My Saab wont start after running out of fuel?

Question

My Saab 95 (Year 2000) recently ran out of petrol. I managed to get 10 or so litres and put it in the tank, but the car still wont start. Any ideas/advice greatly appreciated!

Additional Details

Thanks for the suggestion, any idea on how to rectify the problem?

Answer 1

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Actually... Running your car out of gas is really hard on your fuel injector... I bet that is what is wrong with it...And Saabs are kinda shitty... Bad maintenance reviews and pricey to fix in America due to the cost of importing the parts... That's why I stick with Lexus

Answer 2

The fuel pump relies on being surrounded by fuel to stay cool. Being nine years old and probably having lots of miles on it, it is very possible the fuel pump overheated with no fuel and this was the last straw on the camel's back. With the car off, fold the back seat bottoms forward and then turn the car to ON but not START. You should be able to hear the fuel pump prime (a one second buzz or so). If you can't, there's your problem. As others have mentioned I would replace your fuel filter ASAP too. All the gunk that has collected in your tank over nine years that normally would be floating on top of the fuel or suspended in it go sucked through, and while it probably didn't plug it up, impeded the flow enough to cause problems. Good luck!

Source(s):

I own a 2004 9-5 Aero
I owned a 2001 9-5 SE V6

Answer 3

are you sure its petrol and not diesal? Normally petrol starts after adding fuel but diesal needs priming and the air removed.

In the case of petrol it might be a blockage in the line due to the muck at the bottom of the tank getting in the line.

Answer 4

fule filter may be blocked, or it may have a reset button, ring saab to check, it may not be the fule thats the problem, why not get rac, or aa out to have a look

Answer 5

More than likely it sucked some crud through from the bottom of the tank just before it stopped.

Answer 6

Is it a diesel? If so, skip down to DIESEL:

10 liters is barely over 2.5 gallons. Although this is normally enough fuel, it may not be enough to get the fuel pump primed in this case.

Fuel pumps are intended to pump liquid. Normally, when you turn your car off, there is still fuel in the line all the way to the injector. But, since you ran the car dry, the pump now has to try to draw enough vacuum on just air in order to pull the liquid up to it. Simply adding more fuel to the tank could raise the head pressure (or decrease the negative head) on the pump enough to allow it to catch prime.

Another fix could be to remove the fuel filter, fill it with petrol, and place it back in the line as this could be enough fuel to get the pump to prime.

As a last-ditch effort, you could purchase an aerosol can of carb/choke cleaner with an attached straw and us this to fill the fuel line. The car won't run on the choke cleaner, but it won't hurt your injectors (in fact, it will clean them) and it will get the pump to prime. Simply remove the fuel line at the tank, insert the straw into the line and squirt the cleaner into the line for about 20 seconds.


DIESEL:

If it's a diesel, then this condition is totally normal and the fix is much easier. Since a diesel uses a mechanical injection pump rather than an electric one, all you need to do is get the engine to crank faster in order to get it to prime.

Purchase a can of starting fluid (from an auto parts store) and spray it directly into the air intake while trying to start the car. The engine should sound like it is starting (it will actually run, although rather rough, on just the starting fluid). You may need to let it run for up to a full minute on the starting fluid before the high pressure injection pump catches a good prime.

An alternate method is to take a rag, saturated with gasoline (petrol) and cover your intake manifold with it as a diesel engine will also run on just fumes from gasoline (petrol). Use this method if you cannot purchase starting fluid. In my experience, the gasoline method actually works better than the staring fluid (which is Ether) since the Ether will sometimes cause "cylinder lock" if you use too much.