How much gas left in the tank

They did an episode on Seinfeld a few years back where Kramer drove a car as the gas gage went past E. Well I was driving home last night in my van and it was approaching E when a little light of a gas pump came on, I guess telling me I needed gas. My question, is how do you know or can you tell how much gas is left in your tank when that light comes on?

Each car is different, and each mark the light comes on will be different. On my Ford Explorer, when the ‘check gauges’ light comes on, I have 3-4 gals left in the tank. I know this, because when I go to fill the tank when the light just comes on, I can put 17-18 gals in a 21 gal tank. On my Toyota, the light flickers on with only 2 gals left in the tank. My wife’s Toyota, about 3 gals left. The owner’s manual should have the proper gas tank capacity listed in it.

Fill the tank up. Drive it like Cramer until until the light comes on.
Fill it up again and record that number of gallons.
Subtract the full capacity of your tank from that number. That number is the number of gallons you have left when the light comes on.

All of the preceding advice is good, but it presupposes that the OP actually has an Owner’s Manual for his Kia Sedona van–which, IIRC, was bought at auction. Many people seem to strip cars of manuals and possibly other items before selling them, and an auction vehicle frequently is devoid of a manual.

All of that being said, this is just one more bit of evidence that the OP needs to read his Owner’s Manual, and if he does not have one, he needs to get one. E-bay is a good source for cheap manuals.

I wonder why you need to know? Are you trying to push a few more miles at fill up time? If so WHY? Why not just pull in a little more often? As far as I know no one is selling fuel with a quantity.

This is just a guess but I’d imagine he wants to know how many more miles he can go once the light comes on.

Put gas and Staybil in the 79 yesterday for the first time in two years. I personally adjusted the floats in these two tanks to show empty accurately…when it gets to the E, believe it. I figure, to make that 1 1/2 " brass barrel float it would take two gallons to be in there.