I accidentally left my car running, now it is out of gas and battery is dead, will it be ok

Asked by joe_S Feb 06, 2013 at 07:38 PM about the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

9 Answers

have you put five gallons of gas in, a schumbacher on for the next eight hours, and report back if it won't start then-

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It will be fine. Unless it overheated idling for, however many hours

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there's a chance David that sucking it dry did not give the fuel pump a chance to cool, how do we know that it made it all the way to empty? that's why I'm questioning vroom vroom cough cough ptang wruch~

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177,545

Fuel pumps are pretty durable. There are plenty of them that kept pumping through four years of college or military service. There are a lot more that occasionally see a low fuel condition on the highway when the next rest area is 50 miles ahead. Running them dry isn't doing them any good but it's not instant death either.

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if anyone wanted to know it is up and running, thank you all for your input

69,815

Joe as far as running it dry goes, the pump probably only ran for a few seconds because as soon as the pressure drops the engine dies and then the pump shuts off. As far as overheating goes most return systems are set up so the returning fuel dumps onto the pump which is in a "cup" so even in low fuel conditions it will still stay cool. I wouldn't worry much about long term damage. Any of these guys can tell you about the new pump setups where during removal you have to dump about a quart of gas out of the sending unit once its removed.

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