I had to drive to upper Westchester for work today. On the way back, I noticed that the car wouldn't idle well, but otherwise ran fine. Got on the Rt. 9 freeway, and the car suddenly lost power and died. I was very lucky, since I managed to exit, roll into a gas station that had diesel, and stop about 3 ft from the pump!

Looked under the hood, and the clear filter was bone dry -- a full tank of diesel and a bit of primer pumping fixed the issue right away! However, the needle was still above the R mark (looked like 1/8 tank) when this happened. No warning light either.

What's going on? Fluky gauge, lift pump, or could the "straw" that sucks diesel out of the bottom of the tank be damaged?