My manual says my gas tank capacity is 16.4 Gal and once the light comes on I should have 2.1 Gal left in the tank. Most of the time I fill up the car when it's a 1/4 to empty. I always wanted to know how far I can get once the light comes on and I've gone as fas as 27 miles ( I know it's not good for the car) then when I fill up I've managed to get it filled with a max of 15.4 gal all the way up to the top as far as I can remember.

Recently because of negligence my red light came on and I just drove it for a while not too far and went to get it filled up at my favorite gas station I've always filled up there because the price is always lower than the others.
Well because of me wanting to check my gas milage and trying to find out how much gas I could get in the car I topped it off with 16.485 Gal and was concerned on why, because that meant my tank had to be bone dry and the light just came on and I had to have used less that 1/2 a gallon before the fill up.
Numbers didn't add up I assumed I had 1 1/2 gal left in the tank if I managed to fill up with 16.485 that would place me at 18 gal , assuming I can get 1 gal in the pipe before the tank that would be 17 gal.
Would the rest of gas be in the lines after the tank?
Is this possible, or do I have to turn in this gas station?
And No I did not spill any gas the pump prevents this.

Taken from TIS:

16 11 Fuel Tank and Mounting Parts E36 Gasoline-driven cars

Tank volume/reserve ltr. 65/8


Or, 17.171183 gallons.

Not sure what that reserve is. I have been told at work its 17 gallons.

If you factor in the extra 8 liters, thats an extra 2.11 gallons... so who knows heh.

I have run the car down to where the 'range' reading on the OBC was reading ---, which means theres not enough gas in the tank to compute it, and I have never once gone over 17 gallons filling. Hit 16 a few times though.

---- - i thought when thats flashing on the OBC, ure running on vapour !

It is, and its not healthy to run the tank that low anyways.

Yeah, I think this gas station has it's pumps rigged, I might see who I should call to have them look into it. Because I know I was not running on vapor.

Anyways what I've always heard is that the reason that it's not good to get your tank that low is because of all the dirt accumulated at the bottom of the tank might get sucked in to the system.

I've also heard that running out of gas is really hard on your engine, why is that ?

Running low on gas is bad for the fuel pump, as it uses the gas to stay cool. Running low on gas will cause the pump to run hotter, which may lead to failure later.

Yeah, I think this gas station has it's pumps rigged, I might see who I should call to have them look into it. Because I know I was not running on vapor.

Anyways what I've always heard is that the reason that it's not good to get your tank that low is because of all the dirt accumulated at the bottom of the tank might get sucked in to the system.

I've also heard that running out of gas is really hard on your engine, why is that ?

Your fuel pump is always sucking from the bottom of the tank. Thats what filters are for.
I do agree with the heat issue.

My gas tank is smashed up. Ive been hunting for a used one on ebay & craigslist for a long time, to no avail. New tank is 621; used tanks are < 300, but I cant find mine. Ive measured the underbelly of mine, Im wondering if anybody knows if any other models tanks fit, like M109s or C90s, which are all over ebay.

If anybody has their tank off and post the measurements, it might be useful to others in the same boat.
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So what is the real gallon size of the tank? I want to know because my car doesn't have the full OBC and I can't see how many mpg I am getting. So I wanted to try and figure out myself by calculating the miles to my gallon sized tank? Anyone help us out here? I can't seem to find it on google either.

I have run out of gas at 16.1 gallons.

1996 M3.

Fuel capacity for a 1995 M3 is 17.2 gallons