Car died today

ChrisSlicks

For a while anyway. Running again now, but here's the story.

Dropped my stepson off for an appointment this morning, and on the way back you turn from a minor road onto the highway/freeway. Anyway, my foot was itchy so I gave it the boot around the corner. The ramp curves to the right and was slightly uphill. As I approached the top of 3rd gear and the end of the ramp the car loses power. At first I thought I had just run into the rev limiter, and then I thought it was a temporary fuel cut from starvation, but I had no power at all. I pulled over on the shoulder and tried to start it again but no fire at all. I let it sit a couple of minutes and tried again, got a couple of fires but no success. As I do this I watch my gas gauge drop from 1/4 tank to 1 dot, to zero. Apparently from the 15 seconds of acceleration and the slight incline the fuel pump got starved and whatever fuel was in the tank couldn't make it to the pump. The bad part was I had just lent my phone to my stepson when I dropped him off because he broke his, I couldn't even call AAA!

So I sat there for about 10-15 minutes trying to decide my next move, and then I saw a white truck pulling over. It was a MassHighway Assistance Vehicle, I'd been saved! A guy jumped out wearing a Corvette sweater, name was ****, very friendly. He gave me 1 gallon of gas to throw in my tank and told me he used to be a Datsun mechanic back in the 70's, lead tech for the 240Z. Once the gas was in the car fired right up. A yellow warning light was on but cleared itself on the next start after I pulled into the gas station. The gas indicator also moved to 1 tick past 1/4 tank.

So now the question is, is my gas tank sender unit broken, or did I really have 1/4 tank of gas and managed to starve it with a brief stint of acceleration? I don't think the sender is broken because the car only took 14 gallons to fill it up. So a warning for you ramp junkies, keep at least 1/3 of a tank of gas in the car! This was the first time I've run out of gas in 20 years! The last time it happened I was driving a Datsun and I pushed it over the crest of a hill and rolled into the gas station.