Car starts great almost all the time, but when I'm down to maybe a gallon in the tank, the car is really hard to start (takes a few tries)..

I mean sure, I can just fill up sooner and avoid the problem, but could this be fuel pump related?

Thoughts?

 

You know, I'm really curious as well because mine does this.

I also seem to have a VERY slight stumble at low RPM WOT.

I'm wondering if my fuel pump is at fault.

 

Prolly having so little fuel in the tank sloshin' around and the pump not bein' able to get as much as it needs. I don't think it's anything wrong with your fuel pumps, guys!

 

Depending on how old your car is, you might have some crud in the bottom of your tank that clogs stuff up. A friend of mine ran his Honda on a nearly empty tank once and wound up clogging his injectors. Get some fuel cleaning additive and run it through a couple tanks of gas and see what happens.

 

Hmm, couldn't hurt.. Guess I'll try an additive..

Although I seriously doublt that there's much crud in the fuel tank.. That's for really old cars.. I once though I had to clean out my intake manifold, but when I opened it up it looked brand new on a 100K car.. And the fuel tank is one of the cleanest 'places' in the car.

By the way, Civic has a 12 gallon fuel tank right? I get the problem when there's 10.5 used up or more.. Hence, 1.5 gallons and below the car starts poorly (but runs fine)..

 

If you do, use Seafoam! You can get it at just about any auto store. It works great! Cleans your injectors and burns up all the carbon buildup in your engine! Looks like this:

 

My car does the same thing. My friends car does the same thing. He's owned like 5 civics and said they all did it. Frustrating, but I don't think theres anything you can do about it.

 

same with mine, only 61k miles on clock - last car had about 80k and had the same problem

 

I am starting to see a pattern here... cause mine does it too, my theory is that when you leave gas sitting for a long period it starts to go stale, and then it is less combustable, but when you fill your tank that is fresh fuel. but the fuel at the bottom gets older and not used as much if it isn't mixxing well with the new stuff. so when the tank gets low that is what starts to get used. and the engine has to try harder to start.... like i said it is only a theory

 

Thank you for your replies, gentlemen. I guess the problem is more common than I thought.