mhoran89

Had what I thought was a close call today but would like some confirmation others are seeing the same.

left from Boston area to Killington with not a lot of gas and noticed the car said 19 miles to empty and the low fuel warning came on at 80mph on the interstate. Soon after it read 14 miles and I got off the next exit off I-89 and my buddies found a gas station that was 12 miles away. Car was consuming gas quickly and before we got to the gas station the car then hit 0 miles to empty and said “refuel” in the cluster instead of XX miles. I got to the gas station and it was under construction. Had to turn around and go to another one 2 miles down the road after driving on 0 miles for nearly 5 miles.

pumped gas and the pump stopped at more or less exactly 15 gallons. Lexus advertises the tank is 17.8 gallons. I tried topping it off and the pump stopped again around 15.3 gallons.

Is this consistent with Lexus’ mentality? Does the car have over 2 gallons remaining when the range hits 0 miles? Is this something people have seen before? Last car would alert at 1/8 of a tank which was about 60 miles range at highway speeds. and 1/8 of a tank meant legitimately 1/8 of a tank left...

any help or firsthand experience would be appreciated as this is all new to me. Thanks!

Grinder34

Yesterday, I refueled with 30- ish miles left on the estimated range. I think it took 13.8 gallons.

There's apparently TONS of reserve. I hope There's a way to adjust that, but I kinda doubt it

mhoran89

thanks for sharing.

so that is almost consistent with 15mpg estimate with two gallons left on the "meter" and most likely another two gallons in reserve which is not shown in the distance to empty on the dash. while this is not the end of the world... I think it is valuable information to know.

BayeauxLex

Lexus/Toyota has been doing this for years. When our LX says refuel (DTE 0) we have around 4 gallons left.

So don’t panic at the DTE. Just plan on looking for fuel when it says refuel.

I’ve played many tricks on friends and family when the DTE reads 1 and I’m not even thinking about a gas station.

Coworker bought his 2011 Tundra brand new. It now has 310k miles. For 310k miles he thought he only had a 20 gallon tank because whenever the fuel light come on (17-20 DTE) he could only refill 19 gallons. His truck has a 26 gallon tank.

sheetmetalfab

^^^^^^
spot on.

coolbrazz

This is good info, but hope I won't have to test the accuracy on my onboard computer for fuel.

UTME06

This is good to know in a pinch.

My guess is that this fuel reserve is a reliability decision. In college I burned out two fuel pumps always running around on E. The fuel lubes and cools the pump, come to find out.

That and they don't want you calling in that roadside service program.

BayeauxLex

I run around on E all the time in every vehicle we own and never replaced a fuel pump including on my 16yr old 230k mile Toyota truck unless I was looking to make more power.

Maybe I’ve been lucky or only apply on certain vehicles

UTME06

Well one was VW and the other a Ford, so that has something to do with it. But they still rely on the fuel for lubricant, so running them dry is suboptimal even if of the over-engineered Toyota variety!

coolbrazz

In general it isn't good to consistently drive any car on "E" with a electronic fuel pump.
Google is your friend...

mhoran89

I have never had issues. Running a car out of fuel is different than running it down to a few gallons left in the tank. This car is brand new and google provides literally no results for range or fuel capacity on the TX models other than the MFG stated 17.8 gallon capacity.

coolbrazz

I understand the topic of this thread and appreciate the info in general. All I'm saying according to car mechanics it's not good for any vehicle with a electronic fuel pump to drive down to a couple of gallons on a regular bases. I know people do this all the time, I just wouldn't do it to any of my vehicles if I can help it. I'm just passing on the info, and you are correct, google probably couldn't answer your question.

mhoran89

mileage is slowly coming up. long trips to NJ and back this last weekend. on the way back the car displayed 33.8mpg at one point as an average. car was over 33mpg for the entire trip home which was 6.5 hours with stop and go traffic for some of it. it really isn't that disappointing. curious to see if it continues to get better now that it is getting more broken in and has the snow tires and the roof box off.

coolbrazz

How many miles do you have on the clock now? I just turned 1K and finally got 20mpg so mine is also going up.

sheetmetalfab

are you sure about that?
can you show it?