How Far Can You Drive Once Your Fuel Light Comes On?

Of course everyone knows it is a really bad idea to ever run out of fuel completely.  We know that because its really inconvenient BUT did you know exactly what can happen to your car if you do?

We had a car in this week with exactly this problem.  With today's technology under the bonnet, running out of fuel is a very expensive mistake to make. The lady ran out of diesel (hadn't even noticed the fuel light had come on) and we recovered the car for her.  The problem was that the ECU (computer brain) was still telling the fuel injectors to fire and this resulted in 4 fuel injectors needing replacing - way more £££ than a tank of diesel!  If we just say it was in excess of £500.... now we have your attention!

So the short message is - DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!  As you can imagine, being mechanical the team here at Hillclimb Garage often drive our personal cars with the fuel light on- for almost too long - but the distance you can get away with can vary a great deal.  We found this interesting infographic below that will show you roughly how long you can go before the car will finally stop.  Our advice is definitely don't risk it with a diesel car - It's way too expensive to get wrong.

If you ever need advice about your car, we just love the opportunity to show off how much we know...... give us a call 01494 444481

Just 20p..... and 2 Minutes!

Now those of you that know us well at Hillclimb Garage will know that we are not usually ones to be trying to catch your eye with frightening headlines, but this has been on our minds this week and we wanted to just maybe stop you long enough to consider how quickly you can make sure you are safe, with nothing more than this:

Here's 4 Facts you need to know:

1. Your car's braking distance significantly drops when there's less than 3mm remaining on your tyres - a study showed that it took 30-44 metres longer to stop from 70mph - thats nearly four car lengths EXTRA on your stopping speed

2. Nearly a third of all tyres in the UK are currently illegal, new research has revealed. Road safety charity TyreSafe found that more than 10 million tyres are illegal – either below the 1.6mm minimum tread depth or defective with bulges and tears.

3. You can check your tyres in around 2 minutes - Park car on flat with Handbrake in place.  Insert 20p coin into tread.  If you can see any of the outer band, you are running and illegal tyre. Repeat in multiple places and on all tyres.  (Tyres can wear unevenly)

4. If you don't want to do it yourself - if you drive up to Hillclimb we will do it for you FREE


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