Are you okay with yet another Citroën 2CV update? I don’t want to oversaturate you with 2CV stuff, and I wonder if I’m in danger of doing that, but at the same time, I like sharing all the details of life with this tin snail with you, because I’m excited about it, and what’s the point of being excited about something if you can’t spread that excitement around, like an STD?
This time I think I may have learned a lesson or two, much like one would when viewing a Very Special episode of Webster, but about the Importance of Fuel Gauges and the Power of Gravity. I’ll explain.
Keep in mind this is all coming right on the heels of a nice thorough shakedown cruise in the 2Cv when I drove it three-plus hours to the Lemons race in Lesser Carolina. It did great! And, I think I mentioned that my fuel gauge was not actually “working.” To compensate for this, I’ve been carrying a spare can of gas in the car.
The lesson happened as I drove my kid about 20 miles to a great used book/music/video game place that we like to go to sometimes. Otto has been doing pretty well in school lately – not exactly his default pattern – so to celebrate we decided to get a used Playstation 2, something he’d been wanting. Also, here’s a parenting tip: get your kid into obsolete stuff! He genuinely likes older games and consoles, and compared to modern stuff, they’re dirt cheap!
The 2CV made the trip out there just fine, being loud and happy and making people who saw it smile, as French Car Dieu intended. On the way home, though, the car started to sputter a bit, and I realized it was likely running out of gas. Okay, fine, that’s why I have the gas can in the car.
But I made a grave miscalculation, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I pulled off the road onto the grassy shoulder, but uphill, at a fairly steep angle.
You can’t really tell in these pictures, but I was on an incline. I went and got the gas can out, filled the tank, and tried to start it. It was taking a while, but that’s expected when you run out of gas – the fuel pump needs to drag that fuel all the way from the tank to the carb.
But it didn’t turn over.
Crank crank crank crank, but no satisfying catching as the engine roars to life. What’s going on?
I tried over and over again, letting it sit between cranks, until I eventually figured something else had to be up. I looked under the hood for loose coil wires, leaky hoses, anything, but saw nothing wrong. And yet still, when I cranked, no joy.
I eventually called my wife to get Otto, and called a tow. I was frustrated! How could this be, when it was trundling along so happily not minutes before?
I mentioned my predicament in our Autopian Slack channel, and David suggested something I’m embarrassed I didn’t think to do right away: pour some gas right in the carb. I even lamented I didn’t have my can of starter fluid with me, not even thinking that I had gas with me right there I could dump into the carb!
So, I got out, decanted some petroleum into the hungry maw of the carb, then climbed back into the car to try again.
Grunnggrunggrunggrungbrunggrunggruuuuuuuuungbrapgrungbrapbrapbrapgrunggrunggrungbrapbrapbrapsepsepsepsepsepbrapsepsepsepsepsep and there it was, running.
So, what happened? My theory is that the incline I was on was enough to prevent the fuel pump from getting the gas from the tank to the carb? Is that possible? It was an incline but not, like, a mountain? So if I run out of gas again, I should try to do so on a downhill slope?
I’m not sure. I was just so thrilled it was going again I took that low-light shaky picture above to commemorate it, and I kind of like the impressionistic feeling it has. Also, my instrument lights do not look that bright in person; I need to upgrade them with some LEDs to make them more legible.
About 30 minutes after I got home we had a massive surprise hailstorm, so I think overall I got pretty lucky. But, I really should get that fuel gauge working. This is just silly. And solvable.
Rookie mistake: you didn’t have your Fuel Shark plugged in, did you?
> when I cranked, no joy.
A predicament too many have experienced.
It is a war crime that YouTubers make millions of dollars manufacturing absurdity with enormous budgets when you could simply follow Torch around with a grainy webcam attached to some terrible ancient Thinkpad from his pile of retro junk for $0 and generate way funnier content.
Well if you did completely run out you may have lost the prime. Or since your motor has the power of a fuel pump maybe your fuel pump has the power of a fart in a windstorm?
This seems to be a pattern with you Jason. How long did you faff about with the truck when it was having issues with the starter?
If you must of run out of petrol, I assume it should be on a level stretch of road. Not uphill, not downhill. Better still, don’t. Fix that effing petrol gauge.
For all I know, you are married, and have been for a while. So even if you had an STD, I would hope you would not spread it around as widely as your excitement about 2CVs.
Torch is the new Tracy. Bring on more 2CV content! Actual Automobile content on the AUTOPIAN!
Did some stupid things:
Daily driver Renault Mégane at specific cloverleaf (clockwise) the empty sign would come on, then knew i had +- 80 km’s left.
Didn’t have money did 65 km and thought i get home.
Not this time it did 75 km, close to home and mum got me a 5L jerrycan.
Thanks mom!
1988 Renault 21 2l. Turbo hobby car
Gauges and everything electronic, car had been sitting for 16 years.
Getting it to run rook several years, inspection (Apk in the Netherlands) also took some time.
Gauge never was accurate, needed to be filled up so it would calibrate,
Didn’t trust the car to be worth a full tank
Stranded me 2 times.
Full tank would have solved the problem
Traded Mégane for my Laguna, guy who bought it drove it for almost a year, then wrecked it and himself.lives but is not handsome.
Guy who ended up with the 21 Turbo said it was one of the better running ones, body was beyond recovery after years outside.
Car was good I was stupid,broke and dumb
Going around a corner fast can interrupt the fuel flow. It’s inconvenient. Sometimes it does it with the oil too. Going around a 360 degree uphill cloverleaf interstate on-ramp at full throttle, fun and what could go wrong? Quite a lot actually.
Haven’t gotten through all of the responses, but someone should have mentioned early British cars with prime handles on the fuel pumps.
My ’64 Spitfire’s gas gauge quit and I got good at jumping out and pushing to the next exit on the way to college class. Restarting was easy after a few priming pumps.
Helped that the Spit was super light.
I drove a Wagoneer with a broken gas gauge for years. Whenever it ran out of gas, I always had to pour gas into the carb to get it running again. I didn’t know at the time why it worked but I’m pretty sure that’s what was needed to overcome vapor lock in the fuel pump.
Didn’t Torch have a VW? We had one with a wooden stick to put in the tank. Worked perfectly.