07 F350 6.0 PSD.
I was driving from Las Vegas to San Diego with my wife and 3 year old towing my trailer for a week of fun at Sea World in an RV park on Mission Bay. The fuel gauge showed an 1/8th tank, the info screen on the dash said "11 MPG" and "31 miles to empty." I decide I better exit to get some Diesel. As I put my blinker on, the truck hesitates then dies from running out of diesel while the dash says "31 miles to empty." Sat on the side of I-15 while 18 wheelers blew by us for half an hour waiting for the tow truck to bring me some diesel. So I'm pretty p'ed to say the least. Anyone else had a similar experience with this truck?

 

Yeah the lie-o-meter has gotten me once as well. I fill up after it drops under 1/4 tank

 

Yes...in my 02 i think it said 12 miles to emty, i was about 1 mile from a diesel station and ran out.

 

yeah that's why I won't risk it

 

I have driven past 0 miles to empty on several occasions and never run out.

 

You guys are taking a huge chance running your trucks that low on fuel like that. It does not take much to starve your injectors on the 6.0 trucks and thats what kills injectors. I get nervous when my truck get below half a tank after having to replace two injectors last fall.

 

Maybe it meant to tell you 31 miles past empty

 

So did your gauge still show 1/8 of a tank when the truck died?

Did you try restarting it?

When you filled it up at the next gas station, how much fuel did you put in? How much did the tow truck bring? How does that total compare to your tank size?

Why let it get to 31 miles to go with the family, while towing, on vacation in the first place?

Live and learn, I've been in vehicles with DTE and we've hit 0 before and still made it to the gas station. I've also been in cars without a DTE reading and run out of fuel (not my cars, not me driving ).

- NCSU

 

So it sounds like this is not an uncommon problem. For those of you who get nervous at half tank and question my responsibility with having THIRTY miles to go on the gauge, WHAT IS THE POINT IN HAVING A GAUGE IF IT'S NOT ACCURATE? How hot is the motor and the trans when those gauges show normal temps? I wonder if Chevy's and Dodge's are this inaccurate.

 

Yes, the gauge still showed 1/8 tank while it was dead. I was a stones throw to the gas station when it died (with THIRTY miles to E). Yes, tried restarting and it did nothing. The tow truck brought 5 gals and it started a little rough at first then got going just fine. That made the gauge say it had 70 miles to E. Not sure my tank size, I'm sure it's not hard to look up. Why let it get to thirty? THIRTY? Come on. Thirty miles told me I had plenty of time to pull over and I WAS exiting when the truck died thinking I had THIRTY miles to go. Do not try to make me look like a bad guy because I was stupid enough to trust a ford gauge.

 

I've got the 38gal tank. A couple of times when my 50miles to empty message comes on, I've filled up within 10miles. Both times I could only squeeze in 31gallons, and that's topping off the tank. The thing that worries me is I routinely drive up and down a fairly steep 1/2 mile section of road--one of these days i'll run out when all the fuel is at the other end of the tank where the pump isn't!

 

After shelling out 1300 last fall for two injectors its cheaper for me to fill my truck up at half a tank than it is to replace injectors because they were starved of fuel.

 

I can't say I'm all that familiar with the gauges on the 350s, but if it's anything like the 150s, the gauges on the dash are virtually useless. That's why alot of people get things like the ScanGauge II or an Edge to monitor various parameters directly from the trucks computer.

As you were exiting, were you going uphill when it died? Like dragonman mentioned, if you're on a hill and low on fuel, it's possible that the fuel could slosh to the side of the tank opposite of the fuel pump.

Not trying to make you look like a bad guy, but like others said, letting your truck get that empty could cause other problems beyond just running out of fuel.

I was always taught that if you're driving and run out of fuel, there's absolutely nobody to blame but yourself. I think that still holds true, even if you have a DTE reading.

- NCSU

 

I appreciate the responses just cause I now know my truck is not the only one that is not accurate. But I'm still not buying anything about how I was supposed to know that 1/8 tank is actually Empty. The F150 I had since '04 before this was always very reliable. Are any of the other gauges notoriously wrong? Am I gonna get blamed when my trans blows up cause I was supposed to know the trans temp gauge is wrong too? Sorry if I'm sounding pissy but if I was off by 12.5% on something I did at my job, the consequence would be much worse than a stalled vehicle and I'd get fired. I expect the same from the people I give my money to. If the salesman had told me that 3/4 is really 1/2 and 1/2 is really 1/4 and so on, I wouldn't have been happy but at least I would have known.

 

dry injectors... easy money for me! Pending where your at, but its starting to get cold.. dont forget to top off every chance you get... condensations builing up in tanks, lots of water, frozen fuel, etc