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The new Volts have a "hold" mode where they will hold on to their current charge and just use the gas engine. I'm sure I can run it out of gas and then have 40-50 miles to hit a gas station on a long trip (No reason to use the charge first). Is this "Bad" for the gas engine?

I'm asking this because I remember people telling me that it's typically bad to run a "Normal" car out of gas because it sucks up junk at the bottom of the gas tank that is best just left alone (Clogs gas filter/injectors).

So is it bad to run it out of gas, or perhaps good because it will stop "Sludge" from accumulating--or is the whole thing a non-issue unless your car is like 20 years old?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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Bill K
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5 Answers5

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Short answer, it is bad don't do that.

Longer answer, the fuel pump is cooled by the gas in the tank and runs while the fuel system is pressurized. When you run it dry the pump can overheat which reduces its lifespan. This analysis is based on looking at a Chevy Volt fuel pump on ebay and saying from visual inspection that it was a fuel cooled model.

Ukko
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Probably more threatening than the reason you posted in your question about crud in the tank, is premature fuel pump failure.

Frequently running the tank low or dry could potentially cause the fuel pump to fail because most fuel pumps are typically inside the tank and are cooled by the fuel itself.

The inability to cool itself properly will cause excessive wear and early failure.

source

CharlieRB
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I'm quite certain the other answers are relying on very old lore. Most modern fuel pumps are electric and controlled by the ECU. Most electric motors can also free run so even if they weren't shut off by the ECU when it sensed a free running condition they should be fine. I would not trust 50+ year old lore and mechanics who use hasty generalizations.

Mechanics may see 1000-10000 cars in their lifetime almost all less than ten years old with various states of repair and different owners they cannot possibly control for enough variables to make a significantly significant judgment.

You can really only trust the engineers who designed the car (the owners manual) or reports taking statistics from all over the world about modern cars (I doubt these exist).

If it is an issue the owners manual will mention it Chevy has a vested interest in making sure their cars, especially the more advanced ones, are seen as reliable.

user7358648
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I have ran my tank down to where the ice is turned off automatically and I've completed my trip to the gas station on my charged battery. Today I did not Park close enough and needed to move to make the hose reach to fill it up. sufficient fuel was available for it to go through the ice startup. once that was completed it cycled off, as it has always done. Upon putting it in Drive it would go nowhere. This with the battery still half full, but no propulsion. Repeated this cycle two more times, could not move on battery power. Pushed the car to the pump and filled up. Drove away on battery power after ice went through its startup cycle of priming. Scary how I could have been stuck somewhere with plenty of battery but no ability to drive away.

Ric
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It's mostly fine. There is a fuel level sensor, sometimes it's faulty and it'll tell you you have fuel when you don't, but if you don't have that problem, you should be fine. The 2012 model had 14 NHTSA complaints about that. https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Volt/2012/fuel_system/fuel_propulsion_system.shtml

Source: https://youtu.be/QE8NiDUbRs4?t=314

This guy clearly shows there is still fuel in the lines when it kills the engines... and then goes into reserve battery power. According to my OBDII reading it's around 20% when it claims you have no battery, and 90% when it claims you're full.

Ray Foss
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