So, if the first sign of misfire is while you’re passing an 18-wheeler, in heavy traffic, at 65 mph, you are going to shut down the engine immediately?
Really?
Why do so many people envision that breakdowns and other negative situations with their vehicle will always take place in their own driveway, or in some other safe and convenient location.
Given your focus on running down to empty for a definitive answer, take your car to a track (so that you don’t run out in, or to create, a dangerous situation) and run until empty. Then gas it up and you’ll have your answer. (You will also find out whether running until empty causes no major issues or is really dumb like the comments here have provided.)
Alternatively, accept the likely situation that your tank will NOT go down to a point where you can put in 15.3 gallons (and maybe not even 15 gallons or close to 15).
I’m pretty sure this is where most people are regarding the “advertised capacity” of their cars.
Sorry I just can’t help myself. You like the flexibility of picking your fueling stations and two gallons will make a difference? You have a range of about 400 miles with a full tank. You mean you can’t decide on a station in 400 miles?
I’ll take my obsession to not run out of gas on a dark and lonely rural road over yours. Some years ago we rented a van with some friends to drive to Florida together. He had the first shift and first took the two lane out of Minnesota instead of the interstate. Then I kept watching the gas gauge as it plunged toward empty and we kept going past gas stations and on to the next town. Finally he agreed to get gas instead of stranding all four of us and said he just liked to test the limits to see how far we could go. Now this was on a new van with a couple hundred miles and we had no idea how accurate the gauge was and this coming from the fire chief that I would have thought would be more concerned with safety and hazard reduction.
I don’t know, carry a 5 gallon can of gas in the back for when you run out, but there’ll still be gas in the bottom. So drill a hole in the tank for a drain plug and measure what’s left if you really want to know.
Yes, two gallons can make a difference. Mostly, I keep my tank above
one-half, but sometimes, to the consternation of a fair amount of disturbed
people, I like to push it. If I have that two gallons, I’m not really
pushing it. If I don’t have that two gallons, I probably won’t push it.
I also like to know how fast I’m going, not how fast I’m going plus or
minus 14%.
Nope, this is more like “The speedometer reads up to 140 mph, can it really go that fast?” Next to no value knowing this in real life.
But hey, knock yourself out!
I once ran out of gas in a church bus as it coasted into the gas station. Hadn’t seen a gas station for several miles, and no one told me the gas gauge dropped dramatically once it got past 1/2. 
For reasons that I will probably never understand, some people seem to think that their car’s gas gauge is a laboratory-grade measuring device. Only when people finally understand that their car’s gas gauge is an approximation of the tank’s volume–with a large safety margin built in, to a certain extent–will they realize that you can’t assume absolute precision with a car’s gas gauge reading.
It won’t matter if they’re determined to run the tank dry.
Oh well, we tried to help the OP, but apparently didn’t give him the answer he wanted.
But I know how he can find the answer!
Remove the tank, remove the pump, drain the tank dry, take it to a gas station and fill the entire tank to the top. Then you’ll have an accurate answer. You’ll also have a serious safety problem, but you’ll have an accurate answer.
I don’t think they are the same question. How far you can go depends on many factors. It leads to only the approximate answer to how far can you go.
The tank size does not. It is a definitive number depending on nothing other than the internal volume of the tank.
You didn’t answer the question. Are you fixated on the size of the tank? Or how far you can go before the car stops running?
Kinda bums me that I wont be the one installing a fuel pump in a three year old car.
Well speedometers are certified to withing a particular accuracy-not 14%, but gas tank capacities are not. Maybe its time to report this as a safety issue to the feds. I’m sure someone will run out of gas in a bad part of town, get beaten, and sue the manufacturer.
A very prevalent behavior pattern in online forums is to reject any ideas that don’t conform with the OP’s preconceived notions. People are seeking to validate their reality, and when their own–frequently bizarre–reality is challenged by actual facts and practical experience, they reject those challenges, usually with harsh words.
In other words…How dare you disagree with the answer that I wanted!
What a world we live in…
Yeah but not as bizarre as the fish video I just watched with the animal rights guy but this is car talk. Florida seems to be sinking fast though.
I agree with you. I too would like to know how much your gas tank really holds. I wouldn’t even stop when the car starts misfiring. Maybe there are still some fumes left that could be sucked in just in time for you to make it to a gas station.
Do you have miles to empty readout? I’ve found that they tend to be quite conservative. I know that for my current car, when the DTE display reads zero, I can go at least another 8-10 miles in normal conditions. Back when I sold cars for living I was doing a dealer trade. I was delivering a Sentra and picking up a Pathfinder that a customer wanted. The trip was about 200 miles each way and the Sentra I was taking down had less than half a tank, so I knew I was going to have to stop at some point. I was coming down a mountain (4 lane road/highway) and noticed that it said I had 36 miles until empty, which I though was going to turn out great because there was a Cracker Barrel about 30 miles down the road that I was going to stop at for dinner and I could get gas as there were sure to be a gas station or two in the vicinity.
The problem came with I got back on flat land, the DTE display quickly dropped to 20 miles until empty, then after another two minutes, 15 miles, then 12, then 10, after it dropped to 10 miles until empty. The display just turn to two lines , no numbers. The next exit with a gas station was 8 miles away. However I made it, and when I filled it up, it still had about gallon in the tank by my math. So I wasn’t really in any danger of running out, despite the DTE display stating otherwise.
Disclaimer: I’m not recommending you ignore the DTE readout, I’m just saying that in my experience they tend give you a fair margin for error.
My previous car, a Passat, when it reached 0 miles, I had about 1-2 gallons of gas left, calculating from the rated capacity.
My present car, a Forester, has about zero left when it displays 0 miles, so I don’t let it get close to that point. Again, calculated from rated capacity.
Well I suppose there is capacity, vs safe operating capacity. So my guess the capacity of the tank is correct, but the safe operating capacity is less. Only trying to protect the peeps from catastrophic failure I suppose.
Allow me to offer a contrary opinion. People run out of gas all the time, someone brings them a couple of gallon and they are on their way with no ill effects. True , running low on gas as a habit can damage a fuel pump because gasoline is not cooling it but doing it once? If that would destroy a fuel pump, manufacturers would make it impossible to draw out the last few gallons.
Yeah, that was my opinion coming in. I’m not really worried about the fuel
pump, and Honda doesn’t seem to be either. Honda’s suggestion that it would
damage the catalytic converter surprised me though. Frankly, I give that
very little credence, either.
I’m surprised at the rather sheeplike attitude of the people at this site.
Who wouldn’t want to know roughly how far a car will go before running out
of gas? You would think I had suggested warming up the passenger
compartment with engine exhaust.
I’ve seen several cases where running out of gas led to immediate problems with the car not starting when gas was added. So doing that on purpose would be stupid, to me. How is that “sheeplike”?