1996 Camry, The Empty Line Story
Well i have 200,000 miles on my 4 cylinder camry. The trick with the empty light, and empty line... If you keep your rpms very easy, i mean under 2000 rpms, no jerking, and the nice thing about the automatic, its easy to control the gear changes. When the light comes on, it means theres about 2 gallons left. And you're in trouble when the notch gets below the empty line... How much below? well when theres between 1-3mm below the line, might i advise going to a gas station as soon as possible... Ive gotten it below 3-4mm below the line before, and i started accelerating on the highway only to find out my car wouldnt rev past 3000 rpms, so i jetted back, 5 miles down the road!!! putting along around 35-40mph at 1500rpms, pulled into the gas station and couldnt believe it, i was kinda broke that night, and this was when gas was like 2.50 a gallon, i put 5 bucks in, 2 gallons... just 2 gallons, was just enough to put it back onto the empty line!!!
Story replies
Interesting account. I have 1996 Camry too, LE, I4, I believe that the point the fuel line comes on is when still have 3 gallons left. That means you have between 60-90 miles until you completely run out (unless like you, you use some hyper-miling style techniques). I've run 60+ miles after the fuel light came on only to fill up and find I had only used 16.5 of the 18 gallon tank. I average 24-25 MPG driving a mix of highway and city driving, so your milage may vary. I'll have to fill up my gas can and see just how far you can go on one tank.
Plus i forgot to mention my fuel tank sensor float thing isnt 100%, i can drive a 100 miles and the tank will barely move, then out of no where drop off a 1/4 of a inch...
Please hypermile in any lane but the left. Very annoying to those trying to go a decent clip in the fast lane. Especially during rush hour. And if you can't talk on your cell phone AND drive, which some of us are quite capable of doing WITHOUT holding up traffic in any one of the various methods that people who are in their own little world and don't give a crap about anyone else do, HANG UP OR PULL THE BLEEP OVER!
I just took my '04 Corolla in to the body shop. I paid $60 to get mine done. Didn't mind it a bit because they took quite a bit of time doing it. Really didn't want to do it mylesf and the plastic looks like brand new. The plastic was really oxidized badly. I will pass on the toothpaste tho to anyone interested.(Please don't give my email to anyone.)
My 96 camry is something else now. I have service my injector head, chang plugs/ wires, yet my car still jerking and consumes all my fuel. Pls help.