Fuel Gauge?

[Paulus17]

Me again

SWMBOs just got home and says that the fuel gauge seems to go up then down,and now she's got home it is on the empty,but the warning light isn't flashing??

When we picked the car up on Saturday the light was flashing so we put £25 of petrol in straight away.

Then we put another £20 in on Sunday,we were driving around quite a bit getting used to it.So according to my calcs thats about 7-1/2 gls??

We also put the milometer back to zero and that is now showing 170 miles,so again if the tank is nearly empty that is about 22-23 per gallon.

Could the fuel gauge be faulty.Is it a common problem on the RAVs??

[CharlieFarlie]

22 / 23 MPG sounds a bit thirsty !! Only way to check the MPG accurately is to brim the tank then rack up some miles Brim again and divide the miles by gallons used.

These are the official figures for Your 2002 VVTI supposing its a 2.0

Fuel consumption (urban) 24.8 mpg

Fuel consumption (extra urban) 38.7 mpg

Fuel consumption (combined) 32.1 mpg

So if Your miles have been around the houses Your car sounds about right .... HTH

Wee Charlie

[Paulus17]

Cheers Charlie

I've just gone down and checked it and it is back up to just under a 1/4 of a tank mark,so if that is correct still a fair amount in.

How much fuel is left in when the warning light starts flashing??

[CharlieFarlie]

Cheers Charlie

I've just gone down and checked it and it is back up to just under a 1/4 of a tank mark,so if that is correct still a fair amount in.

How much fuel is left in when the warning light starts flashing??

Now that one I can answer on account of I filled My Diesel car to the brim with Errrrrrr Petrol .... Total drain down by removing the tank says 8.5 litres still in the tank well after the wee light started to flash ...

Wee Charlie.

[bitman]

just create an account on mpg simples

[crofter]

As Charlie says the only reliable check is by rim to rim fueling.

If I am doing a check like that I do it by using the same pump and fill till it clicks off as it may be that different pumps may not all operate at the same click off point

The gauge does fluctuate under acceleration and braking.

The tank holds 57 litres/12.5 gallons.

When my fuel low light came on I seem to remember being able to fill with just under 50 litres,so on mine it would seem there is about 2 gallons in reserve,not that I run that low usually nor would I recommend it.

Glad you are both enjoying your new wheels.

Del

[Big Kev]

just create an account on mpg simples

Cheers Bitman....never new that site existed.

Big Kev

[crofter]

just create an account on mpg simples

Cheers Bitman....never new that site existed.

Big Kev

Two's on that,I can now throw away my slate and chalk and also save my brain from the hurts when it grinds into motion

Del

[bothwell_buyer]

I now fill brim to brim. Filling til it clicks, I found, can mean theres another 10 litres able to be squeezed in unfortunately. So on what i think is about a 60 litre tank (including fill pipe and breather) I'm getting about 260 miles on around 58 litres. Thats on number 2 with fast road use and the turbo 3sgte engine so I'm quite happy. And its running well after its 3rd gearbox, fitted 2 weeks ago.

[Paulus17]

Thanks everyone

Not to keen on filling the tank up and humping that amount of fuel round,unless we know we will be doing a long run!!!!

Do you think that by using the fuel warning light as an indicator it would be accurate enough,seeing as how theres nearly two gals left in??

Run it down till it starts flashing then putting some more in and working it out from there??

[crofter]

Thanks everyone

Not to keen on filling the tank up and humping that amount of fuel round,unless we know we will be doing a long run!!!!

Do you think that by using the fuel warning light as an indicator it would be accurate enough,seeing as how theres nearly two gals left in??

Run it down till it starts flashing then putting some more in and working it out from there??

Not keen myself on running fuel levels down till the light comes on.

As I understand it a car will not run the tank bone dry so you cannot expect to be able to use all of the estimated reserve.

What I do is fill the tank once and then when the level has gone down I top it up to half full and run it between half and a quarter.

Then if you keep a record of fuel replaced,you can work out the MPG when next you fill up the tank for a long run.

Hope this makes sense

Del

[Paulus17]

Thanks everyone

Not to keen on filling the tank up and humping that amount of fuel round,unless we know we will be doing a long run!!!!

Do you think that by using the fuel warning light as an indicator it would be accurate enough,seeing as how theres nearly two gals left in??

Run it down till it starts flashing then putting some more in and working it out from there??

Not keen myself on running fuel levels down till the light comes on.

As I understand it a car will not run the tank bone dry so you cannot expect to be able to use all of the estimated reserve.

What I do is fill the tank once and then when the level has gone down I top it up to half full and run it between half and a quarter.

Then if you keep a record of fuel replaced,you can work out the MPG when next you fill up the tank for a long run.

Hope this makes sense

Del

You are right Del,we'd never let the tank get too low in any of the cars we have owned,but seeing as how ours was that low when we bought it with the light flashing,and it seems to be running ok still, i just thought we could run it down until it flashes again giving us a fairly accurate MPG,with the amount of fuel we have put in so far.

I was surprised to see how much fuel is left in when the light starts flashing :o

Obviously we wouldn't be planning a long trip while doing this now as we are down to just under a 1/4 of a tank,so we might get a flash tomorrow with the running about :D

Failing that then the brim test it will be

[Uncle_P]

Just thought I'd my tuppence worth here. I have the same Rav as Paulus and I get around 330miles on a full tank. I refilled when the fuel light came on and managed to squeeze in 50 litres. So if there was still 8 litres in the tank, this would have given me another 50 miles or so. The average mpg thingy on my display shows an average of 31mpg.

I do find that the fuel guage seems to drop irregularly, but I guess petrol is like toilet roll, the closer you are to the end, the quicker it seems to go.

[Cyker]

Hahaha! Great analogy!

I used to think it was just my Yaris, but it does seem that Toyota fuel gauges are particularly inaccurate below the half-way mark and become very dependent on things like which way the car is facing, road camber, hill gradients, phase of the moon, alignment of planets etc.

When I get to half-way (4 bars), there is a hill near one of my schools that, if I park the car facing one way it says I have a 4 bars of fuel but if I park it the other way it says I've got 1 bar!

That caught me out once, as I saw it and freaked out, went to the nearest fuel station and threw in £10, and when I turned the car back on I had 5 bars!

[Paulus17]

Thank you UP and Cyker

Well we have been out and about today and the fuel light came on.

Luckily we were just a couple of miles from a garage.

So depending how low the fuel was when we picked it up last Saturday we have covered just over 200 miles on £45s worth of petrol,and according to my calcs that works out at about 27-28 mpg.

Is this satisfactory do you think.Mainly on A roads,no motorway.

The fuel gauge seemed ok today :o

[atkiman]

hi

my nrg vvvti does 32-34 mpg on a run and 28-30 mpg on urban stuff. the gauge does tend to drop quicker after the halfway mark. once it's past the quarter I'm usually looking to fill up.fuel tank capacity is 12 gls .the computer average mpg is usually a couple of mpg upwind of you actual figure.

if i were you i think i'd brim it for a start then run it down , then brim it again, work out your actual mpg, then go from there, you'll know roughly what /distance your going to get from what you put in.

I've logged all my fill ups since i had her in 2004 so i know what mpg i can expect on any given run.

tony

[Parts-King]

My Prius was being used by a customer on a 24 hour test drive last last night so I had to use a "salesmans" RAV 2.2 diesel. When I got in the fuel warning light was burning my eyeballs out so had to put some fuel in. Only using it for one night I stuck £10 in it, the fuel warning light was still on driving off the forecourt. Salesmen are notorious for driving cars on fumes so you will have plenty of fuel left in the tank if the light starts to come on

Kingo

[Parts-King]

oops for double post

Edited August 17, 2011 by Parts-King

[Paulus17]

Thanks Tony and Kingo

So going by that then Kingo we can't be far off the average.??

As i say it depends how far the garage let the fuel drop before we bought it.

We have also started logging our fuel Tony,and to be honest the RAV is only a little heavier on the petrol than our 1.6 Meriva was,that did seem thirsty for a smallish car

How accurate are the trip computers??

[pgp001]

Hi

In answer to your question, if mine is anything to go by the trip computer is just a downright liar, it reckoned I was getting 40.8 mpg on the last tank full.

I have just been tonight and filled to the brim again, and on very mixed but mainly short urban runs I am getting 33.5 mpg

It has only varied by +/- 1.5 mpg since I got it last January.

I do drive it "carefully" with fuel economy taking precedence over performance, but cruising to work at 52 mph is not too bad.

One thing that has been instrumental in helping my economy drive is fitting an "Ultragauge" I cannot speak highly enough of this unit.

Have a look here:-

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm

Phil

[firemac]

Thanks Tony and Kingo

So going by that then Kingo we can't be far off the average.??

As i say it depends how far the garage let the fuel drop before we bought it.

We have also started logging our fuel Tony,and to be honest the RAV is only a little heavier on the petrol than our 1.6 Meriva was,that did seem thirsty for a smallish car

How accurate are the trip computers??

Hi Paul,

Glad that you are enjoying the new wheels. As I posted earlier, our 02 4.2 auto is probably the best car we have ever owned, hence I've since bought two more! However, I would have to say that the petrol units ain't brilliant in the fuel consumption area - the D4D diesel is fine though. Our 02 auto averages about 23-25 mpg (& the digital display is very accurate) but the 3-dr auto lies through its digital teeth telling me it's averaging 34mpg when actually it does about 28/29. Nevertheless, bearing in mind that the servicing costs have always been good (at Mr.T's establishments always), insurance is not excessive (even with the odd points on the pink slips), repairs are virtually unheard of and tyres tend to last 35K-40K miles, the overall cost of ownership is pretty competitive. Certainly when you read some of the horror stories about X-Trails and assorted JLR rubbish (Disco is this year's absolute worst car in Warranty Direct's dB - yet again - but the morons at Autocar still rate it as best 4X4! Talk about objective journalism!) and look at the costs of ownership of certain Teutonic marques, the RAV has got to be one of the automotive industry's greatest success stories.

To be fair though I think that part of the problem with the consumption on the petrol units is the fact that the engines & drivetrain are so refined - NVH is virtually non-existent and the autobox is one of the best I've ever used. The upshot is that I probably tend to drive them faster & harder than other cars I've owned in which you "feel" the performance more, if you see what I mean. I'm sure that if I drove it less enthusiastically, the economy would be better and I would probably get to my destination just as quickly.

As for carrying around a tank full of fuel all the time, I always fill to the brim every time. An old and very motoring-wise uncle of mine (God rest his soul) always insisted that the best way to avoid rusting in the inside of the tank was to always fill it up. I must admit that I've always followed this advice and have never had a blocked fuel pickup or rusted through tank (doesn't work with plastic ones, mind).

Anyway, here endeth the epistle. Carry on enjoying one of the finest vehicles you are ever likely to own & keep us posted on how you get on.

All the best,

Firenmac.

[Paulus17]

Thanks Phil and Jim

Phil,excuse my ignorance but how as the ultragauge helped??

Jim thank you for you reply.

We are really really enjoying the RAV,but this type of car is completely new to us.

I have never,and won't now drive a 4x4 so i/we really know very little about whats what with em,hence all my questions i'm afraid.

SWMBO as always like the Range Rovers but we just never could afford to buy one,let alone run one

So when SWMBO was looking at the RAV i was really surprised.She liked it and now i think as been smitten by it :D

She is a little concerned about the fuel consumption at the moment,but as i say it isn't that much different to the Meriva she had before.

The car is mainly used for her commute to and from work and taking,and picking up our daughters from work so a lot of round town driving.

[firemac]

Thanks Phil and Jim

Phil,excuse my ignorance but how as the ultragauge helped??

Jim thank you for you reply.

We are really really enjoying the RAV,but this type of car is completely new to us.

I have never,and won't now drive a 4x4 so i/we really know very little about whats what with em,hence all my questions i'm afraid.

SWMBO as always like the Range Rovers but we just never could afford to buy one,let alone run one

So when SWMBO was looking at the RAV i was really surprised.She liked it and now i think as been smitten by it :D

She is a little concerned about the fuel consumption at the moment,but as i say it isn't that much different to the Meriva she had before.

The car is mainly used for her commute to and from work and taking,and picking up our daughters from work so a lot of round town driving.

Hi Paul,

Whatever you do, don't let her near LR's. They're total crap!!

If you are doing lots of urban commuting, your consumption won't be brilliant in any car, so your good lady just needs to be as smooth as possible to max her fuel & avoid high revs when cold. My better half drives the 02 mostly around town hence the poor consumption. But as I say you need to look at the overall cost of ownership and ours is very acceptable despite the mpg.

Firemac

[atkiman]

your fuel consumption really does sound about right for what its doing at the minute.the computer average is usually about 2 mpg better than what you're really doing.

once you get on a run , if you dont have a Roof Rack on and running are about 60-65 mph, i would have thought 34 mpg should be about the mark in the summer.winter on a run will drag it down to about 32mpg.mines currently doing 28-29 mpg purely on urban driving.

the rav 4.2 petrol is an utterly reliable motor, has no particular vices,and is really comfortable.

you look after it and it'll look after you

and dont whatever you do, go for a landrover, unless you like coffee drinking at landrover dealers while you wait for your LR to be repaired for the umpteenth time

[Paulus17]

Thanks Jim and Tony

Don't panic,we won't be getting a LR,i think swmbo is more than happy with the RAV at the moment.

I haven't seen her so enthusiastic about a car before

This is only her first week with the car and i'm sure as she gets used to it the fuel consumption will get a little better B)