How We Drove 100 Miles On Fuel Reserve

A few years ago, we decided we wanted to know the limits of our company car, 1996 petrol powered Renault Mégane 1,6 66 kW. Specificly, how far can it go after the fuel reserve light went on. We knew that we couldn´t damage this engine when the fuel ran out. It had no direct fuel injection and we hoped that fuel pump won´t fry iteslf running dry for a while. Thankfuly, it didn´t.

Until the engine died of starvation, we did 102 miles of economical driving. But at the end, we got bored since we did not expect to go this far and drove a bit more briskly. So we could´ve possibly squeezed another mile or two from the tank.

The reason for this kind of range is that Mégane has (at least we think) quite a big fuel tank and thus the reserve (about 8 litres).

After the engine died, we put some fuel in it and it started after a while with no problems whatsoever.

So don´t be too anxious when driving on a reserve. 60-70 kilometers whould be fine on any car, I´d say even 80-90. But don´t push your luck, or it´ll ran out, literally ;)

D.K.