Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting out of gas with 1/8 tank left on gauge ?

Tonight on my way home I ran out of gas.

but my gas gauge still said I had about 1/8 of a tank left and my low feul light only came on about 2 miles before this I walked the rest of the way home and got some gas put it in and it started right back up but I am trying to figure out what was wrong that it was not showing me near empty before it seemed to run out. also this tank only had 308 miles on it (typical get about 350 on a tank)

The symptoms where :
it started seeming to have no power and was jerky and just chugging along and after just a little bit of this it stopped everything and cut off and the engine would not start up again realy(started twice but would not move and would stall out again when I tried).

so what I am asking is what would cause this ? fuel pump ? gas gauge ? whatever else ?

Need more details ? just ask and I will do my best to answer.
Car details are in sig.

bump to see if anybody has any ideas

Wow! 68k on a 2000! Lots of driving! I am replying because I too have a 2000 (SVT)and have been (was) plagued with fuel pump problems. Two new pumps were installed under warranty and when it started running funny, out of warranty 39k, I decided to check it myself. The problem is, you have to drop the tank to access the pump! To solve this I just cut the hole above the pump a bit larger and pulled it out from the top! The pics here will possibly explain your problem... Returnless Fuel Pump EXPOSED! When you get way low on gas the only entrance into the sump is through that "disc" filter and if it's clogged, performance will suffer.(understatement)

EDIT: The pump in the photos has only 12k on it...the gas you buy can hurt you!

...Ed

Yeah I do just a bit of driving 47 miles each way to work every weekday put quite a few of them on.
I put on about 40K my first year I had it and it looks like it will be at least 35K-40K the second year.

I was driving uphill when I ran out of gas.

so what you are saying is that I should just fill up sooner ?

I looked at the pictures and I am still trying to figure out a few things.

1. The hole you cut where exactly is it ? under the back seat ? in the trunk ? and did you use tin snips or what to cut it ?

2. Did you have to replace the pump or was it just a filter that you replaced or cleaned ?

3. how long did it take and how hard was it to do ?

Thansk for any help you can give me on this.

Under the back seat,some bodies do have a hole but its too small to get the returnless pump & sender out,hole has to be opened up...check under the seat for any hole to start with...

moxnix,

Here is my post on the same subject a week or so ago. It should answer most of your questions. Start to finish it took 3-4 hours.

earlier post

Scroll down a few posts...

...Ed