Ran out of fuel

Last week I ran out of diesel. I put a gallon in and managed to get the car running after maybe 3 or 4 attempts at starting it. Drove straight to the petrol station and filled it up with diesel. Been running pretty much as usual since then but today it's running very poorly. It's not ticking over properly and it's very lumpy when trying to drive it. There are no warning lights on the dash. I assume it's too much of a coincidence that this is happening after running it dry? Is it just a case of bleeding the fuel system?


Why don't they do a Haynes manual for this car???? (bang)

Buy a Haynes for the Mazda3, it's the same thing.

May just need a new filter, if you ran it dry you may have picked up all the sediment and nasties at the very bottom of the tank and clogged the filter. Change the filter and run a bottle of fuel system cleaner (if they make it for diesels?), and see if things improve before trying to diagnose more expensive options.

sac02 said:

...if you ran it dry you may have picked up all the sediment and nasties at the very bottom of the tank and clogged the filter....

Click to expand...

I've always heard that but never believed it. I mean, the fuel tank is already picking up at the bottom of the tank so it's always sucking up whatever garbage is sitting on the bottom. As a teen I've run out of fuel a LOT of times. Never had an issue. Fill back up, start the car and drive. But never had a diesel either. It is a hell of a coincidence for his issue. Maybe the injector pump doesn't like to run dry/unloaded or a purge is needed as you said. Something freaked out but it can't hurt to try a filter. Should be cheap.