Don’t Drive Your Car On Empty! Here’s Why!

We’ve all done it a time or two; driven our cars with the fuel lights on. It’s important not to drive your car with little to no gasoline in the tank. You might not realize this, but driving your automobile in this condition can damage the engine and the fuel pump. Righteous Auto Care explains further below why it’s a good idea to always keep fuel in the tank and avoid driving on empty.

All fuel has sediment. There’s no avoiding this. Even if you buy the most expensive gasoline in town, it has sediment in it. When you fill your tank, this sediment sinks down to the bottom. While the tank is full, the fuel pump is pulling primarily gasoline and no sediment out of the tank. It runs this fuel through the fuel filter and then pushes it through to the fuel injectors. They spray the clean fuel into the combustion chamber.

As the fuel levels get lower and lower in the tank, the fuel pump not only draws diesel fuel or gasoline out of it but also the sediment that has sunk to the bottom. If the fuel filter cannot filter all of the sediment out of the gasoline, it will make its way into the combustion chamber and damage the engine. There are fine particles of sediment that can bypass the filtration system.

The fuel pump also relies on diesel fuel or gasoline to keep it cool. Unbelievably, this fluid, although flammable, also acts as a coolant for the fuel pump’s motor. When the fuel pump is drawing more air than fuel out of the tank, the motor will begin to overheat. This heat has nowhere to go but into the engine. Consequently, driving on empty can actually overheat your engine because the fuel pump is overheating, as well.

It’s a good idea to keep your tank at least half full of fuel regularly. You can go down as low as one-quarter of a tank, but after that, you’re running the risk of drawing too much air through the fuel pump and into the engine. Definitely fill your tank when the fuel light comes on. This means you only have a few gallons left in the tank and your fuel pump has reached the point where it is pulling sediment through.

If you’re bad about driving on empty instead of filling your tank and feel you have caused engine damage, call Righteous Auto Care in Racine, WI , for an engine inspection. We’d be happy to check everything and make sure that all is a-okay.