jordan1794

Just curious,how low does your tank have to get before a warning light comes on(2006 Civic)?
I've been down to where there are only 2 of the little blips showing and it still hasn't come on,by my calculations 3.33~ blips=1 gallon(assuming a 10.5 gallon tank),this would mean the tank has less than a gallon left,which seems low, especially because no warning light had come on yet...

Side note,anyone know how much the tanks actually hold,I know that once you factor in the pipe used for filling it's more than the capacity listed in the owners manual.

Rodrigo

The owners manuals for my 2005 and my wife's 2009 Civics both state the fuel tank capacity as 13.2 gallons. However, my fuel gauge is an analog needle type. Our 2009 has a gauge like yours (LCD blocks which correspond with fuel level).

I haven't really studied that gauge's behavior, but it seems to me that the level indicated drops at an increasing rate. In other words, it may go from full to half over the course of... say... 200 miles. Then it will go from half to low (warning light on) over the next 100 miles, very roughly speaking. The upshot is I don't think you can reliably conclude that 1 block = X gallons of gas in the tank.

On that car, the warning light always comes on with two little blocks left.

On one occasion, we ran the fuel level down to the point that no illuminated blocks remained. I think it took a bit over 12 gallons to fill, which means there was still approximately a gallon sitting in the tank. I suspect there was somewhere between 2 - 3 gallons remaining when the warning light came on.

That's my own experience and conclusion with the gauge on a 2009 Civic. I can't say whether your car behaves the same.

ezone

I'm not going to bother trying to look up that info, I'll let you run the fuel low enough to turn the idiot light on.



I will tell you that measured tank capacity is only what a gas station pump can pump up to the point that it hits auto-shutoff.
The capacity does NOT include the fill neck or any of that other crap you want it to.

The tank is designed to have an air space at the top.
If you overfill the tank by attempting to pump the extra $2.00 after the pump nozzle shuts off, you flood the charcoal canister, and that can cause codes to set.


If you ran the fuel pump until it cannot pump any more, there is still something between a quart and a gallon of fuel left in the tank. It isn't usable, but it is still there.

jordan1794

I don't top off,but I don't know about the previous owner...but I don't think she did...

And again,my tank has gotten down to only 2 blips left,and still no light(purposefully,but I had a long trip so I had to fill-up)

And one last thing,It's bad to let the gas run low correct?Any gunk that is in your tank and settled will go to your fuel filter right?That's what I've always heard.

ezone

You can go down to zero bars. When the cars were brand new, they came with one or zero bars lit. And the low fuel light on.
The idiot light should come on every time you start the car as a bulb check.


Only part of this used to be true.
Long ago, when electric pumps were first installed in gas tanks, there was not much more than a bare pump, and once the fuel was run under about a half tank, the pump was no longer submerged and it gets hot.
Nowadays, the pump sits inside a module (container) that keeps the pump submerged in its own little bucket of fuel.

This was a huge problem for Big 3 manufacturers that have wimpy little fuel pumps.

If you ever compare an original GM fuel pump to a Honda pump, you will see a big difference in size. It is extremely rare to have a fuel pump motor be truly bad in a Honda. Most other Asian manufacturers used to be the same way. I almost never saw bad fuel pumps on Mazdas several years ago.




The dirt part, still bunk IMO.

How did dirt get into the tank in the first place?
For the majority of people, dirt only gets in during refueling, or from the gas station pump itself.

Where does dirt sit in the tank? On the bottom.
Where does the pump suck its fuel from? The bottom.

Anything small enough to get through the strainer on the bottom of the pump is going to get into the filter anyway.

Have you ever opened up a gas tank? How much dirt is REALLY in there?