Restart after running out of gas?

[nealperkins]

Is there any issue with the restarting procedure; or, is it straight forward? Any issues? I'm going to find out how much gas is 'in there' with one bar showing on the gauge. Thanks.

[TicketBait]

I have run out of gas 3 times, carry red spare gas, have had no problem restarting on my 2010 RTS.
Do note that when I ran out, it is sudden, no puttering, you loose ALL power with no fuel;)

You never mention what type of spyder or year that you have, nor does it say in your profile, please update :trike:

[Peter Aawen]

NealPerkins, Modern EFI Motors REALLY DON'T LIKE RUNNING OUT OF GAS!! IMO, you'd be a bit silly to go out of your way do that on purpose, cos it's VERY LIKELY to damage the fuel pump, the injectors, & even the cylinders themselves!! :yikes:

The directions in the manual suggest you refill as soon as possible after the warning light comes on, as well as avoiding running out of fuel; simply because the pump & injector system uses the fuel in the tank as both coolant and lubricant for the EFI System as well as burning it in the cylinders. Engine manufacturers recommend never going lower than a couple of litres remaining in the tank to ensure that there is sufficient fuel remaining to do this & yet still protect the injection system from damage. Once the fuel level gets lower than that couple of litres/a quart or so, the pump will begin to pick up any contaminants &/or debris in the bottom of the tank (and it IS there!) & some of those contaminants WILL be small enough to get past the filter/s, and once in there those contaminants WILL damage EVERYTHING along the way as the dirty fuel passes thru the system; firstly ripping into the fine tolerances in the fuel pump; then it gets squirted out the injector nozzles, damaging them & compromising their spray pattern along the way; & finally, after the contaminants get squirted into the cylinders, they don't necessarily burn up immediately but get pumped up & down inside the cylinder for a while first, scouring the walls as it does so & probably even ripping the rings to bits too!! Sure, all this initial damage is microscopic & you might get away with doing it once or twice, but it IS irreversible damage & it IS cumulative!! Some people might get away with it happening every now & then, but I know people who scored engine destroying contamination the very first time they ran the tank dry!! Besides, if you do it often enough, on purpose or not, the engine WILL lose power & fuel economy every time it runs that last bit of fuel thru the system, and you end up paying one way or another. So Why risk it at all?? :dontknow:

So why not just take a note of how much fuel you put in to fill the tank & reset the trip meter at every fill; then once you've riden for a while & refilled again, note the distance travelled & how much gas it took to bring the tank back to full & to travel that distance. You can then divide the distance travelled by the fuel used to do that & you'll know how far you can ride on the fuel you just put in. The total capacity of the tank (not necessarily the usable capacity tho) is readily available in the specs, but you NEVER want to use that much if at all possible, so work out a reasonably safe margin & stick to travelling no further than that before you refill, at least for a while. Then over time, if you keep a log book of distances travelled via the trip meter between fills & how much each fill is, you can very quickly work out a pretty accurate average fuel usage & therefore come to a very goid guess as to a maximum safe range while still leaving at least a litre or two or a quart or so in the tank, and you can avoid damaging the EFI System at the same time! ;)

Easy really, & you won't be damaging your engine or EFI System to work it out either! :thumbup:

[PistonBlown]

I have run out of gas 3 times, carry red spare gas, have had no problem restarting on my 2010 RTS.
Do note that when I ran out, it is sudden, no puttering, you loose ALL power with no fuel;)

You never mention what type of spyder or year that you have, nor does it say in your profile, please update :trike:

Only one? It's the only reason I have panniers...
149042

[Saluda]

Is the gas over the max weight for the side packs ?

[Jeriatric]

I have run out of gas 3 times, carry red spare gas, have had no problem restarting on my 2010 RTS.
Do note that when I ran out, it is sudden, no puttering, you loose ALL power with no fuel;)

You never mention what type of spyder or year that you have, nor does it say in your profile, please update :trike:

Thats because your Spyder gets terrible mileage. Kidding :roflblack:

[Brentc]

What Peter explains below is how it was explained to me as well by a mechanic who works for NASA.


NealPerkins, Modern EFI Motors REALLY DON'T LIKE RUNNING OUT OF GAS!! IMO, you'd be a bit silly to go out of your way do that on purpose, cos it's VERY LIKELY to damage the fuel pump, the injectors, & even the cylinders themselves!! :yikes:

The directions in the manual suggest you refill as soon as possible after the warning light comes on, as well as avoiding running out of fuel; simply because the pump & injector system uses the fuel in the tank as both coolant and lubricant for the EFI System as well as burning it in the cylinders. Engine manufacturers recommend never going lower than a couple of litres remaining in the tank to ensure that there is sufficient fuel remaining to do this & yet still protect the injection system from damage. Once the fuel level gets lower than that couple of litres/a quart or so, the pump will begin to pick up any contaminants &/or debris in the bottom of the tank (and it IS there!) & some of those contaminants WILL be small enough to get past the filter/s, and once in there those contaminants WILL damage EVERYTHING along the way as the dirty fuel passes thru the system; firstly ripping into the fine tolerances in the fuel pump; then it gets squirted out the injector nozzles, damaging them & compromising their spray pattern along the way; & finally, after the contaminants get squirted into the cylinders, they don't necessarily burn up immediately but get pumped up & down inside the cylinder for a while first, scouring the walls as it does so & probably even ripping the rings to bits too!! Sure, all this initial damage is microscopic & you might get away with doing it once or twice, but it IS irreversible damage & it IS cumulative!! Some people might get away with it happening every now & then, but I know people who scored engine destroying contamination the very first time they ran the tank dry!! Besides, if you do it often enough, on purpose or not, the engine WILL lose power & fuel economy every time it runs that last bit of fuel thru the system, and you end up paying one way or another. So Why risk it at all?? :dontknow:

So why not just take a note of how much fuel you put in to fill the tank & reset the trip meter at every fill; then once you've riden for a while & refilled again, note the distance travelled & how much gas it took to bring the tank back to full & to travel that distance. You can then divide the distance travelled by the fuel used to do that & you'll know how far you can ride on the fuel you just put in. The total capacity of the tank (not necessarily the usable capacity tho) is readily available in the specs, but you NEVER want to use that much if at all possible, so work out a reasonably safe margin & stick to travelling no further than that before you refill, at least for a while. Then over time, if you keep a log book of distances travelled via the trip meter between fills & how much each fill is, you can very quickly work out a pretty accurate average fuel usage & therefore come to a very goid guess as to a maximum safe range while still leaving at least a litre or two or a quart or so in the tank, and you can avoid damaging the EFI System at the same time! ;)

Easy really, & you won't be damaging your engine or EFI System to work it out either! :thumbup:

[Bob Denman]

:D But since you still have one bar showing: you've got lots of fuel to get you to a filling station. :thumbup:

[Zip]

NealPerkins, Modern EFI Motors REALLY DON'T LIKE RUNNING OUT OF GAS!! IMO, you'd be a bit silly to go out of your way do that on purpose, cos it's VERY LIKELY to damage the fuel pump, the injectors, & even the cylinders themselves!! :yikes:

The directions in the manual suggest you refill as soon as possible after the warning light comes on, as well as avoiding running out of fuel; simply because the pump & injector system uses the fuel in the tank as both coolant and lubricant for the EFI System as well as burning it in the cylinders. Engine manufacturers recommend never going lower than a couple of litres remaining in the tank to ensure that there is sufficient fuel remaining to do this & yet still protect the injection system from damage. Once the fuel level gets lower than that couple of litres/a quart or so, the pump will begin to pick up any contaminants &/or debris in the bottom of the tank (and it IS there!) & some of those contaminants WILL be small enough to get past the filter/s, and once in there those contaminants WILL damage EVERYTHING along the way as the dirty fuel passes thru the system; firstly ripping into the fine tolerances in the fuel pump; then it gets squirted out the injector nozzles, damaging them & compromising their spray pattern along the way; & finally, after the contaminants get squirted into the cylinders, they don't necessarily burn up immediately but get pumped up & down inside the cylinder for a while first, scouring the walls as it does so & probably even ripping the rings to bits too!! Sure, all this initial damage is microscopic & you might get away with doing it once or twice, but it IS irreversible damage & it IS cumulative!! Some people might get away with it happening every now & then, but I know people who scored engine destroying contamination the very first time they ran the tank dry!! Besides, if you do it often enough, on purpose or not, the engine WILL lose power & fuel economy every time it runs that last bit of fuel thru the system, and you end up paying one way or another. So Why risk it at all?? :dontknow:

So why not just take a note of how much fuel you put in to fill the tank & reset the trip meter at every fill; then once you've riden for a while & refilled again, note the distance travelled & how much gas it took to bring the tank back to full & to travel that distance. You can then divide the distance travelled by the fuel used to do that & you'll know how far you can ride on the fuel you just put in. The total capacity of the tank (not necessarily the usable capacity tho) is readily available in the specs, but you NEVER want to use that much if at all possible, so work out a reasonably safe margin & stick to travelling no further than that before you refill, at least for a while. Then over time, if you keep a log book of distances travelled via the trip meter between fills & how much each fill is, you can very quickly work out a pretty accurate average fuel usage & therefore come to a very goid guess as to a maximum safe range while still leaving at least a litre or two or a quart or so in the tank, and you can avoid damaging the EFI System at the same time! ;)

Easy really, & you won't be damaging your engine or EFI System to work it out either! :thumbup:


Just a thought,

First a agree with the cooling affects of the fuel in the tank. And yes the contaminants for the most part settle to the low point of the tank. And I do agree not to let the tank run out of fuel.

But think about if you will when you fuel up you are stirring up the fuel in the tank thus mixing in those fine particles. Then you start up and drive off before they get a chance to settle. So now if they are small enough to go through the filter then they are still making their way into your engine.

If you put a little flour into a jar of water and shake it up it takes a long time for the particles to settle. Flour particles are approximately 10 to 40 micron. A standard fuel filter pore size is 2 to 10 micron. So if the particles in the fuel are small enough to go through the filter it will take a long time for them to settle out after fueling up.

[Slowpoke387]

Wouldnt worry. People run out of gas every day. Def not going to HELP it any lol but highly doubtful about engine damage. For the small amount of time that it will sputter and quit running i wouldnt worry about it losing lubrication or cooling. That being said im not the one who is willingly running mine out of fuel lol.

[WilderThomas]

I have run out of gas 3 times, carry red spare gas, have had no problem restarting on my 2010 RTS.
Do note that when I ran out, it is sudden, no puttering, you loose ALL power with no fuel;)

You never mention what type of spyder or year that you have, nor does it say in your profile, please update :trike:

There's also a website one can go to called, www.mymagictank.com. You can buy as little as a liter of emergency, non flammable gas to store in a saddlebag.

[Chupaca]

Although the information above may be true and damage can occur I would imagine that most systems are built wtih this possibility in mind. Running out of gas once or twice will not damage anything if you refuel and get back on the road. Maybe doing it regularly and leaving the system dry would bring harm to the parts involved. I carry a liter of fuel and have run most of my vehicles out of gas to find out how far I can go to empty. I no longer do it seeing as the next gas station now-a-days is close by and trips can be planned to where it will never become an issue...

[nealperkins]

OK, so I'll not let it run out of fuel. Peter, that was a GOOD answer!! Thanks.
(And I do carry a 1/2 liter container.)

[pegasus1300]

Only one? It's the only reason I have panniers...
149042

Good heavens you could open your own filling station with that. Nothing like being prepared. I like it.

[Peter Aawen]

.... Running out of gas once or twice will not damage anything if you refuel and get back on the road. Maybe doing it regularly and leaving the system dry would bring harm to the parts involved....

Sorry Chupaca (& others), running out of gas JUST ONCE on a modern EFI system WILL do some damage to critical components, it's just that the damage is usually microscopic & (hopefully) it's small enough not to stop you the very first time you do it! :shocked:

However, the damage that DOES occur every time you run out of gas (or get too low on fuel, cos the lower you go the more concentrated the damaging contaminants become in what's left - even if you do mix 'em up a little with every fill!) is irreversible & it is also cumulative; so sure, you might get away with running dry a few times, maybe more than that even, but the more often you do it, the greater the accumulated damage, the less efficient your Fuel Injection System & therefore your engine becomes, & the more likely it is that this time, it will be 'engine stopping' critical!! :lecturef_smilie: How lucky are you feeling today? :dontknow:

[PistonBlown]

Good heavens you could open your own filling station with that. Nothing like being prepared. I like it.

Some of the routes I take it can be 400km or more between petrol stations so don't really have much option.


Is the gas over the max weight for the side packs ?

In theory (according to the Givi leaflet) no. I did have both mounts crack on one particular run but that was to do with the road conditions than the weight. To give you an idea why here's a video by another motorbike rider on the same road - Spyders are not really designed for this sort of thing:-)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0P8oGRl8gY