Datemobile! We left the SDL (what we might normally have driven) home on date night so that our babysitting houseguest would have something semi-normal to drive in case of an emergency. It worked well, though on a dark rainy night the wipers (which had been doing well I had thought) showed obvious signs of having hit the wall. Got to get some more blades! The reserve light came on with still 1/4 tank indicated, which was odd, so we stopped for fuel. Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhh-Tunk! Oh oh, the tank vent is obviously not working, there was a _lot_ of vacuum in the tank, enough to make it 'oilcan' when it was released. As I'd left the key on so that the heater fan and radio would keep working for my wife, I could see that the reserve light went out once I removed the cap. This tank (from last March) in fact only turned in 29 MPG over 435 miles rather than the substantially better figure that the gauge behavior had hitherto been implying, which is more what I would have expected for the circumstances. Got to find and fix the tank vent before it ruins the fuel tank, assuming it hasn't already.
-- Jim
