bigmitch

Last Friday, a combination of bad planning, lack of an available gas station and male stubborness (my wife was with me) I ran my S4 out of gas. Fortunately, I was able to get some likely low quality gas from a guy who lived right there. I put in what I thought was enough gas, traveled about 6 miles and ran out again, added some more (he gave me his tank to fill and bring back) and then sputtered into a station about 7 miles further down the road.

Here is my problem. The first time I fired up the car, I had a small backfire in the exhaust. The check engine light came on and turned off a little later. The second fill time, no backfire, but the light came back on, and has been on ever since. The car appears to be running "normal" though I have not driven it hard at all with that light on.

I called my dealer and my service guy indicated that the car would run some self diognostics and the light would turn off after about 8-10 engine cycles. I have now had about 20-25 cycles and the light remains...and I have an appointment to bring the car in in 2 weeks as that is when they can fit me in.

My question to any of you is...Since the car appears to be running fine, should I believe the service guy when he says I can drive the car "normally" until my appt. because there is no apparent problem...or could I be doing damage based on what I have written here?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bill In SoCal

Depending on how many miles you have on your car you could have over time build up a small amount of sediment in the bottom of your tank. By running out twice in a row it is very possible you sucked this crap up into your fuel filter and clogged it.

Just an idea, but not sure if that would trigger an engine light though.

Bee4000

It's the same idea when I top up outboard motor tanks. We have a funnel with a filter in it. When pouring from the plastic container to the outboard's tank, the sediment that is at the bottom of the transporter doesn't go along with the gas into the outboard. Thus, no damage to internal components from sand and dirt and ****e.
If you were sucking from the bottom - twice - it's quite possible that you took sediment with you.