for those that remember im the one that had a mustang that was pretty crappy and i got rid of it and now i have a 2001 kia sportage with a lil over 67000 miles. the question i have is the car has a fuel reminder light and i dont think its working right. ive gone through a couple of tanks and the light never came on ( needel on the bottom line) and today it came on for a couple seconds then it shut off. is there a short some where or is it something deeper?
There probably is something wrong electrically, but since people safely drove cars for many decades without a warning light of this type, you have to ask yourself if it is worthwhile to spend money to fix this insignificant problem on an 8 year old Kia.
I would advise teenchanic09 to do two things:
Save your money for repairs and maintenance that really matter, such as brakes, front end work, replacement of spark plugs, filters and fluids. On an 8 year old vehicle, repairs are inevitable, so by ignoring insignificant problems like the fuel warning light, you will have more resources for dealing with important issues.
Get into the habit of refilling the tank before it gets to the “empty” mark on the gauge. Since the fuel pump is cooled by the gas in which it is submerged, repeatedly running the tank until it is very low will cause the fuel pump to run “hot”, and will inevitably cause damage to the fuel pump. I don’t know about the Kia design, but on many vehicles, replacing the fuel pump is not a cheap repair.
My car–like every other one nowadays–has a low fuel warning light. I believe that it has lit up twice in the 8 1/2 years that I owned the car, and in both cases I already knew that I was very low on fuel due to unusual circumstances, and I was already on my way to the gas station.
Simply paying attention to the fuel gauge (as well as to the temperature gauge and the warning lights for oil pressure and the charging system) is really important, and the OP should get into the habit of scanning his gauges and warning lights every few minutes.
i scan the instrument panel all the time. and thanks for reminding me bout the f. pump being cooled. im learning about cars and thats one of the first things i learned. im just tryin to make sure that the car i have is in near perfect condition. i dont want to have to go through what i had to do with my mustang
There is nothing wrong. You just didn’t run the tank low enough, and then the light came on for a couple seconds because the fuel was sloshing around in the tank.
If the fuel pump is inside your fuel tank, you should not run it so low. Running it that low puts stress on the fuel pump because the fuel cools and lubricates the pump.
If when the light came on the tank was bellow half full then this could be normal. Esp if you park/drive on an incline the gas in the tank moves around and triggers the sensor due to lack of gas in the specific corner of the tank where they installed the sensor. When things level the sensor feels the gas and the light goes off.
I agree that it sounds like it’s performing normally.
Let me suggest that you stop running your tank so low, or you may end up posting here asking us how much it should cost for a new fuel pump. The pump uses the fuel for cooling.