2005 MCS. The computer said I had 21 miles of travel left. Car died. Luckily it was as I was pulling into my parking spot. Just had to push it in a bit.. heavy car for being small.

Figured it was the gas so I fed it a gallon and that was it. Just wondering if this is common. I think I've gone well below 20 miles before but I know how that guage can fluctuate a lot especially after first starting the car as it recalclates everything. No biggie.. I'll just fill up before 20 for now on

 

FYI the gas in the tank pulls the heat out of the pump. Running it dry/low will reduce the service life of the pump and not running out adds cool points for not having to push your car

 

03BRG, is right. The gasoline in the tank is used to cool the newer highpressure fuel pumps. Good idea not to run it so low.

I burned up 2 pumps in my Ford F-150 before someone told me about it. After that I always filled up with at least 1/4 of a tank. Last pump was in for over 100,000 miles. First 2 only lasted 70,000 combined.

 

Forgot about that. With the combination of a new job only 7 miles away and the mini's great gas mileage (opposed to the Mustang I traded it towards) I love the "filling up every 2 weeks or so" feeling

Thanks,
Kirk

 

I've run out of gas too in my mini, but that's because my fuel senders are wonky, and the tank read 1/8th when it was indeed flat empty. So now I fill up by mileage instead.

 

I came really close in my '06 MCSC a few weeks ago. I'm still getting used to the fact that there are long stretches of freeway here in California without gas stations. I was down to less than 5 miles on the OBC display, and it seemed to hang there for about 10 miles until I found a gas station. The engine never stumbled or ran rough, but I generally like to change it when the low-fuel light first comes on (~65 miles left, according to the OBC, but probably significantly more than that).

 

My wife had it go from 20 to 0 in less than one mile on the hwy. She would had killed me if she did indeed run out of gas. I would concur to plan on filling up immediately when you get close to 20. 1/4 is too early.

 

My wife's Mini (Leprecn) had an intermittent problem with the sending unit. Once in a while, the range would get to about 68 miles and the car would run out of gas. The dealer did diagnose the problem and said it was fairly common on BMW's but rather rare on Mini's... Sending unit got replaced and all has been fine since. My Mini seems to be just fine...