When do you fill up your gas tank?

[MillauFr]

Once or twice per month when we go to Costco. I drop off my wife to start the shopping while I get gas.

 

[tvguy]

I drive more than most people.
I drive until ( at least )20 miles after the light goes on.
I don’t recommend this.
We recently had a costly cleaning of valves and fuel injectors caused, I’m told by the Dealership service supervisor, largely by having direct injection, cheap gas (guilty), and not having cleaned it every 15,000 miles… which is the new standard thanks to progress.

Still, I get about 43mpg in a fully gas-powered car. 48 if I can slow down.

Sorry, not buying the cheap gas argument, or that ANY car needs a fuel system cleaning every 15,000 miles. The EPA requires additives in ALL gasoline to prevent problems. Cheap gas hasn't been an issue in probably 25 years since those rules went into effect.

 

[brockash]

Sundays....and then if I won't make it the whole week whenever it's not hugely inconvenient.

 

[mikehn]

I have almost 240k miles on mostly Sams and Costco gas. Never had an engine or tranny rebuild yet. Every now and then I put in a can of Seafoam into my gas tank. Thats about it.

 

[slo]

When the price is a little lower
When the weather is nice
Either of the above I’ll do regardless where my tank level is.

 

[loves to dive]

Around town just going back and forth to work, I let it get down to 1/4. On the road travelling, I start looking when it says I have 100 miles left.

At home I stop on the way home from work at Kroger, we always have lots of points since I usually only have to fill up about every month and 1/2 to 2 months and hubby doesn't use the points. On the road travelling, I'm not picky about where.

Hubby has a diesel truck with a spare tank on it so he always hits the limits of the pumps and has to restart them. If he is just using it around home, he can go months and months. When we are pulling the RV he can usually get from Athens, GA to the Tampa area easily. When we are camped he will take it and top the extra tank off. He also has what will soon be a vintage Infiniti little car which he rarely drives so I'm betting it doesn't get filled up maybe once a year. He will take it out every month or so just to keep the battery full, sometimes just around the neighborhood.

 

[KPeterso]

Probably about 1/8 of a tank is when I fill the tank. I go to Shell and use my Ralphs (Krogers) rewards and usually save anywhere from $0.70 - $1 a gallon. So less than Costco and much more convenient. I also then get the car washed since that is next door. Working from home, I often get gas less than once a month though.

 

[dclpluto]

Every weekend

 

[John VN]

I fill up before gauge gets to 1/2.

Always at 1/2 tank.
Married to mechanic won’t get into all of it but it’s not good for your engine to get to bottom of tank could cause problems
Also as others have said - you never know - weather : traffic accidents - I’ve been stuck on highway for hours several times - don’t wish to run out of gas

r.e. bold -- low fuel level in tank can cause inadequate cooling/lubrication of fuel pump causing it to *FAIL* resulting in $$$$ repair. If DFIL was alive you could ask him. He liked to wait until notification of low fuel level resulting in a number of very expensive replacement costs.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I fill up before gauge gets to 1/2.



r.e. bold -- low fuel level in tank can cause inadequate cooling/lubrication of fuel pump causing it to *FAIL* resulting in $$$$ repair. If DFIL was alive you could ask him. He liked to wait until notification of low fuel level resulting in a number of very expensive replacement costs.

Don’t even get me started - as I said I’m married to a mechanic - drones on and on about this - don’t get gas when they are filling the pumps / don’t do this / don’t do that / blah blah blah - don’t listen spend tons of money Haa haa

 

[DVC-Don]

When the car computer tells me I have 100 miles of gas left. I too am retired, so I pump in alcohol free gas available at WaWa stations and some Stewart stations in Upstate New York. That gas does not mess up the gas lines and injectors if left sitting.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

I have a very short commute, so in summer I wait until it's very low or when the low fuel light comes on. In winter, I won't go under 1/3 to 1/4 and I check the weather for the least nasty day to fill up. I also collect fuel rewards from my local grocery store, so if they email me to say my rewards are expiring, I will grab a fill up then. My prefered grocery store with it's gas station is 4 blocks from my office, so it's really no big deal.

 

[disneyseniors]

Well, we live up north in a very cold climate! We keep our gas tanks full when they hit 1/2. I still do that in the summer out of habit.
OTOH, my daughter drives her car until the light comes on!!! She has a hybrid Toyota so she doesn't need to fill up too often.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I typically fill up when I’m about 1/2 tank. I don’t shop around for gas prices but use a Very Convenient station.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Prior to the pandemic, I bought a tank of gas every two weeks. At that point I usually had a quarter tank left.
During the pandemic working from home I stopped filling up. I would buy $20 (about 5 gallons at current prices) worth when I got to a quarter tank and it would last me 6 or 7 weeks.
Retired last year, and starting to worry about gasoline going bad in our cars since we use so little. My wife has a Camry Hybrid that gets 53 mpg and we filled up 2 months ago and have used a quarter of a tank. I took it in for an oil change at the Toyota dealer and the service writer said in the last two years a number of their customers come in one a year for oil change and many haven't even driven 2,000 miles.

Try Stabil. Depending on where you live, the ethanol in the gas can Absorb water and turn the gas into gunk.

 

[tvguy]

Try Stabil. Depending on where you live, the ethanol in the gas can Absorb water and turn the gas into gunk.

Owners manual says not to use additives. The computer is supposed to handle all that fuel issues. No ethanol here, it pollutes the air.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Usually about 1/4 tank, but I’ll fill up before a long road trip or if heavy snow is expected.

Same

 

[kdonnel]

Owners manual says not to use additives. The computer is supposed to handle all that fuel issues. No ethanol here, it pollutes the air.

Is that just in your part of California? I know in Georgia we have different blends depending on where you are in the state.

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-repo...california-gasoline-data-facts-and-statistics

Gasoline sold in California at retail is made up of 90 percent petroleum based gasoline (as specified by the California Air Resources Board) and 10 percent ethanol. Ethanol became the primary blending oxygenate in gasoline in 2003, as Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) was fully phased out of by that year.

 

[tvguy]

Is that just in your part of California? I know in Georgia we have different blends depending on where you are in the state.

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-repo...california-gasoline-data-facts-and-statistics

We have funny gas blend rules state wide. I have seen signs in the past noting on the pump if the fuel had ethanol in it. There is E-85, but none of my cars can use that.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have funny gas blend rules state wide. I have seen signs in the past noting on the pump if the fuel had ethanol in it. There is E-85, but none of my cars can use that.

I'm sooooo happy that both of our vehicles are flex-fuel (can use either gasoline or E85). We didn't buy them for that, it just happened.