Fuel gauge inaccurate

Hey guys, Ive had my 4runner for a month or so now and Ive notice the fuel gauge seems to go down way to fast....which I guess is better than the opposite, but still kinda annoying.

From empty and gas light on a full fill is 12.5 gallons. Should it not be way more fuel into an empty 18.5 gallon tank?

Thats leaving over 20 litres in the tank when its showing totally empty, my experience is its usually less than 10 with most cars. So to me it seems like to me the gauge is way under reading the fuel qty.

I get about 190 miles/tank and 14.5 mpg.

Any ideas to try? Im going to try the key in holding the odo button trick, but havent found much else to try.

Ive converted the numbers from liters and km...cant imagine I effed up googling it, but I guess you never know.

Thanks

 

First, there are a few important factors before anyone can judge what mpg you should be getting:

Do you have any mods that affect the mpg like tires or anything that adds a lot of weight to the vehicle?

Are you an aggressive driver? If so it will negatively affect your MPG.

What type of driving are you doing? Highway, city, pluto, mars, etc.

What transmission is does your 4runner have?

I get anywhere from 17.5-19 mpg when driving normal around town. I on average go 250 miles on a tank with a record 304 miles on a single tank with 21.5 mpg. This is with a 5 speed transmission and fatter tires; I normally have a more relaxed driving style which is good for fuel. The only time my gas light went on it had about 4 gallons left in the tank, but the needle was at the bottom of the gage.

Yours seems to have low mpg but that is only in comparison to my 4runner which might be completely different to yours. The fuel gages can be a bit annoying, but mine is fairly consistent, with maybe the top half of the gage representing 35-45% of the gage, and the last 10% representing 20% of the fuel tank.

The only suggestions I can give you right now is to check tire pressure and make sure its not too low, and check anything related to air intake (mass airflow sensor, oxygen sensor, air filter)

 

Thanks for the reply,

I know my mpg is low, trucks fairly stock. 265 tires etc.... Im not really worried about that at this point, just been going through different things to improve that.

My question is more the gauge always showing low. On an empty gauge I only get 45-48 liters of fuel into the tank. Its a 70 liter tank, I should be pumping at least 10 more Id think. So wondering if anyone has any tricks on improving gauge accuracy.

 

The fuel sender only lives so long in these rigs. Mine got all weird a year or two ago. Read Full with a full tank and then go to half and then drop to zero. Then at a Full tank,. it would only show 3/4 and then drop fast. I replaced the sender and it's perfect. This is a very known/common issue.

 

Ok great thanks,

I was hoping thered be a trick short of dropping the tank. Ive never done that before. Ill give some youtube videos a shot and go for it.

Thanks

 

For about 6 months, I just used the Tripometer to gauge my fuel level.

If your rig's supsension has been modified (lifted), there is a procedure to re-calibrate. It doesn't hurt to try it but I don't think it will help. It didn't for me.

 

Ok cool, I have the procedure to re calibrate. Ill give it a shot.

Any advice which sending unit to buy? Obviously oem is best but in canada from toyota is crazy expensive. And not a lot of places ship from the us at the moment. My normal parts go to is rockauto.com and they only have the ultra-power sp90135. Which from what i can find is 750ish cheaper than anything else. Any thoughts?

 

I got OEM for mine. If you get the Toyota part number, you can often find it on ebay from a discount dealer and maybe they will ship to Canada?

I couldn't find that part number you posted there. And Toyota in Canada wants over $750? That's a ton, even for Canadian Pesos.

 

I was actually able to track one down from Toyota for $220....What ever part the first guy told me was $800...we may never know!

Canadian Pesos and taxes it all usually adds up to be quite a bit more up here, with way less selection, but we make it work! Usually just shipping to Bellingham/Point Roberts is the easy work around. But thats not possible right now, cause of well...you know.

Thanks for the help.

Oh and I could be totally off here, but I dont really think ebay is a big thing in Canada anymore. Just like craigslist, outside of Vancouver no one uses craigslist. I have no idea why but thats my impression.

 

Where do you sell your crap you don't want anymore?

 

In Vancouver we use craigslist. Rest of Canada....the cold part, uses Kijiji.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Canadian heritage moment(thats an inside Canadian joke)

 

Lmao good one!