Avensis 2.0 2016 Fuel, Front Seats and Vibration

[bigpace]

Hi

I seem to have a issue with the fuel tank and I was wondering if anybody else was experiencing the same.   The fuel tank capacity is 60L with a reserve of 9L yet when I fill up the tank on "empty" (yellow warning light) I can only fill up to about 42L.    I had the 2011 2.0L before this and under the same conditions fill up was around 50L.   Does anybody else have a similar experience?

Toyota technician said that it possibly had something to do with the air vents but surely the warning light shouldn't be coming on with around 18L still in the tank?

Another issue I have is to do with the front seats.   There is very little support at the rear of the seat base - it almost feels that you are sitting on a piece of string; not comfortable at all.   Dealer is sending a report back to Toyota but again, just wondering if anybody else has a similar issue with the seats?   Model is Excel but seat design is the same on Business models

On the matter of vibration there seems to be more from this BMW engine than my previous Avensis, is this normal?    By the way, fuel economy sucks as well.

Thanks in advance

 

[Konrad C]

Can you give some rough figures, like how far you get on a tank/estimated MPG. Also how do the figures compare with your previous car? 

The Toyota fuel reserve system is something I have got used. I can get well past 430 miles then fill up with 50 litres. Most times I get close to 400 miles and fill with 47 litres. My car is petrol.

There is a similar post regarding poor diesel economy, though this is on the Auris and was for the 180HP AD engine.

Since I can't comment on the diesel engine regarding behaviour, I will leave that to the experienced users. What is the regen system, and is it working more to meet the Euro 6 emissions?

 

 

[bigpace]

Hi Thanks for the reply.   I get around 400 miles for 42L urban driving.   I can't get anymore in the tank unless I overfill, which is not a good idea   Fuel economy similar to last engine but I believe that was Toyota's own make but this BMW is supposed to be more fuel efficient

[revband]

I bought the business edition saloon just over two weeks ago so it's early days yet, my first tank of fuel returned 46 MPG on mixed driving which is better than my previous 2.2 tourer by around 5-6 MPG, yes the engine feels far rougher at low revs but smooths out fine under normal driving, the seat?, well yes it seems to be too low at the back or too high at the front and does press a bit on the back of the legs I will have to see how that goes but not sure what can be done to change it.

I have three problems with the car in the first two weeks, the front camera system keeps throwing up a fault, and that is going back for a mod to be done, the touch 2 go defaults from MPH to KPH on it's own accord that is having a software update, and the air filter box keeps vibrating and causing noise in the cabin.

All in all not very happy with Toyota at the moment.

[Heidfirst]

1 minute ago, revband said:

I bought the business edition saloon just over two weeks ago so it's early days yet, my first tank of fuel returned 46 MPG on mixed driving which is better than my previous 2.2 tourer by around 5-6 MPG,

but you have gone from a more powerful 2.2 estate to a 2.0 saloon, you would expect to see an improvement ...

[revband]

You are correct I did expect to see an improvement, but in honesty if you look at the figures for the two engines there is very little power difference, if memory serves 143BHP to 147BHP.

I gave the figures for the first tank so the OP had something to compare his with because as usual the MPG readout is all over the place.

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, revband said:

You are correct I did expect to see an improvement, but in honesty if you look at the figures for the two engines there is very little power difference, 

4-8 bhp depending upon whose figures that use. But you could also say similar (~16bhp) about the revised 2.0 1AD-FTV in the 2012MY facelift & yet it probably would match or better the mpg figures that you are getting from the BMW. It will be interesting to see what you get as your car runs in & when the weather gets warmer.

Is the ~40mpg that you mentioned for your previous 2.2 Tourer an annual average figure or what? Certainly lower than I get.

[revband]

I guess that every driver is going to get a different average, depending where you live, (hills etc), driving style, local conditions, I would say that over nearly five years ownership that was a pretty close average driving locally. My best was in Italy a couple of years ago when I got nearly 60 mpg from one tank.

 

[bigpace]

Hi revband    If you don't mind can you let your tank run down to the warning light and see how litres it takes to fill up?   Also, can you please describe the noise that is coming from the air filter box.   When my engine is really cold I'm getting a noise from that area, almost like a noisy computer fan.   There is quite a bit of vibration from the engine when the temperature drops that makes its way into the cabin and the gearstick rattles a bit in neutral.   Sad to say but this current model is testing my loyalty to Toyota.

 

 

[Heidfirst]

On 13/12/2016 at 7:43 PM, bigpace said:

Hi

I seem to have a issue with the fuel tank and I was wondering if anybody else was experiencing the same.   The fuel tank capacity is 60L with a reserve of 9L yet when I fill up the tank on "empty" (yellow warning light) I can only fill up to about 42L.  

are you talking about the flashing yellow or solid yellow?

I know that you have had an Avensis before so you should already know this but unless they have changed the behaviour the flashing yellow warning light isn't '"empty", you'll probably have a good 50+ miles beyond that & then the ~9l reserve even though the computer has counted down to 0 range.

[revband]

The air box noise is easy to prove after the initial shock of the cabin noise, it manifests itself in my car on and around a fast idle 1000 rpm and seems to come from all around depending where you sit in the car, pop the bonnet up and get someone to place their hand on the air box and if the noise stops you have the same problem.

The air box is mounted with three bolts through rubber grommets in its base, the box can move on these bolts and then the extension intake pipe which is bolted solid to the car body crushes the foam tape at the joint and the air box passes engine vibration directly to the car body.

[bigpace]

Then fuel warning light is sold yellow and is programmed to come on when there is 9L or less in the tank.   If that is the case then I should be able to put around 50L in the tank when filling it up but I only average around 42.   I did not have this issue with my previous Avensis.

Revband - thanks for providing more detail

 

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, bigpace said:

Then fuel warning light is sold yellow and is programmed to come on when there is 9L or less in the tank.   If that is the case then I should be able to put around 50L in the tank when filling it up but I only average around 42.   I did not have this issue with my previous Avensis.

Revband - thanks for providing more detail

 

In that case they may have changed the behaviour then, interesting. Does the manual tell you that the light is programmed to come on when there is under 9l in the tank, if not where does?

What does the range countdown give when the light comes on solid?

 

[bigpace]

The small 140 page manual that comes with the car says very little about the fuel warning light but the larger online manual states this on page 522

Low fuel level warning light

Indicates that remaining fuel is about 9.0 L (2.4 gal., 2.0

Imp.gal.) or less

→ Refuel the vehicle.

The light does not flash, solid only

 

[bigpace]

Hi - just got this from Toyota Customer (re fuel reserve)

Our Technical Department have advised me that the refuel warning light will usually come on when there is approximately 10 litres of fuel (excluding the reserve) remaining.  Once this fuel has been used, the vehicle will then rely on the reserve, which is approximately 5 litres of fuel.  We would advise that the reserve should only be used in an emergency.

So, the fuel reserve is approximately 15 litres and not 9 as stated in the manual.   This is all a bit misleading, no?

[Heidfirst]

sounds like they changed the behaviour but didn't update the manual accordingly. There will be an e& oe statement .

[bigpace]

Hi - just got this from Toyota Customer (re fuel reserve)

Our Technical Department have advised me that the refuel warning light will usually come on when there is approximately 10 litres of fuel (excluding the reserve) remaining.  Once this fuel has been used, the vehicle will then rely on the reserve, which is approximately 5 litres of fuel.  We would advise that the reserve should only be used in an emergency.

So, the fuel reserve is approximately 15 litres and not 9 as stated in the manual.   This is all a bit misleading, no?

[bigpace]

Sorry to keep coming back on this but with my previous Avensis the low fuel warning light came on as per the manual, about 9 litres.   I just don't understand why the current model has a reserve of 15 litres and the manual states 9 litres.    I've asked Toyota to give a fuller explanation but I feel that I'm being lead down the garden path.

I know that there are far more important things in life but if anybody has the latest model, can you please let me know how many litres you have left in the tank when the low fuel warning light comes on

 

[revband]

I will let you know next time I fill up but the car is not getting a lot of use at the moment.

Also the engine vibration is getting annoying, not only the air box vibrating, the engine cover, nearside front wheel arch liner and gear linkage are now all vibrating and  making noise in the cabin, not a good experiance at the moment, more warranty work for the dealer.

[Heidfirst]

3 hours ago, bigpace said:

Sorry to keep coming back on this but with my previous Avensis the low fuel warning light came on as per the manual, about 9 litres.   I just don't understand why the current model has a reserve of 15 litres and the manual states 9 litres.    I've asked Toyota to give a fuller explanation but I feel that I'm being lead down the garden path.

I know that there are far more important things in life but if anybody has the latest model, can you please let me know how many litres you have left in the tank when the low fuel warning light comes on

 

As I said it seems that they have changed the behaviour but not updated the manual accordingly. The manual will have an error & omission statement to cover things like this.

From what you have posted from Toyota CS the reserve is now 5 litres (it used to be ~9-10) but the fuel warning light comes on sooner than it did previously. Once you know about it you will adjust to it.

It would be interesting to know if you continue to run when the fuel light is on solid if it then switches to flashing at some point once you are getting near to the 5l reserve.

The next question is "when did they adjust the behaviour"? It's possible that they did it when the introduced the 2nd facelift in 2015 or it could have been at any point after that.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Looking at the pre-facelift (2014) and post-facelift (2016) owner's manuals they both state the low fuel light will come on when there is about 9.0 litres remaining, but they don't say this 9.0 litres is the reserve.

[revband]

As promised here are my last fuel figures.

418 miles fuel light came on.

Filled up at 420 miles.

Tank right to the brim, 44.45 litres.

Car computer average 43.7.

Actual calculated MPG 42.95, but in honesty on the previous fill I did not go right to the brim, just a normal fill until the pump cut off a couple of times so it could be a litre or so different which would make actual MPG figure better than it looks.

It looks like Toyota are being truthful and the light comes on as they say, that's a big safety margin to bear in mind when panicking looking for a filling station, a good 100 miles left in my estimation.

[Wheelie1978]

Hi Revband,

I bought a 1.6 D4D in October and was horrified to find my fuel tank overflowing on first fill up with 43l having gone in from the pump. Having had a Mondeo 2l TDCI with a massive 72l tank before I wasn't paying attention to the amount of fuel having gone in. I too have the same issue, I do about 420 miles on a tank and the warning light comes on. The most I have got in to the tank is 43l. I saw the fuel tank reserve of 9l also and have been wondering where the remaining 8l have gone. best fuel economy on a trip so far has been 56mpg not that near the stated figures.

Also I have the constant issue of the front warning camera flashing as it cannot see, please clear the windshield, doing so only intermittently solves the problem. I do feel really misled by the stated details, I was really expecting to be able to get 550 miles to a tank. I really don't want to be driving past the warning light even though the maths says there are loads more miles left than stated. Surely there must be a software fix that can solve this.

Cheers

Colin

[FROSTYBALLS]

46 minutes ago, Wheelie1978 said:

I do about 420 miles on a tank and the warning light comes on. The most I have got in to the tank is 43l. I saw the fuel tank reserve of 9l also and have been wondering where the remaining 8l have gone. best fuel economy on a trip so far has been 56mpg not that near the stated figures.

When one looks at the earlier posts within this thread, Toyota has stated the low fuel light will come on when the car has approx 9/10 litres remaining, excluding the reserve of approx 5 litres.

If you're expecting to obtain the same economy as the official EU fuel consumption, you almost certainly won't. The EU fuel consumption figures are obtained in laboratory conditions, and are meant to provide a standard comparison between cars.

They don't represent the fuel consumption that an owner may achieve in real life.

[revband]

I have to say that I do feel it is a daft system to have when the fuel warning light comes on with the tank still around one third full, it just means to get a decent tank range you need to do some mental arithmetic. That is something I can live with but I would be happier without it.

Having owned Toyota's since 1975 when one of my friends took the dealership I have lost count of how many I have had in those years but it will be around 30 new cars, I definitely think that the build quality has gone  down in the past 10 or so years.