Does Running Out Of Gas Cause Problems?

[ashutt]

I had my new rims and tires installed and a few hundred yards down the road I ran out of gas. There was a check engine light on and after I fill the car with gas it had a hard time at idle staying constant. In the past the car would idle correctly at around 600 rmp in park. However, since I ran out of gas, after I have run the car and then shut it off and then restarted it a few seconds later, the car seems to hunt at idle from 1,000 rmp to 0. It will usually die when it can't maintain a constant 600 rpms. I will then have to gun it to keep the idle up enough to start moving. Once the car is going I don't seem to have any problems at lights but it does seem to stall somewhat when pushing on the gas to accelerate from a stop. There appear to be no problems driving. The check engine light did go out after 3 cycles, like the user guide said it could if there were no problems, but then it came back on a day later. Is is probable that this is unrelated to the gas issue and just a sympton of the Mass Air Sensor? Do I have to reset the ECU? I seem to remember, but can't find, a post regarding problems after the car ran out of gas. Anyone have any ideas what the problem may be and the fix? Thanks in advance.

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[dan212]

running out of gas should not hurt the car on its own, but over time your gas tank may accumulate some gunk from countless fillings and draining the tank will pull in those particulates. If your car is a couple of years old, you may want to change a filter

[Can Drive 55]

I would think that running out of gas would overheat the fuel pump. The pump is located in the gas tank and the gas helps to cool the pump.