So I ran my 91(350 V8) out of gas today. I was going up a hill, started losing power and finally it quit. Managed to coast to the top of the hill and had the car pointing downward. Fired her up and ran great, until I took the exit ramp going uphill:suspense:

Luckily I was only a few hundred feet from the gas station I was intending to stop at. Apparently 1 bar on the gas gauge=out of gas. Car seems to run fine now, I put some fuel injector cleaner in it as well. I have a new fuel filter I'm putting in tomorrow. Anything else I should do or know about, I know running a fuel injected car out of gas is pretty bad.

I'd be most concerned about the fuel pump. The other stuff you talked about sounds good to me. And running out at 1 bar is not that bad for this breed. Many of them are much worse.

The gauge on my '90 would often go form no bars to 2 bars between starts, stops, hills, or anything else. I ran out of gas about four times when I had her (307 carb'd though) and every time it was on two bars. I'd try to turn it over.. no go.. but sure enough, if it was empty there were 2 bars on the dash!

My '91's pump crapped out over the Winter. I had habitually been running the tank low. The Cadillac specialist mechanic told me with these cars it's a good thing to run them with at least a quarter tank. This keeps the pump covered on turns and hills, or under acceleration and braking.
The pump is cooled by the fuel so repetative low levels can cause pump overheating.
My guage goes from 2 bars to showing the Low Fuel warning in a trice. I've seldom seen 1 bar showing. Sounds like your's is telling you to keep more fuel in it.

Martin.

I don't necessarily think the pump overheats. If it is pumping fuel through itself, that should cool it pretty well even if the outside is not really immersed. Another problem is with a low tank, the temp of the fuel left in the tank will increase as it comes back from the hot engine bay. Finally, I think as the fuel pump ages, the check valve that keeps it full of fuel will get leaky and if the fuel drains out, it leaves the insides of the pump vulnerable to bad things (corrosion?), which is not an issue if it is immersed. Or maybe all of these combine to cause a problem.

From what mechanics told me, the fuel pump goes bad because without fuel running through it, the motor has no resistance and therefore runs fast and burns out. Kinda like running a boat motor our of water for too long, or running an air pump on a vacuum.

I've run out of gas twice in my 89. Once was close enough to a station that I pushed it down the road by myself until i was across the street from it. The second time I was so close that I was able to coast right up to the pump after it stalled out.

My gauge doesn't work sometimes...

My '91's pump crapped out over the Winter. I had habitually been running the tank low. The Cadillac specialist mechanic told me with these cars it's a good thing to run them with at least a quarter tank. This keeps the pump covered on turns and hills, or under acceleration and braking.
The pump is cooled by the fuel so repetative low levels can cause pump overheating.
My guage goes from 2 bars to showing the Low Fuel warning in a trice. I've seldom seen 1 bar showing. Sounds like your's is telling you to keep more fuel in it.

Martin.

true very true and the gas goes further with a close to empty tank i run my at 7.5 time to fill up and thsi is on a 15 gal tank

I've run out of gas twice in my 89. Once was close enough to a station that I pushed it down the road by myself until i was across the street from it. The second time I was so close that I was able to coast right up to the pump after it stalled out.

My gauge doesn't work sometimes...

if your gage doesnt work sometimes and its jumping to random numbers if its digital or it analog and the hand is off and on bouncy check the fuel sending unit. one way to find out if your fuel sending unit is broken is fill her up reset the counter on the dash , times how many street miles to the gallon you get by how many gallons of gas you put into it and when you get to half a tank note how much you put into it price wise and if its close to that number then your good but if your car says half and its more price wise have it checked out

The gauge on my '90 would often go form no bars to 2 bars between starts, stops, hills, or anything else. I ran out of gas about four times when I had her (307 carb'd though) and every time it was on two bars. I'd try to turn it over.. no go.. but sure enough, if it was empty there were 2 bars on the dash!


Haha, same thing in my 307 90.

I was on 2 bars and ran out. Was able to Coast into a gas staition thank god.

And in my bosses eldorado, i for the weekend, and 2 gallons was reading out, and i ran out, but that was coasting onto my street. tried to start again and thats when it read --.

So i try not to go below a 1/4 in any old caddy now.
lol

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-deville-1985-2005-including-1985/147692-gas-gauge-cemical-fix.html

This was posted here recently and sounds promising for weird fuel gauges.