Gas light on with 3 gallons left...WTF???

[JSAP123]

My gas light came on this weekend, so i stopped at a cheap gas station and filled up...
A Mazda 3 has a 14.5 gal tank, but it only took 11.5 to fill...that means the light was warning me I was low on gas with 3 gallons left!!!...thats like 85 miles!!!
I thought cars we suposed to warn u when it was a gallon left, but 3 thats a little over the top!
Has this happened to anyone else???
Let me know...cuz i dont know if maybe something wrong with the sensor or something???

 

[three]

No everythin is fine. I let mine go low all the time mainly because i fill up with 93 every other fill up. My light comes on with 3 gallons left and my truck does too at 3 gallons. I think that its normal.

 

[kmfdMZ3]

normal =P atleast you know when your light comes on you got some slack if you can't hit a gas station anytime soon

 

[tsunami]

its also there to help protect the in tank electronics that count on the gas as a coolant and gives you longer life on the pump. heat=bad and when the gas gets low its not totally covering the pump anymore and that causes it to heat up.


at least thats what goldwing told me... lol

 

[Mazda3Rookie]

My gas light came on this weekend, so i stopped at a cheap gas station and filled up...
A Mazda 3 has a 14.5 gal tank, but it only took 11.5 to fill...that means the light was warning me I was low on gas with 3 gallons left!!!...thats like 85 miles!!!
I thought cars we suposed to warn u when it was a gallon left, but 3 thats a little over the top!
Has this happened to anyone else???
Let me know...cuz i dont know if maybe something wrong with the sensor or something???

Mine (2006 Hatch Touring Manual) does the same. I guess it is not that bad you can get some decent mileage out of the gas reserve.

 

[ZoomVT]

its also there to help protect the in tank electronics that count on the gas as a coolant and gives you longer life on the pump. heat=bad and when the gas gets low its not totally covering the pump anymore and that causes it to heat up.


at least thats what goldwing told me... lol

thats good to know.
i found out about this 3 gallon crap a while ago and i think its good, because i have about 80 miles to find a decent gas station, and when you live in VT and you are outside burlington, you will need every single drop of gas to make it to the next gas station. I didnt know about the cooling function though, so i guess i should try to not drive around with low gas during the hot months.... thanks for telling me now...

 

[MightyMouse]

Well considering the fuel pump sits about half way up the fuel sending unit, you would have to run your tank half full for the pump to be immersed.

The fuel pump is cooled by fuel running through the INSIDE of the pump, in other words, if your car is running at all, the fuel pump is being cooled properly. Just don't run the pump for too long with the tank empty. Which you could not do anyways unless you bypass the ECU because if the engine shuts off due to lack of fuel, it will automatically shut the pump off.

Long story short....don't worry about it. The engineers have already thought about it.

 

[BradC]

Its there as a saftey feature, so you don't get stranded. Be thankful for it.

 

[mike son]

hey three

three what do you mean you have a homemade stubby? its in you sig.

 

[protegeV]

its also there to help protect the in tank electronics that count on the gas as a coolant and gives you longer life on the pump. heat=bad and when the gas gets low its not totally covering the pump anymore and that causes it to heat up.


at least thats what goldwing told me... lol

this is accurate(werd)