Hi, I used to drive a Nissan car, when the gas/fuel light on, I can still drive 100 km or so.. But my volvo xc60, it says it can drive 30 miles, then 25 miles, then it says "Engine performance reduced" with a turtle , then I kinda of could not drive it anymore.... I have to park it . It then says press start button, I pressed, it tries to fire it up but not successful.... The road assistantce fuel 1 gallon to my xc60, I fire it up, still not successful for the first 3 or 4 times (with a lot of shakes after firing it), at maybe 5th time it fires up and steady then I go to a gas station. It works ok then but at the first 3 miles after I put some fuel in, I can still feel a little shake at the engine/car. It's a brand new xc60 only 1000miles.

my questions is:

1. Will my experience of runing out of fuel, the shaking thing, somehow damage my new car especially the engine/ transmission?
2. Does a lot fo USA cars truly means to find a gas station immediately once the light of fuel/gas is on?(which is unlike my previous Nissan car)

 

Highly unlikely it caused any permanent damage, but why run it so low on gas? Every car is different on the amount of gas remaining when the light comes on, even among the same year, make, and model. You are best off never running it below 1/4 tank anyway as the submerged fuel pump in the tank is cooled by the gas, and when you run it below 1/4 you take away the cooling function and the pump runs hotter, shortening its life.

 

I doubt if any engine damage occurred, but your fuel pump could be ruined. Virtually all modern cars including your S60 have at least one fuel pump that sits in the gas tank. It is cooled and lubricated by the fuel surrounding it and flowing through it. If this fuel flow stops at the inlet due to an obstruction in the tank or no fuel going through it the fuel pump can burn out and fail in short order. They are not easy or cheap to replace. I'd bet you had intermittent fuel starvation due to an extremely low fuel level and sloshing about so the pickup sucked air between the "waves" of fuel. This may have put the car into "limp home" mode.

 

It isn't going to ruin the pump that quickly, don't worry about it.