Plan B Forum

What are you if you let it get down to, say, a quarter-tank, but then only fill it up to about three-quarters rather than all the way?

-"BB"-

That's the hallmark of a serial killer.

On various occasions and circumstances I have been each of them.

snailgate

B, unless there is a sign that says next service 67 miles.

I always fill up when it gets just below a half tank. I save a lot of money on gas that way...

I fill when the gauge shows just below 1/4 on my Caddy. I fill my Challenger when the RTE is uunder 50.

As I have elsewhere confessed, I am these days most often a B, despite the risk to my fuel injectors. On MG’s advice I have been really trying to fill up when a 1/4 tank remains, but I often fall short. I blame the deeply faulty short term memory I have left after half a decade of neurological damage. I tell myself to stop for gas and don’t remember to do it for another week or so.

1/4 tank fill here.

I fill at about 1/8 tank when the bimmer “50 miles of range” light comes on. Or, if I’m going on a long drive I will fill up sooner, but almost never before 2/3 empty.

Yeah the invention of more specific idiot lights puts me really close to empty

If I had a couple of rands for every km I've put the car in neutral to coast down slopes in the hope of reaching a petrol station*, I could buy a tank of petrol. Or two.

When one notices that the "KM range to go" shows 50 but that it ticks down 2km or more for every actual km travelled, it's remarkably butt-clenching but horrible on the bladder

*I have yet to fail, thanks to the electrickery of GPS

Kramer takes a test drive.

Since the first gas shortage in the 70s, I usually fill up at about a half tank, and rarely below 1/4.

Definitely B, almost always. (Not only that, I almost always top off the tank after the pump clicks itself off. I can routinely fit another 3 to 3½ gallons in, which means an extra 120 to 140 miles until the next fillup.)

Econoline wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 3:07 am

Definitely B, almost always. (Not only that, I almost always top off the tank after the pump clicks itself off. I can routinely fit another 3 to 3½ gallons in, which means an extra 120 to 140 miles until the next fillup.)

True, dat. When the gas jockeys here ask how much petrol you want, it's best to specify "Until it stops" or "Fill 'er up".

In the latter case, it can take a very long time to achieve because they are sooooo painstakingly careful that not a drop of petrol should overflow onto the car paint. I've read chapters while waiting for them to finish up

3-3.5 gallons?! Are you sure you’re not spilling that on the ground? Back in the days I still did that I could fit a quarter of a gallon at most before running it out the overflow. Of course at that point I’d be losing even more once the car was in motion

I was wondering the same thing since I've never had a car that took more than a few tenths after the gas line clicked off, but then I have never had an Econoline.

I once had a car (right around the time new cars started requiring unleaded fuel) which would routinely click the pump off at around 3/4 tank, and would then take another 3 or so gallons after your moved the pump spout a little out of or into the fill pipe. I'm not sure how the cutoff works, but I figured it was based on a flow resistance due to gas vapor backpressure, which is why moving the spout permitted more gas to go in. Since the unleaded fill spouts and fill pipesare narrow in diameter (originally because the oil companies and car manufacturers wanted to keep the owners from putting leaded gas into the tank), I wouldn't be surprised if this still occurs in some cars.