Low on fuel

While negotiating the highway from Carrangalan to San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, I noticed that the needle of the fuel gauge of our Toyota Innova was hitting the empty level.    A few kilometers more, the low fuel level warning light illuminated.

I checked the distance to San Jose City – where the next gasoline stations are.  It’s still 25 kilometers away. “I could still reach it”, I thought and hoped.

I have already theoretically computed how far our car could run from the time the low fuel level warning light illuminated until it stopped.  On several instances, I refilled when the low fuel level warning light illuminated.  The fuel loaded was around 45 liters.  The capacity of the Innova tank, per the car manual, is 55 liters.  So, there’s still around 10 liters of fuel left in the tank.  Assuming that the fuel consumption is 8 km/li, the car could still run for another 80 kilometers.

A 25-kilometer run could only consume 3 liters of fuel, leaving about 7 liters of fuel when I reached the next gasoline station.  Nonetheless, I still did some fuel saving measures; such as running at about 80 kph, freewheeling on down slopes, and pressing gentler the gas pedal.

Then, I saw a Petron sign saying it’s 10 kiloments away.  9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.  I was fully relieved and thankful when I saw the Petron station - the first gas station.  Whew!