Today, I went to pick up my friend to get lunch. As I was turning into the parking lot my power steering went out. While I was muscling my truck into a parking space, I noticed my engine was dead. Put it in park and cranked it. It died almost immediately. If I would give it more gas as I cranked it, it would rev, but die if I just let it idle.
I was low on gas, so I drove it "like a stick shift" to the gas station. When I arrived, it would idle fine.

Anybody know what would cause this? The only thing I can think of is it had some bad gas in the tank.

i don't think it was bad gas so much as it was NO gas. See, there is a pickup in your tank and if the tank is low, the gas can slosh away from it and kill the engine. It can slosh back and then it picks it up. A good piece of advice is to not run your tank low.

Posted by Samurai i don't think it was bad gas so much as it was NO gas. See, there is a pickup in your tank and if the tank is low, the gas can slosh away from it and kill the engine. It can slosh back and then it picks it up. A good piece of advice is to not run your tank low.

Best advice ever. Saves fuel pumps, filters, injectors,etc.

Posted by jeepdave Best advice ever. Saves fuel pumps, filters, injectors,etc.

Tell my wife this. Like they say, 376th time is the charm.

Keep in mind that all the badness (water, debris, etc) is going to be in the bottom of the tank as well.

lol the idea that running a tank low and it sucking up junk from the bottom of the tank is such a myth. The fuel pump doesnt move up and down with fuel level. It sucks the same gas, from the same tank. Whatever is in the fuel, is there regardless if the tank is full or low. Keeping a tank full wont save pumps, filters, injectors like Dave said. Anything that gets past the strainer then fuel filter isnt going to harm the injector, so thats where that statement is false for starters. You guys gotta stop and think about it for a minute and realize im correct.

Why do I have a bunch of technician bulletins about moisture and crap settling in the 2-3 mm below the sender then? Keep in mind fuel will sit on top of water.

Um, I know gas helps keep pumps cooler if they are submerged and less fuel makes for a higher concentration of solids.

fine. do what you want.
all i am saying is that with all the cars that I have had, I never routinely ran the fuel tank below 1/4 tank and have never had to replace a fuel pump.

It's pretty simple- Take a gallon of water. Put a handful of sand in this gallon of water, and siphon water out of that jug. As you get towards the bottom, the sand content will be higher since there's less water in the jug and sand is significantly denser than water, so it will always sink to the bottom.

Regardless where the pickup for the fuel pump is, when there's less fuel, there's more of a heavier mix of sediment. Yes, there's always sediment in the tank. It's a higher concentration when there's less fuel in the tank though.

The fuel pump can move anything that gets through the strainer without hurting it. Nothing is getting past the fuel filter. Run dry all day my friends!

Posted by big dave The fuel pump can move anything that gets through the strainer without hurting it. Nothing is getting past the fuel filter. Run dry all day my friends!

Except when the strainer gets clogged from all the crap at the bottom of your tank

I had a BMW with a spare strainer floating around the tank. That caused some neat issues and took a while to figure out.

Posted by big dave The fuel pump can move anything that gets through the strainer without hurting it. Nothing is getting past the fuel filter. Run dry all day my friends!

And what exactly is that sediment that makes it through the strainer doing to the plastic the pump housing is made of? The in tank pumps are cooled and lubricated by the fuel they sit in. Less fuel=more heat which equates to shorter pump life.