My car was low on fuel, and it stalled while changing lanes

[Dominus]

Is this common, or is this a sign of something? New fuel pump?

I was low on fuel, but not dead yet. Indicator had me at 20 miles left, based on an average of 11 mpg. I went to go change a lane real quick, and the car died. Started it up, ran fine. Went to change a lane quickly again. Dead again.

Filled the tank, and haven't had a problem since. Now, I have run my tank pretty low in the past, but never had such a thing happen. What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Frogman]

Yeah! Ofcourse its a common thing. Think about it. You had a couple of gallons left in that tank. The fuel was sloshing around when you were playing speed racer with the lane changes. The fuel pump likely got dry and it started sucking air when it had no fuel on the pick-up screen. Air + Air + spark and engine does not make run.

 

[turborich]

Not a good idea to run that low anyways. Not good for the pump at all.

 

[unity]

From what I have heard, no less than a quarter tank. The fuel cools the pump, a lot.

 

[Redwingvksm]

Hey, when that pump burns out, feel free to stop by the shop.

Seriously - don't let it drop lower than 1/4 of a tank for these cars, and when was the last time you changed out your fuel filter? Rember, letting fuel get that low will clean out any dirt in the tank, making the fuel filter plug up more!

 

[Dominus]

Yeah! Ofcourse its a common thing. Think about it. You had a couple of gallons left in that tank. The fuel was sloshing around when you were playing speed racer with the lane changes. The fuel pump likely got dry and it started sucking air when it had no fuel on the pick-up screen. Air + Air + spark and engine does not make run.

I wasn't playing speed racer. Just regular old new york traffic.

No big deal to keep it full. Just sometimes a station is a hard thing to get to. Closest station is 10 blocks away, so I usually don't even bother until it is really necessary.

But I'll keep it full in the future. I literally never had it happen when it was low before. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't something else.