Any way to reconfigure the "low fuel' warning?

[Marcusthehat]

Being used to the excellent and accurate miles to zero fuel countdown on a couple of VAG vehicles, I find Toyotas sudden and to me generally  unexpected "low fuel" but zero countdown miles  somewhat disconcerting.

It happened again this morning.

Is there any way to reconfigure this?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Very much doubt it.

On the majority of recent Toyotas the low fuel light will illuminate when the reserve is reached - giving the driver plenty of warning to refuel.

Running out of fuel in a hybrid causes damage to the hybrid system.

[Terry10]

Any idea what sort of damage and why? 
Terry

[Derek.w]

It worth looking at the tank itself just to make sure one of its holding brackets is not loose affecting the low fuel reading.

[Marcusthehat]

Thank you FB, I had seen that somewhere about the hybrid system getting damaged if run out of fuel.

Which again, to me is head scratching incomprehensible?

Like surely sensors should detect zero fuel getting the the ICE and shut the hybrid system down if it is so vulnerable?

And to save me getting up off the couch, how many miles or litres does the reserve be good for?

Cheers,

Marcus

EDIT

So the book states 55l tank and I put 47 litres in(until the nozzle clicked 3 times while fully inserted=my SOP)= 8 litres and I had  driven  15 miles after I noticed the low fuel, which may have been on a little while  .  .  ., so say add another 2 litres to be safe =10 litres at 10miles per litre(a conservative 45mpg equivalent) 

=100+ blinking miles of reserve! fuel

As bad as ultra conservative MB that is! 

I shall have to be more vigilent in future and note the odometer reading when the low fuel warning comes on, to calculate the figure more precisely.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The low fuel light will come on when there is approx 8.3 litres remaining.

Running a Toyota hybrid without fuel can discharge the hybrid Battery - meaning the car will need to be recovered to a dealer for the hybrid Battery to be recharged. Damage could also occur to the hybrid Battery, etc. 

[philip42h]

16 hours ago, Marcusthehat said:

Being used to the excellent and accurate miles to zero fuel countdown on a couple of VAG vehicles, I find Toyotas sudden and to me generally  unexpected "low fuel" but zero countdown miles  somewhat disconcerting.

15 hours ago, Marcusthehat said:

... As bad as ultra conservative MB that is! 

I shall have to be more vigilent in future and note the odometer reading when the low fuel warning comes on, to calculate the figure more precisely.

Why? 🙂

Toyota - with the RAV4 at least - have always taken a relatively conservative approach to fuel and having sufficient to get to the next filling station.

The low fuel warning light will typically come on when the range remaining is around 25 miles and well before you get into reserve territory. It means: "Just in case you haven't been paying attention to your fuel level you should probably think about refueling pretty soon". And so you should.

If you ignore it and carry on driving the range remaining will fall to zero (or just go blank), and the low fuel light will remain on. The indication of no range remaining means: "You're on you own now mate - I did warn you". But you will now be running on a reserve of around 15% - Toyota doesn't want you stranded by the roadside (or in the outback).

I rather like that feature ... Others seem to be troubled by it ...

I guess the "excellent and accurate miles to zero fuel countdown on a couple of VAG vehicles" give you a far better appreciation as to when you will be stranded by the roadside? How very Germanic ... 😉

It can be quite fun to note just how much fuel you can get into the 55L tank - the most I've ever got into mine is 47.75L on the one occasion I decided to push on into  "You're on you own now mate - I did warn you" territory - hence my estimate of around 15% reserve. Of course, once you've passed this point you really have no idea as to when you will actually run out ... 🙂

[Parts-King]

I have a fool proof way of reconfiguring the low fuel warning

When the fuel gauge drops to around a quarter of a tank, I pull over into what they call a fuel station. I pick up the fuel nozzle and it fills the tank with fresh fuel. I then have around a 500 mile range, the countdown is then reset, and I run the car until I get down to about a quarter of a tank, works every time and I have no fuel anxiety whatsoever, it's a brilliant trick to be honest, everyone should try it.......at least once 😎

[Marcusthehat]

Driving since 1978, I only once, way back about 1983 ish, ran out of fuel, quite inadvertently,  due to being sexually distracted, this happened on the M2, managed to coast up the off slip for  Antrim and get fuel, phew!

I am still married to the said  sexual distraction btw.

And despite driving a mix of diesels and petrols, I have never misfuelled.

How do people manage to do that?

Right!

Back to polishing my halo.

 

[Strangely Brown]

1 hour ago, Marcusthehat said:

Driving since 1978, I only once, way back about 1983 ish, ran out of fuel, quite inadvertently,  due to being sexually distracted, this happened on the M2, managed to coast up the off slip for  Antrim and get fuel, phew!

 

I trust that is not a euphemism. 🙂

Good one if it is. 😄

And on the OP subject... why? As above. Just refill when the gauge gets to about 1/4 tank. I really don't understand the need to play fuel light bingo.

[Parts-King]

1 minute ago, Strangely Brown said:

 

And on the OP subject... why? As above. Just refill when the gauge gets to about 1/4 tank. I really don't understand the need to play fuel light bingo.

I work in the motor trade, I can assure you that most people play fuel light bingo, many years ago I had a customer tell me she was most disappointed with her fuel consumption, I said what do you get MPG wise? No idea she said but I can only get to Liverpool from Chester on £5 of fuel.........TWICE A DAY 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[flash22]

Don't let it drop below 1/4 of a tank !!, it's extremely complicated to change the level warning (all the programming is built into the cluster's flash chip)  unless you are some hot shot programmer that can reverse engineer the code from the hex and recompile it

just disabling TSS features and mileage correction was hard enough

[nlee]

1 hour ago, Parts-King said:

No idea she said but I can only get to Liverpool from Chester on £5 of fuel.........TWICE A DAY

Cost more in tolls! Hope she didn't factor that in as £/mile!

[Nick72]

So I've inadvertently tested the reserve size post orange light on the PHEV. I got at least another 80 or so miles and no indication I was close to zero. I think there's nearly 2 gallons of reserve (after the orange light).

[Cyker]

It's supposed to be disconcerting, as if you run out of fuel there is a limited time you have to refuel it before the traction Battery drains (I'm talking several months, but still!), and if that happens your car will be in for a very long wait at your favourite dealer while they wait for Toyota's magic mythical traction Battery charger to be shipped to them.

I'm also in the refuel-at-a-quarter crowd (Or at around 100 miles range remaining depending if the car has a GOM), although this is a big reason why almost no current EV, even if I were to get over my loathing of SUVs, would be suitable because I'd be in a near-constant state of range anxiety  

[ernieb]

19 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

So I've inadvertently tested the reserve size post orange light on the PHEV. I got at least another 80 or so miles and no indication I was close to zero. I think there's nearly 2 gallons of reserve (after the orange light).

That’s approximately what I’ve estimated, I did let mine drop to the light on purpose and then filled up and calculated the difference.

However, as others have said in normal driving mode I rarely let the tank go below 1/4. I just don’t want to get into whatever might lurk down there apart from fuel. 👻

[Cyker]

There be dragons here Captain!  

[Strangely Brown]

55 minutes ago, ernieb said:

I just don’t want to get into whatever might lurk down there apart from fuel. 👻

 

[ernieb]

9 hours ago, Strangely Brown said:

 

Yep, just about sums it up.

[Dippy]

My car is 2008, no traction Battery. I always set the display to “range remaining”. At ?60km the yellow light comes on and the display reads LOW FUEL. But if I hit the computer button the light stays on and the warning just goes back to displaying the range, so I can see how close I’m pushing it. (Knowing the weaknesses of that calculation). 
Not that I do push it much, as doesn’t it start picking up the junk from the bottom of the tank then? Seems a bad habit to me. 

[atartan]

this is what happens if you drive with no petrol.. https://www.youtube.com/embed/0s40xNqudDg

[ernieb]

2 hours ago, atartan said:

this is what happens if you drive with no petrol.. https://www.youtube.com/embed/0s40xNqudDg

Very interesting.

[philip42h]

3 hours ago, atartan said:

this is what happens if you drive with no petrol.. https://www.youtube.com/embed/0s40xNqudDg

Very interesting indeed ... so:

1. Refuel when the low fuel warning comes on to avoid all the stress and potential grief.
2. If for whatever reason you actually run out of fuel, STOP before you run out of traction Battery so that you can refuel and restart.
3. Otherwise, for those of us without a OBD scanner and reset tool, it may well mean recovery and a visit to the dealer.

But the 'good news' is that it isn't totally "need a new engine" style catastrophic (as is perhaps sometimes implied).

[Strangely Brown]

It certainly sounds like there is a considerable margin of fuel left when the light comes on. WIth my average that 1.8 imp.gal equates to around 95 miles. It seems very unlikely that, in this country at least, you would not be able to get to a fuel station on that. Of course, I will continue to fill when the needle gets down to around 1/4. 🙂

[FROSTYBALLS]

7 minutes ago, Strangely Brown said:

WIth my average that 1.8 imp.gal equates to around 95 miles. It seems very unlikely that, in this country at least, you would not be able to get to a fuel station on that.

Remember back in 2014 when we were travelling up to Skye in our Auris, an accident at Tyndrum had closed the A82, and we had an additional 80 mile detour towards Oban until we rejoined the A82 South of Fort William. Left us pretty low on petrol as we usually topped up at Fort William. Not a petrol station in sight on the detour ......