[Il Fenomeno 415]

The manual says do not let the range go below 30 miles or it may cause damage. Is this true or is it BMW's way of preventing calls to BMW Assist for ppl who ran out of gas?

How low have you let the range go before refueling?

[tdizzle]

Originally Posted by Il Fenomeno 415

The manual says do not let the range go below 30 miles or it may cause damage. Is this true or is it BMW's way of preventing calls to BMW Assist for ppl who ran out of gas?

How low have you let the range go before refueling?

I think if you do it occasionally, it's not big deal. But running out of gas is no fun and running really low on fuel consistently could case premature failure of the fuel pump (at least in other cars) because the fuel actually helps keep it cool and when it's too low it has a tenancy to get hotter.

[finaloption]

I usually fill when I get the indicator @ 50 miles left

[Jamesons Viggen]

Yep, don't make a habit of it as it will cause excess wear to the pump.

[jdong]

They're probably serious. I sure as hell would not want to go over a bump or take a steep grade on a parking lot entrance with 2 gallons left in the tank.

[SamS]

LOL at exact same mpg!

[ZheHbKa]

Originally Posted by Il Fenomeno 415

The manual says do not let the range go below 30 miles or it may cause damage. Is this true or is it BMW's way of preventing calls to BMW Assist for ppl who ran out of gas?

How low have you let the range go before refueling?

theoretically, fuel pump will have a longer lifespan if it pumps fuel with certain pressure, when fuel level is that low it negatively affects it

[GB72]

Originally Posted by SamS

LOL at exact same mpg!

Exactly same as mine too!

[SamS]

Originally Posted by GB72

Exactly same as mine too!

UK or US mpg?

[pcbrew]

At least on my car, the "Miles Remaining" indicator seems to have ~0.7 gal buffer built into it.

F30 fuel tank is listed at 60 liters = 15.85 gal.

I often drive to where the indicator is below 20 miles range left and the most gas I have ever put in is 15.15 gal and that was when the indicator was showing "---" about 1/2 mile from the gas station. Other times when I have been in single digits, it has never taken more than ~15.1.

[tdizzle]

Originally Posted by pcbrew

At least on my car, the "Miles Remaining" indicator seems to have ~0.7 gal buffer built into it.

F30 fuel tank is listed at 60 liters = 15.85 gal.

I often drive to where the indicator is below 20 miles range left and the most gas I have even put in is 15.15 gal and that was when the indicator was showing "---" about 1/2 mile from the gas station. Other times when I have been in single digits, it has never taken more than ~15.1.

I think they do this in a lot of cars, sort of a built in safety mechanism for those that like to live on the edge.

[rconti]

Originally Posted by jdong

They're probably serious. I sure as hell would not want to go over a bump or take a steep grade on a parking lot entrance with 2 gallons left in the tank.

2 *gallons*? I once ran out of gas waiting for a pump to open up (Costco, yeah). On the Z3M at about 1/4 gallon left it'll get some starvation going around hard corners or pulling into a bumpy driveway. I can pretty much always eyeball it down to the point where I have about 1/2 gallon left, if I need to.

2 gallons is a *lot*.

I'm not necessarily recommending running your car as low as possible, but I've got it down to a bit of an art; your car will absolutely not stumble with 2 whole gallons left. That's probably about the time the reserve light turns on. The only BMW I'm aware of with such an issue is the E46.

[DarkTrigger]

My last fill up was with 14 gals, definatly didn't feel any sort of problems.

[tdizzle]

Originally Posted by DarkTrigger

My last fill up was with 14 gals, definatly didn't feel any sort of problems.

The issue isn't felt in the short term. It's the long term effects that cause premature failure of the fuel pump. That said, you'd have to do it a lot for it to matter. Running low every so often wont hurt it. But always getting down to 1 gallon or less will probably cause premature failure.

[Who?]

wanted to ask this exact question before, the lowest i had left was 60km..
it was when i first got the car, and really wanted to do over 1000km on the tank