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I took my 718 Spyder in to dealer for its 1 year service yesterday. I left the car with them with very little gas in the tank. I could have filled up before taking it in, but thought maybe, albeit unlikely, they'd fill it for me. They did not. As I left the dealer, my "Distance to Empty" warning said I had 12 miles left. And the Costco where I almost always fill up was on my way home 18 miles away. Perfect!, I thought, because in my other cars (Toyota and Lexus) I have frequently driven 20-30 miles after the DTE indicates "0 miles". When I got to within 1 mile of Costco, I heard a loud pop. I couldn't tell what it was, an engine backfire, or a rock hitting the undercarriage, or ???. Ten seconds late I heard another pop, then multiple warnings flashed, the most ominous one said "Engine Fault - Take car in for service". I quickly lost power. Tried to limp to Costco, but did not make it. Ended up blocking one lane of a two lane road. Called my wife and asked her to bring me a gas can full of gas. While waiting for her, and recalling some information on my old Camry hybrid, which said "Do not run out of gas. If you run out of gas, the vehicle will not be operable until it can be serviced by dealer." Thinking the same might apply here, I called the dealer and asked "what next". The service guy I talked to was not sure, but thought I could just add gas and drive off. In the end, here are my lessons learned:
1. Porsche DTE message does not mean you can drive 20 or 30 miles after DTE says "0 miles". It's more like 5 miles.
2. After adding gas, car started fine, and all the warning lights went off. No dealer service required.
3. Dealer will not add gas during servicing.
4. When you call your wife and tell her what happened and that she needs to please bring you gas immediately, start the conversation with "I am an idiot", to ensure that you beat her to that comment.
Yes, I drove on after DTE=0, and I'm betting I'm not the only one who has assumed there is some reserve left in the tank when it says DTE = 0. The reason I assumed the reserve was larger than it ultimately was goes back 10 years or so. My wife called me while driving cross country in a Lexus SUV and told me her DTE=0 light just came on and next gas station was 30 miles away. She asked what she should do. She usually drives 5-10 mph over the speed limit, so I told her to slow down to 5-10 mph under the speed limit to maximize her gas mileage, and she made it to the gas station 30 miles away. Since then I've assumed that DTE=0 means you still have 1-2 gallons of gas left in reserve, and that has proven true in a number of other cars in which I have driven 20-25 miles past DTE=0 and never run out of gas. The message is that Porsche apparently has more like a quart of gas left in reserve when it indicates DTE=0, as compared to the 1-2 gallons I've experienced in other cars.
1) you hoped for free gas from the dealer
2) you're comparing 2 different OEMs with different design philosophy from different cultures as well as years apart and expect the same
You really thought your dealer would fill it up for you………..
Definitely an unnecessary self inflicted wound. I rarely let my cars get under a 1/4 tank much less anywhere close to empty where I have to rely on the computers reading.
I just generally never let my Tank get that empty, Its bad for the fuel pump.
Not only bad for the fuel pump but sucking the tank dry could also result in debris getting in the system and perhaps even to the injectors. Also there is a potential to sucking air which is definitely bad for the engine.
I have always had a habit of getting gas when the line gets just below 1/4, but a better idea might be tracking the miles since the last fill-up, as we had to do on old motorcycles that did not have gas gauges.
I have spent a fair bit of time decrypting the fuel gauge on my GT4 and also a friends GT2 RS tarmac rally car. But the one area that I haven't spent much time investigating yet is what it does below 10L. I intend to investigate that one day when I have some spare time and a near empty tank. I have no idea if 0 means 0 on this gauge, or whether that means there is still 5L left in reserve and your experience might help me get to the bottom of it.
This graphic is based off regular street driving, as the fuel gauge reads artificially low (like 10-15L low) after being driven flat out at the track or on a rally stage, and takes about 5 minutes of normal driving to return to normal readings.
Another option is to use an OBD scan tool and read the actual fuel level directly from the ECU. This is using a Kiwi3 adapter and Car Scanner iPhone app.
You're lucky it didn't run out of gas while they were test driving it. A rich guy costing a guy likely living paycheck to paycheck a couple hours of his wage is like opening a pandoras box. They're probably going to rage on your steering wheel and shifter and slam your door as they start walking it in, and maybe much worse than that.
03-02-2022, 02:08 PM
Ran out of Gas - Lessons Learned
