I am having a strange problem with my 2008, which I have not experienced before. I filled up last Thursday 2/11/10 when I had 4 blips (dots) and put in 4.573 gallons of gas. The blips did not advance. I drove 88.4 miles and on Friday 2/12/10 put in 2.291 gallons hoping the gas gauge would reset, but it didn't. I drove 205.7 miles and on Monday 2/15/10 I put in 4.853 gallons of gas and the gauge reset. I was going to go out of town so wanted to get a car wash and a full tank of gas so after 98.3 miles on Thursday 2/18/10 I put in 3.221 gallons of gas and again the gauge did not advance at all, but stayed on the same number of blips prior to refueling. I called 2 local Toyota dealerships in town one had an explanation, the other said he had never heard of the problem before, but they couldn't do anything unless they could recreate the problem. Before I decide to either write this off with the first explanation or take it in to see if the other dealership can recreate the problem I wanted to post to the forum and see if anyone else had experienced this issue. Thanks in advance for any help!
Usually the fuel gauge will ignore additions of ~3 gallons or less. The system is pretty flaky though, and that is probably why it ignored your adding 4.5 gallons. One more reason why this is called a guess gauge.
Yeah I agree, I've added a little over 4 gals. and it didn't reset. Think it's best not to add unless you know it's below 1/2 a tank.
The gauge may not register small amounts of added fuel. After 2 or 3 starts you may find that it reports a full tank.
I always knew it wouldn't register fillups of less than ~3 gallons, but I always run my tank down to one bar or even one blinking bar, then fill it up completely. I have noticed in the last three months, the gauge will get to the last bar and start blinking, then I fill up and it takes less than 10 gallons. I know cold weather, bladder, yadda yadda yadda, but even when it was fairly warm, the same issue happened. So yeah, I try to go 400 miles or so before I fill up.
I very seldom rely on a gas gauge. Since they're often wrong, I usually follow this 'formula': • Figure out your average mpg over several miles and fill-ups • Multiply avg. mpg by tank capacity to find max miles between fill-ups • Reset your trip odometer to zero each time you fill up • Chose a conservative number of miles to fill up, based on the above Ex: Say you get 40 mpg and your tank holds 10 gallons of fuel. That says, if all is good, you can get 400 miles down the road before your tank needs a re-fill. To make sure you won't be stranded and end up sending your GF down the road to look for a station, pick a conservative odo number, like 350 miles, and start looking for a gas station. I've used this technique sucessfully for many years - it's especially useful when you're looking for diesel. I once had a MBZ oil-burner that would consistently get 30 mpg and had a 15 gallon tank, so I would start looking for fuel when the trip odo reached 300 - never ran out, nor screwed up the injectors with crap out of the bottom of the tank.
Since we both have the bladder tank, don't you find real variables in what your tank will hold and therefore how far you can go?
You must have limited your life's travels to places were open gas stations are always less than 50 miles apart. Where I've traveled, this strategy would be a recipe for a multi-day hike. Without factoring in the additional variability of the rubber bladder tank of the GenII.
I can affirmatively say that I have not experienced the flaky gas gauge issue. Even when 'topping off' with only one pip off from Full.
I agree. Recently my 2008 gas gauge seems not to be accurate. I used to be able to go 400-440 miles before it begins to blink, but now it does around 300-350, which is significantly reduced. I will go to a local dealer soon to figure out it, because I am nervous.
i only have problems with the gauge NOT resetting to "full" when i re-fill less than 4 gallons. so my benchmark is to travel minimum 200+ miles. the warm weather climate i live in probably helps with with bladder functioning/expanding properly.
