Hi all, newbie here looking for advice...

Without getting into the details of how it happened (unbelievable ), what happened was the car was parked in a parking garage with the engine running until it ran out of fuel. I dont know how long the car ran before it ran out of fuel but probably about a quarter tank of fuel was consumed during this event. The car was left unattended for 4 days after it ran out of fuel, with the key and drl's on and the battery died.

Upon retrieval of the car from the parking garage, it was discovered that the battery was dead. We got a jump start at which time i noticed the fuel light was on and the fuel guage was reading past empty (this is what the information in the first paragraph is based on). We drove the car 3 blocks to a gas station and fueled the car. Here is where i noticed that the idle was real low, hardly registering on the tach. We drove the car home and it had plenty of power, seemed smooth and such but upon arriving home the a/c was cycling at idle and causing the rpms to be erratic. I switched the a/c off and the idle seems normal. The idle rpms also seem more normal and the guage reading appears to be about right as well.

I've heard that running a fuel injected vehicle out of fuel can be extremely bad for the injectors, fuel pump, etc. SO my question is, althought everythings seems alright, is there any particular area, things i should throughly check? I am tempted to take it to the dealer for a check over but fear the ol "everythings broke and needs to be replaced" diagnostic.

We were supposed to be leaving on a 2 week roadtrip vacation next weekend, but I dont have the ol warm and fuzzy feeling about the car at this moment.

The car is a 2002 Camry with a 3.0L (1MZ-FE)

Thanks for any insight and help you can provide.

 

If battery goes totally dead, many car computers take 25 - 100 miles to reprogram themselves, leading to driveability issues for about an hour.

I ran a fuel injected Nissan out of gas and 'twas no sweat, added 5 gallons of gas (thank you AAA) and it worked fine.



So - $.02 - go out for an hour nonstop drive and see if everything doesn't return to normal. Try simple first ...

 

Thank you for the response.

I ended up replacing the battery (under warranty = No $$ ), for peace of mind if nothing else. I also went for a long cruise and the car does seem better, back to normal even.

The AC clutch cycling was due to insufficient freon charge, so i topped that off as well and the car seems pretty much back to normal. I guess time will tell ....

Thanks again for your advice...