Running out of gas

Literally.  In my husband's Envoy. Not happy.

Here's the story.  We own a 2005 GMC Envoy.  I may have shared the story about how the gas gauge is broken, not sure since I think of posts that I never write and then I'm not sure if I did or did not write them.  Save that for another posting!

It's a common problem in the Envoy and Chevy Trailblazers for the gas sensor to break.  It's also an $800 fix.  Because this is happening to so many cars, there is a movement by owners to get GM to do a recall, so far no luck.  Of course we are holding out for the recall.

So how do we know how much gas we have?  My husband uses the trip counter.  Every time he fills up the tank, he sets it to zero and when we get to about 295 miles, we know it's time to fill up.  We actually calculated how many gallons our tank holds to the miles/gallon it gets and came up with 329, but it's safer to fill up sooner rather than taking a chance.

Until yesterday.  I was on my way to pay some bills and grab some things at the store, when the truck stalled as I was turning the bend. On top of a huge hill.  A very busy 2 lanes each way hill.  Where people come up the hill on both sides!!  Yah- almost got hit several times as I tried to let the truck coast to the side of the road- read far right lane as there are no shoulders- and I fumbled trying to find the hazard lights.  I tried to start the truck but it wouldn't turn over.  First thing I thought was there was no gas, but the trip meter read 160.  So I called Jeff who came a few minutes later.  With our gas can.  He assumed I ran out of gas as he did not fill up the tank the last time he got gas and didn't think he was that low.  Because the gas tank is on the left side, he had to hide behind the truck and hold the can as he put in the gas lest he get hit by the cars whizzing by - did I mention the hill I was on.  I tried to start the truck and it still wouldn't start.  So I headed home while he called AAA. 

I called him to check on him and to ask him how much gas he put in the tank.  He said a couple gallons because he was afraid of getting hit.  And he thought it would be enough to start it up.  I asked if he thought maybe he should put more in since the sensor's broke and it is kinda on a hill so maybe it needs more to register. No- he said.  Something else is wrong.

Well, he was towed to a garage and after charging the battery- Jeff must have drained it trying to start it over and over, the guy started it right up.  He said that the sensor wasn't reading the gas that was in there because it's located in the back and being on any slight grade you need about 4-5 gallons for it to read.  Which was how much we had in the can.  My husband was so embarrassed and even told the guys at the garage that I had basically said the same thing.  He could barely tell me the story when he came home.  He was laughing so hard.

Jeff thought he had more gas in the car, but the guy even said that in the winter, you tend to use more letting the car warm up or in my husband's case- revving it up over and over.  Can you tell how much that annoys me!

Lesson learned- Jeff will always fill up the tank at 295-300 miles.  And I will use my Sunfire more often!!