DonutHands Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Happens every time, the fuel gauge is just shy of touching the 'empty' white line and the car starts sputtering and surging as its running out of fuel. The low fuel light never comes on, but when i go to fill the tank up, it only takes 16 gallons. Where the hell is the rest of the gas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Replace the fuel filter first. Or, perhaps your fuel pump filter is dirty or the fuel pump has become dislodged from the bottom of the tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 It's a flat-bottomed tank and the pickup doesn't come out of the bottom like on a lawnmower gas tank. It'll suck air before the tank is fully empty. I'm not sure much usable fuel capacity the R50 has, but I don't think I've put more than 17 gallons in the 21 gallon tank in my '93 (though to be fair I haven't run it completely empty). If you check the pump and don't find anything obviously amiss, you might be able to get a little more out of it by messing with the height of the pickup (measure the tank depth and compare to see if it could go lower), or make the gauge more accurate by bending the float arm a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonutHands Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Pretty sure the fuel filter is new-ish. Its located somewhere above the pumpkin right? If so, it's the only shiny thing under the car at this point. Ill have to check the fuel pump. I don't expect to get every last drop of gas out of it, but being starved for fuel at 16gal without the light coming on sure sounds wrong to me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawairish Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) 13 hours ago, DonutHands said: Pretty sure the fuel filter is new-ish. Its located somewhere above the pumpkin right? If so, it's the only shiny thing under the car at this point. Ill have to check the fuel pump. I don't expect to get every last drop of gas out of it, but being starved for fuel at 16gal without the light coming on sure sounds wrong to me. But doesn't seem too far off, either, though. Although I've not gotten to the point of stuttering, but my fill-ups from the E line are normally in the 16-16.5gal range. I don't think I've ever exceeded 17gal, even when trying to push below the E. I don't have much faith that there's any useful reserve there. Edited October 15, 2020 by hawairish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 My 97 doesn't sputter as if running out of gas until somewhere around 19+ gallons consumed. I have a Scan-Gauge II which has a "fuel tank capacity" setting to help compute "distance to empty". Even though the fuel tank capacity is technically 21.1 gallons, I set the tank capacity to 20 gallons, because I've actually sputtered to a total stop 2 miles from the gas station when it registered a little over 20 gallons consumed. Even though the low fuel light had been glowing for a good 30+ miles, I thought I could make it because of my trust in the SGII display. Although it's usually pretty accurate, I have to remember that the Scan-Gauge II fuel consumption display is calculated by other OBD2 sensors, not actual fuel use. Anyway, if you refill an empty* tank after pumping only 16 gallons before auto-shutoff, that is much different than my experience. This is why I think it's worth checking the fuel pump pickup or fuel filter. *"empty" means the engine stalled and would not restart because it ran out of fuel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainGoat Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 I concur with [mention=1343]XPLORx4[/mention]. I’ve put >19g in my tank more times than I can count over the past 18 years. I believe I’ve even hit >20 a few times. That said, it’s probably not best practice for all the reasons mentioned by [mention=39745]stpickens[/mention] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stpickens Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 It sounds like you may have a fuel vent breather issue or the fuel pick up has dislodged. I can attest that these will use 20.1 gallons before they start to sputter. Tested it out last week to be exact, not on purpose. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonutHands Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 So, fuel pickup or breather/vent tube... any pointers, diagrams, posts on checking or replacing these parts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingpathy Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 OMG 75 L for $80?????? North of the border that costs me over $110CAD. How many miles will you get out of that? @Stpickens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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