After overhearing a wife tell her husband they needed to go straight to the gas station because she was on fumes, I told her she really should try to keep it over 1/4 full. Her response was “that’s just a guy thing you say so we won’t run out of gas”; Fiction.
The fact is 99% of the cars on the road have an electric fuel pump. The pump is inside the fuel tank. You may think an electric motor in a tank of gas doesn’t sound very safe. Don’t worry it is very safe. There isn’t much oxygen in the gas tank, even when it’s empty, in fact not enough oxygen for it to burn or explode.
The reason we recommend keeping it over 1/4 tank is the gasoline is the coolant that cools the fuel pump. An electric motor makes heat. That heat causes wear and premature failure if it’s not dissipated. Below a 1/4 of a tank the pump isn’t fully submerge and the small amount fuel in the tank actually warms up and doesn’t effectively dissipate the heat.
That’s why we recommend keeping it over a 1/4 full; if you don’t, we’ll gladly replace your fuel pump when it prematurely fails.
During a recent Ladies’ Clinic, I learned that keeping my tank at least 1/4 full would save on fuel pump repairs. In 40 years of driving, I have only ever run out of gas once. I get a reprieve, however, because the car was new and the gauge was not registering accurately. It was still registering 1/4 tank and I thought “Gee! I am getting such great mileage on my new car
. I had to walk a mile with my son in arms to the nearest station; another reason to ensure that our tank is over 1/4. As a personal coach, I also recommend over 1/4 tank so that we don’t need to ‘worry’ about driving on fumes and getting caught short. 1/4 tank or better also adds to our feeling of abundance – always having enough of what we need to live a good life.