[Soul Rush]

14 months , 29k miles, my Soul get's a work out day & night.
But Tonight......
I Was doing my delivery's & left the soul idling for about 1 minute while delivered an order, got back into the car & went to pull away &

Sputter . . . Spit . . . . Shake . . .. Stall . . . ..

WTF, crap am I out of gas ?? The low light had come on only a few miles ago & yes the gauge is on the line, but it goes under the line all the time & my trip is only on 255m, this usually goes to about 270/280 or so. But it won't start & stay running. I'm on the job so I call my boss & we talk it over & he brings me some gas, 1 gal to be exact, we put that in & the Soul starts & I begin to go, but again,

Sputter . . . Spit . . . . Shake . . .. Stall . . .

I get a about 2 blocks, sputtering the whole time before it dies again, I tried reving the motor but it wouldn't, I try starting & it tries but won't stay running. We decide to leave my car & we used his to make the very next run & then I used his car to complete the next 3 runs for the restaurant. I then go back to my stranded Soul to transfer critical work relaited stuff, I decided to try again to start the car & what do ya know, started right up, reved the motor & all seems fine, put in drive & NO problem, I go the 1/2 mile to the gas station & fill it up. It took 9.8 gallons + the 1gal we put in = 10.8gals total

I usually fill up with 11+ every time, couple time 12gals+

But this sure seems like it was GAS related ( or lack of )
.

 

[tempest]

Sounds like the low fuel level allowed some dirt into the fuel lines and blocked things up. Lets hope that the enforced rest has allowed the crud to drain back into the tank or blow thru the engine on the last restart. Was actually chatting about this to the engineers in work yesterday and they reckon that running down to the yellow light is too risky - they recommend never going below quarter tank. When you refill on the yellow light the new fuel stirs up all the crud anyway.....less so with a quarter tank already in. Maybe you should get the fuel filter renewed as a precaution, you need your car to be reliable for your work. Apparently the diesel cars can get a layer of water that sits under the diesel fuel in the fuel tank and can get bacteria growing in it!!!!. (the engineers i work with are marine based - so their knowledge is mainly Diesel based).

 

[Tibincrunch]

Really? I typically try to go through most of the gas in the tank and fill her up right before the light comes on. Idk why I do that, but it sounds like I should fill up earlier!

 

[omeyga]

You shouldn't have to worry about crud in the tank on a new car. Anything that gets in there would be easily handled by the fuel filter. I agree with Tempest that you at the least may want to have your fuel filter checked.

From my experience the Soul's fuel gauge isn't very accurate, so it's possible that's the real culprit.

 

[tempest]

You shouldn't have to worry about crud in the tank on a new car. Anything that gets in there would be easily handled by the fuel filter. I agree with Tempest that you at the least may want to have your fuel filter checked.

From my experience the Soul's fuel gauge isn't very accurate, so it's possible that's the real culprit.

He has gone thru nearly 30k miles worth of fuel......how often does the fuel filter get changed on the petrol models anyway???

 

[r10880]

You could have a failing fuel pump. Sometimes fuel tank mounted pumps (not sure if the Soul has a tank mounted one or not) can fail early if the gas level goes below 1/4 repeatedly. This is especially true with GM vehicles.

When the tank goes below 1/4 the pump can become too hot and result in failure. This could explain why your Soul started working again after it had a cool down period.


-Pete

 

[hodad66]

man, I never go below 1/4 because there is no reason to.
You'll end up buying gas anyway.......

 

[alterboy]

Clearly, this is a result of pepperoni in the gas tank.

 

[proud mary]

isnt the filler cap on these cars on a vacuum theory? if the vacuum in the tank gets quite high wouldnt that stop the petrol coming out of the tank? also when you put in the extra fuel you will have released the cap and let in air ?, i read about some problems with fuel caps maybe this is a similar thing?

 

[The Black Burner]

My theory is that there was too little of gas and something just said screw you buddy I ain't going anywhere LOL. I always try and fill up a quarter tank or 1/8th at least a lot of people have told me quarter is the max or just below some evenf ill their tanks @ half...just for the fuel pump sack.

 

[kfergiez]

Clearly, this is a result of pepperoni in the gas tank.

I completely agree. This only other thing that could possibly cause this are the little gremlins that get loose after the fuel light comes on.

 

[Soul Rush]

All good theory's & food for thought ( hence the Pepperoni )

I saw a recent thread related to stalling when only low on fuel,
Dealer ended up replacing a temputure sensor, heres the thread
http://www.kiasoulforums.com/soul-problems/6789-fuel-issue.html

For now I'm gonna fill up at about the 10 gal window.
I might carry some extra gas & try to reproduce so then I can let the dealer have it when it low on fuel & starts stalling, if it will do it again.....

 

[sightland]

You could have a failing fuel pump. Sometimes fuel tank mounted pumps (not sure if the Soul has a tank mounted one or not) can fail early if the gas level goes below 1/4 repeatedly. This is especially true with GM vehicles.

When the tank goes below 1/4 the pump can become too hot and result in failure. This could explain why your Soul started working again after it had a cool down period.


-Pete

I am with you; experts do recommend maintaining 1/4 and above for exact reason you mentioned because low gas will require pump to work harder and gas itself suppose to function as "cooling" effect for fuel pump. its possible that repeatly running low can shorten the life of the fuel pump.

 

[ed_calgary]

All good theory's & food for thought ( hence the Pepperoni )

I saw a recent thread related to stalling when only low on fuel,
Dealer ended up replacing a temputure sensor, heres the thread
http://www.kiasoulforums.com/soul-problems/6789-fuel-issue.html

For now I'm gonna fill up at about the 10 gal window.
I might carry some extra gas & try to reproduce so then I can let the dealer have it when it low on fuel & starts stalling, if it will do it again.....

Yep..had the same issue up to last week..it would spuuter then wanna stall at eighth ofbtank all the time..got my thermostat replaced and all is good....ran mine to near empty twice in last week...no issues now...

 

[SoulPlus10]

He has gone thru nearly 30k miles worth of fuel......how often does the fuel filter get changed on the petrol models anyway???

Yup it is NOT a new car as suggested, and has been constintly running on the dreggs of the tank for those 30K on 87 too I bet. A 12gal fill on a 12.4 gal tank is insane. So it is not surpriceing his filter has junk and sludge and water in it. Fact of life is station owners take less care of the tank with the 87 then the 89/91-93 in it. And three grade pumps have three filters too. So high volume 87 sales means the filter for teh 87 gets on avg more use and less changeing doing it on a set sched then the other two do. The math proves it. And a Gas/Petrol filter in a vech generally gets replaced at @35,000+ with no issues if your smart. So use his actions and poast as a watch word to all. And the "light just came on only a few miles ago" is very suspect. Mine comes on at 2.4-1.4gals and gets a 10-11 fill most times. And it goes @+-260-280 miles doing it on avg. Delivering PIZZA you should fill up 225-250 miles.

 

[zimgir]

He has gone thru nearly 30k miles worth of fuel......how often does the fuel filter get changed on the petrol models anyway???

There is no recommended time frame for fuel filter replacement on the Soul. It is an as needed basis.

 

[Roadwrench]

Fact of life is station owners take less care of the tank with the 87 then the 89/91-93 in it. And three grade pumps have three filters too. So high volume 87 sales means the filter for teh 87 gets on avg more use and less changeing doing it on a set sched then the other two do. The math proves it.

How do you know this? It would seem to me that mid grade and premium tanks would be more neglected. If they have a problem with regular, they lose most of their business that day. You make a lot of statements as fact with no explanation of where you have acquired this knowledge.

I would be more concerned about contaminants in a tank that gets little use. More opportunities for water build up. I usually go to newer stations when possible because I know the tanks are in good shape. Another consideration is a gas station that is in a low spot, where rain run off is more likely to end up. Another thing to consider the brand names often or used to have quality checkers and policy on sticking tanks, checking for water. With the little independent you have to look at the overall cleanliness of the station. Years ago I worked at a place that sold gas as a secondary business, and it wasn't unusual to stick the tanks and come up with 6-8 inches of water. Less than an inch was considered acceptable.
When I say sticking the tank, it is a long measuring stick, marked in inches, as I recall. You put this green paste on the end of the stick, on one side, usually just 2-3 inches of the stuff. If it goes into water it turns red.

By the way, I don't know what is the current poilicies and procedures of the oil companies or the individual stations. The above is just what I know from past experience.

 

[klas]

Was actually chatting about this to the engineers in work yesterday and they reckon that running down to the yellow light is too risky - they recommend never going below quarter tank. When you refill on the yellow light the new fuel stirs up all the crud anyway.....

was the very first car lesson from my grandfather way back and many mechanics over the years so have never gone below 1/4 and have never had to get a fuel filter replaced on any of my cars.

 

[chkmate]

@SoulRush
You should consider adding a fuel treatment on your fill up when you run too low. The treatment will help remove some of the water from your tank. I usually add a treatment every 4th tank or whenever I suspect that I might have contaminated fuel.

 

[Soul Rush]

@SoulRush
You should consider adding a fuel treatment on your fill up when you run too low. The treatment will help remove some of the water from your tank. I usually add a treatment every 4th tank or whenever I suspect that I might have contaminated fuel.

The fuel additive idea sounds good, I will try.
Also I'm going to start filling up at the 1/4 mark or so, instead of waiting as long as possible to fill up.

But I did bring the Soul into the dealer today for oil change & Brake light warning on dash & I told them about the low fuel & stalling and coincidently the tire low warning light was on this morning too...
Well dealer just called & said they can't figure out the Brake light, they think it's a short somewhere & are blaming the side repeaters & blinkers I installed over a year ago. They also can't get the air pressure light to go off, again blaming my wiring job as a possible reason & of course they can't find anything related to it stalling when low on fuel, probably related to the LED lights I installed.

So my Dealer Service Department Confidence is still Low !