[BAZINGA]

My 1st FMM ever started on Thursday afternoon, I was being forced to burn off 5 gallons of gas that my dealer put in when delivered back in Aug 16. So I thought I could just drive my usual routine (avg 30 miles a day) but soon discovered at 40+ MPG it was going to take about 7 days. So over the weekend I took so nice long road trips. I discovered a few things about the Gen II Volt. It's an awesome highway cruiser and ACC makes it even better. And as I kept driving the MPG kept increasing from an indicated 39 to a high of 45.2 when I finally ran out of fuel.
Yes, in the name if science I ran it out of fuel to see how it performed. In a word AWESOME. With ONE bar left on the gauge, that turned YELLOW and a LOW FUEL message popped up. I kept driving and eventually that last bar disappeared as can be seen in the attached photo's. I think I drove another 15 or 20 miles before I got the REDUCED PROPULSION messaged followed by the ENGINE NOT AVAILABLE message. I kept driving. The only thing different is you can't accelerate quickly, you glide away from stops but the car does get up to speed and can hold it. No drama.

I finally pulled into my favorite gas station and pumped in 2.5 gallons of premium (I splurged) and upon restart all the gauges looked normal but the ICE started and ran for about 2 or 3 minutes. I guess it was doing a diagnostic test.

Here are the two messages you'll get when you run the tank dry.

ICE NOT AVAILABLE

REDUCED PROPULSION


I'll post up my voltstats info after they post later this afternoon. I was at 99.3% electric going into today.

So after 10 months and over 7600 miles of driving I have used 7 gallons of gas. If the dealer had followed my instructions and not filled the tank I probably would had only wasted 2 or 3 gallons of gas. But it's good to know how good the Gen II Volt performs on it's ICE.

Cheers

 

[hellsop]

So after 10 months and over 7600 miles of driving I have used 7 gallons of gas. If the dealer had followed my instructions and not filled the tank I probably would had only wasted 2 or 3 gallons of gas. But it's good to know how good the Gen II Volt performs on it's ICE.

Cheers

It's less tragic if you're not the one paying for it. But there's not reason to put more than two gallons back in.

 

[sparty]

Our cars are about the same age, I picked mine up July 1, 2016 (built June 6, 2016). Dealer filled it all the way up and I too am "draining" it by letting it run because of FMM. It's 105 F here today and at least I know the ICE thermostat works, saw the coolant go to 210 for the first time ever.

I'm thinking about going to Shell when it finally drains all the way and putting in "pure" gas w/o ethanol. The premium will give you some detergents and higher octane, but I'm thinking eliminating the corn syrup from your home state is better.

 

[BAZINGA]

Here's what my Volt looks like on VoltStats.net after the FMM, you can see June took a beating.


SPARTY "I'm thinking about going to Shell when it final drains and putting in "pure" gas w/o ethanol. The premium will give you some detergents and higher octane, but I'm thinking eliminating the corn syrup from your home state is better."

Couldn't agree more.

 

[quirkySquirt]

Nice to know how it'll behave with no gas. Based on your experience, I'll not fret when I get the single yellow bar of gas and just burn it through to get a fresh tank of gas. Thank you, BAZINGA!

 

[wordptom]

Nice recap. Your Voltstats show total miles 7674.69 / MPG of 1027.66, = lifetime gas used 7.47 gallons. If the car was built in 6/16 and the FMM is 12 months later in 6/17, perhaps the dealer didn’t add 5 gallons of gas last August, it was already there from the initial fill last June (Gen 2 tank holds 8.9 gallons, so perhaps it was never "filled").

By the by, lifetime gas is also the distance in miles to drive without using gas to increase your MPG by 1.000. If you drive 7.47 electric miles without using gas, your MPG will increase to 1028.66.

As you discovered, if you don’t normally use gas, the gas mileage you get with an engine warmed up to the task while taking care of the FMM can be delightful and won’t match the gas range estimate based on limited gas use at all. During my second FMM in my 2012 Volt, I drove 82+ miles using the final 1.8 gallons in my tank (45.6 MPGcs), most of which was used after the display was reading "Low" (gas range estimate said 26 miles as it switched to Low).

 

[BAZINGA]

Nice recap. Your Voltstats show total miles 7674.69 / MPG of 1027.66, = lifetime gas used 7.47 gallons. If the car was built in 6/16 and the FMM is 12 months later in 6/17, perhaps the dealer didn’t add 5 gallons of gas last August, it was already there from the initial fill last June (Gen 2 tank holds 8.9 gallons, so perhaps it was never "filled").

I actually think this is what happened. I made the deal at 1 pm on a Sat and they wanted to deliver it later that day, I instructed my salesman NOT TO FILL THE TANK. But when I returned to the dealer about 4 hours later to take delivery I turned it on to check how much battery charge it had I noticed it had about 3/4 of a tank. I didn't say anything. So I tend to agree with that analysis.

But it's over and I can now track future events based on known dates.