I bought my ES350 recently and have filled it up 3 times so far. Each time I did it with a range of 25-40 miles left per the car's computer. I have not seen a "Low fuel" warning light turn on so far. On my previous cars, the "Low fuel" indicator would be displayed with around 40-50 miles left on the range. So when I fill up the ES, I am only able to get 12.5 gallons in before the pump shuts off. What is going on here? How many miles does the range remaining need to go down to before the "Low fuel" warning comes on in the ES350? And how many gallons would be left as a reserve at that time? Filling up each time with 12.5 gallons used up seems too low to me for a mid-sized car.

 

When you see Range 0, you have at least 2 more gallons inside.

 

Agree with ESh. Took an 8,900 km road trip this summer and had the orange light come on several times. Drove another 25 miles past that and still never put more than 14 gallons in...with a 17 gallon tank I had approx. 110 miles left in the tank (averaged 7.7 l/100 km or 27 mpUSG.). The light tends to come on when showing about 30 miles to go (but in reality closer to 100 miles minimum.)

 

Thanks Tootsall and ESh. So then do you recommend driving till the range shows till ~20 miles or even lower before filling up? I don't want to risk running out of fuel or even affecting the fuel pump by running close to empty, but on the other hand, filling up a 17-gallon tank with >4 gallons left seems cutting down the range considerably.

 

I’d suggest a combination of using the Gasbuddy app and a warning light “ON” as your decision makers. As you point out, fuel in the tank helps cool the fuel pump (and they are costly to replace), but I wouldn’t freak out if your favorite station was within the next 30 to 40 miles on your route. Of course in winter you’d be wanting to top up sooner to minimize condensation in the tank (and we know you can get surprise cold even in Texas).