Going to refuel when the fuel gauge light is on, will it hurt the Fuel Pump?

We often hear people say don’t wait until the oil light is on before adding oil. Doing so will cause the Fuel Pump to overheat and cause damage, which will cause damage to the oil pump in the long run. The reason is that the Fuel Pump needs to be soaked in gasoline to dissipate heat. When the light is on, too little gasoline in the fuel tank will cause the motor in the fuel pump to fail to dissipate heat properly, causing damage. So is that really the case?

First of all, it must be said that the motor in the Fuel Pump does need heat dissipation, but it does not rely on the fuel near the oil pump to dissipate heat. In addition, some oil pumps are very tall and run through the entire height of the fuel tank from top to bottom. The heat-dissipating motor is placed in the middle and lower position of the fuel pump. When the fuel is still one-third left, the motor is no longer immersed in gasoline. In fact, the motor relies on the oil sucked in by the oil pump to dissipate heat: gasoline is sucked into the oil pump and sent to the engine, which also takes away the heat of the oil pump, so as long as the oil pump can still absorb oil, it will dissipate heat normally and work normally .

Therefore, what can really cause the oil pump to overheat is actually when the oil pump cannot absorb oil, but instead sucks in air (or sludge), then there will be a hidden danger of oil pump damage. That is to say, as long as you don’t drive the car to a completely out of fuel state, basically ordinary lights will not cause any damage to the Fuel Pump. And to let the oil pump rise to the sky, it is estimated that the overheating caused by the intake of air will cause the oil pump to be damaged.

In addition, the fuel tank design of today’s cars is quite sophisticated, which basically prevents the fuel pump from “starving” until the fuel tank is almost empty. Therefore, as long as you don’t drive the car until it is completely out of fuel, theoretically, the fuel pump will not be damaged, and the fuel meter will not be damaged until the fuel meter lights up.

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