I plan on trying to do a better job with this car.

Download the app to your phone and enter the tracking at the gas station before you leave.

 

[txcruze26]

what app do yall use to track gas, mileage and $?

 

[obermd]

I use the Fuelly app. It's really just a shell over fuelly's mobile web site.

 

[jblackburn]

I've been using gas cubby since well before I bought this car.

 

[MP81]

I use the Fuelly app. It's really just a shell over fuelly's mobile web site.

Ditto - but I just use the Fuelly desktop site. I'm pretty particular about how I calculate highway/city percentage, so I have documents on the laptop to log all of our driving on our three cars.

Always a nice clean layout, have been using it since Jan 2012 with my Cobalt.