Ever run out of gas?

This was my first and only time I ran out of gas...

It was a gray, frigid, rush-hour morning on Buffalo's west side.
Driving south on an icy stretch of I-190, 10 minutes away from work, my reliable Scirocco's fuel gauge touched below red. I thought I could make it.
Upon stuttering, I pulled over. On my left, commuters were dangerously flying by me; on my right, 30 feet away was a 10' high chain link fence. Beyond the that was mighty Lake Erie providing biting winds.
Seeing a gas station, a quarter mile away, I traipsed over the snow covered ice in my polished Johnston Murphy loafers, climbed the fence and started to walk- freezing.
With gas can in hand, I traversed my jaunt.
As I shifted my weight over over the fence and tossed the gas can, the Johnston Murphy on my right foot caught on an opening of the fence and fell on the wrong side of the fence. I pondered my precarious plight atop the fence- one shoe on the good side and one shoe on the bad side. I went back over, cold toes inserted in the ice-clad chain links and retrieved the fallen shoe and then continued on to work.

This was my first and only time I ran out of gas...

I've never had this happen while I was driving. It's happened plenty of times while I was a passenger though...

Twice for me. Both times in a Ford Ranger (two different ones) and both with a broken-ish gas gauge. The first one I knew the gauge was broken but I thought I had a full tank. Turns out the carburetor was so screwed up I was pouring fuel into the engine and ran through an entire tank in about 70 miles.

The second time I was in a different Ranger and the gauge was working but simply out of whack. Empty was actually at 1/4 and "Full" would cause the needle to go way past the 'F'.

TerryO said:

I drove broken down heaps for years and it happened many times. I will say that it's much better if you're with a good-looking girl when it happens!

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Not good with the wife though!

Been a long while since my younger days but some of those stories still come up!!

The last time I ran out of gas was on my motorcycle. I was going to meet a friend at Wattaburger after work. I made it about half a mile out of the parkiing lot. I had not ridden it in a while, and I thought that I must have forgotten to hit the trip odometer. Just forgot to get gas. Sure glad that I did not run out on the way to work. A kind young man took pitty on me after I pushed it for about half a mile. Trust your trip odometer.

Ran out of gas in a car, once. Was sick, going home early from work, knew I needed gas but pushed it because I didn't want to stop as I was feeling really crappy. Well, I stopped anyway...unintentionally. Luckily, if you call it that, I was only several blocks from home so I walked and later dealt with the car.

I've occasionally forgotten to turn on the fuel petcock on one of my motorcycles, but technically I suppose that's not really running out of gas.

I answered 'once' - in my 1964 Mini 850 (I was around 20 years old). I was having a race with someone I knew, a few puffs of white smoke later and no power, a glance at the fuel gauge told me everything - served me right.

pioneervato said:

Earlier today I saw a guy putting gas in his truck from a a gas can by the side of the road. Nothing I haven't seen before but in my 40+ years of driving I have never run out of gas in my cars or trucks. Lawn mowers? Of course.

So I was curious to know if you have ever run out of gas in your car, truck, or motorcycle where it left you stranded roadside and what, if anything, were the circumstances? Faulty fuel gauge, leaky fuel system, pushing your luck, stupidity, etc???? :scratch2:

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Simple!
Lack of bread to put some Gas in:thmbsp:

I think I may have run out if gas on an occasion or two in the 70s as a kid. Money was often allocated to other stuff. It could have been a buddy I was riding with. Memories of that time are a bit hazy.

A couple years ago we ran out of gas in our Prius ... 40 yards from the gas station entrance. Would have made it had it not been for the red light at the intersection.

OK - huge confession here. I was helping a client and following her in my car. Was running low, but as others have said, thought I could push it.

Finished with my client's errand, was NEARLY at a Quick Trip when the car stopped and I rolled into a car dealership. My car was in the way and I kept having to explain that I would be HAPPY to move the car as soon as my friend (another client) brought me some gas.

The people in the car dealership were greatly amused by my predicament. My car signs were on the car which clearly stated that I am a "Professional Organizer"

One thing I never did was run out of gas. In my younger days, gas was 'easy' to come by.(no, I wont explain ) Plus, lived in the boonies for most of my driving years and with no gas stations around, even if I only had $1, I put it in the tank.

Once with my car. It was years ago when money was MUCH tighter than today. I usually only bought gas for a 5 or 10 Marks.

Well, anyway, car died but I had a cannister in the trunk. I had no idle after that though. The carb sucked in some dirt. I had to remove the carb and clean it, which was a major pain in the ass.

Once on a small (80cc) motorcycle with my wife on the back after we just left the autobahn. I never realized how far it was into town from there before that

I must admit that I still usually only buy gas for 15 Euros (about 10 liters). It´s just too much dead capital to fill the tank; about 100 Euros.

I drove lots of junkers in the early days. Several had gas gauges that just flat out stopped working -- and I didn't have the money to fix them. I would usually keep track of miles driven, but once in a while I would forget -- or would push my luck too far. (Mileage varied, of course, depending upon where I had been driving the vehicle, or how hard.)

A couple of my old cars had "eccentric" gauges, e.g., the gauge took forever to hit 1/4, but when it did, it really meant "almost out." I got caught once when I hadn't owned the car very long, but I learned fast.

Used to live in Northern Alberta, where (at least in the old days) gas stations were few and far between. Usually carried a spare gas can in my truck, but once in a while I'd be caught 50 km from a gas station with the gas gauge riding E and no gas in the gas can. All I could do was drop speed and avoid hard acceleration. That usually worked, but I ran out of gas once about 5 km from the nearest gas station. I started hitching and the first person who stopped had a full gas can in his truck. I bought $5 worth (a lot of gas in those days) and was on my way again.

My wife likes to push things, but maybe because of my early experiences, I always make sure we have plenty of gas and I stop for a refill long before it's essential. So I haven't run out of gas in many years.


Coolest reserve gas tank arrangement I ever experienced was in a really old, beat-up 1953 Porsche I used to own. (If I'd hung onto it and restored it, it would be worth a small fortune today.) When you filled the tank, some of the gas when into a little pocket on the inside of the tank. When you were running out of gas, there was a little lever under the dash and you just twisted it and it opened a slot in the bottom of the pocket and dumped a gallon of gas into the tank. A couple of times in the city, I waited until the car started to sputter and then grabbed the lever. Of course, if you forgot to reset the level manually after you had dumped the gas, you were out of luck the next time around because the pocket didn't fill. So I learned to reset it immediately after the dump.

Twice... Once in a Geo Metro while delivering pizzas. I ran out literally across the street from the station to which I was trying to get. This was circa 1994 or 1995.

Other time was while we were out exploring and evidently we were a thousand miles away from a gas station. We walked for about four or five miles, finally came across a house that didn't look like something out of Deliverance. Someone was clearly in the garage, but wouldn't answer the door. His wife eventually pulled into the drive way and everything worked out just fine. They gave us some gas and gave us a ride back to our car.

I came agonizingly close to running out of gas aboard my motorcycle last weekend. I went for a 977 mile wander around Colorado last weekend and, I turned off of I-70 West well before Grand Junction and headed south, lured in by a sign for a national forest area. I made a completely baseless assumption that I would find fuel within a reasonable time. I was climbing up and over Gran Mesa (over 10K ft.) when I saw the last bar of my fuel gauge blinking. I decided to radically "short shift" on the climb to the top and hope for fuel soon. I knew there was none behind me, and at least I'd be headed seriously downhill if I did run out. The second I got over that pass and began descending, I shifted into neutral so the engine was only idling, and feathered the brakes for over 20 miles down, with no engine braking, something my bike and that type of course is very suited for. I was one happy old SOB when I drifted into some tiny town and there was a station open. I would have been in a pretty serious jackpot if my dumb ass had run dry in a huge and remote wilderness area. I lucked out.

I have never run out of gas, but I was once in a taxi which ran out of gas! Just got out and started walking, the driver was sure embarassed!

really never ran out but.....

I was driving to work one morning at a brisk time of 4:30 am and it was a driving blizzard. I could barely see the road. This also meant there was no traffic, literally.
I ran over something about 1/2 way to work. The car felt different but I persisted. I went on for about 2 miles and the car quit. I couldn't believe I was out of gas. I never let it get low. But there I was in the middle of a busy intersection and nothing I did would revive the engine. I got out and took a look just as Illinois' finest pulled up. He said I would have to move the car as it was a very busy intersection. I agreed but was unable. He pushed me off the intersection to a wooded area. I then got out to look. He said he saw something hanging under the car. I looked and saw what looked like a piece of pipe or tubular frame hanging. He got his flashlight and I crawled under to see. It was a piece of tubular steel that had flipped up into my tank. There it was a 4" long slot neatly pierced through. I asked him if he knew any tow service around. He did and called. In a very short time a tow arrived and towed me to a garage. It had just opened for the day. Further examination showed the tank was cut through and the owner would have to remove the tank to repair. It took around 2 hours to repair and test for leaks. I don't remember the cost but it was fair. He even included several gallons.
The car started instantly and I finished my drive.

Paul

The last time I ran out of gas I was driving a brand new Toyota Supra from the stealership home, about 15 miles. I was given the wrong user’s manual so it took a while to figure out how to open the cover for the gas cap. I was fuming!!!!!!!

A friend and I were traveling to Grass Valley to do some fishing. We were in our early twenties and would often take road trips old trucks whatever.
We were driving a 50 chevy half ton pick up. Going through Sacramento, fuel pump quit. On the freeway outside Auburn. After several atempts to revive it to no avail we filled twist off beer bottes with gas and poked a small hole in the top then stuck em upside down in the carburetor, to on our suprise and joy it worked, we could do 45 or so and go 4 or five miles per bottle.
Made it to our destnation. Good times.