estimated remaining gas milage

[NSW550]

My estimated remaining milage before empty is screwed up.....
This all began a few weeks ago when I was a cheap ass at the gas station and only put a few gallons of fuel in. I noticed a changed in the gas guage but the displayed number of miles until empty did not change. I have since gone through a few full tanks of gas and the number is still incorrect. It says I have 0 remaining miles when my low gas indication light hasn't even come on yet. When I next go in for my 10k oil change service at the dealer I'll bring this to their attention.

Has anyone else had this problem with their 5th gens? If so did the computer re-set itself or did the dealership have to do some sort of a reset?

Thanks,
Nick

 

[eddiebx]

Should've sprung for a full tank huh? :hiding:


I think I might know what you are talking about, but usually it corrects itself after I refill the tank. Honestly though I can't be certain, since I don't pay much attention to that meter.

Have you tried resetting the MPG calculator and running a few tanks through to see if it's back to normal? I doubt you can actually break it from doing what you did though, so don't worry too much

 

[mace.]

In think if you disconnect the battery for a few it will reset itself also.

 

[eddiebx]

Because I know we're all allergic to reading the manual, here's two ways to do it, and of course pulling the battery like [MENTION=77504]mace.[/MENTION] said works too.

 

[1engineer]

It does not work that way. This is just supposition on my part but here is how I think it works:

Your "miles to empty" readout uses an average of several (let's call it 1000)hundred miles and in conjunction with your "mpg" readout calculates an approximate miles to empty.

You can watch your "miles to empty" readout and your odometer and they will not be 1:1. Sometimes you can go several miles and your "miles to empty" remains the same. Now, if you reset your average mpg that function will reset but the miles to empty does not take the new numbers into effect except as part of an average.

I normally get about 15-17 mpg (calculated bu hand) in the winter and 20+ in the summer. My miles to empty readout kept the winter number of about 320 (full tank) miles up there well into spring. It took several weeks to creep towards 400 miles and it did not do it all at once, validating my belief that it drops a number and adds a number for a moving average. I also think the mpg readout samples about four times a minute, not constantly. Hopefully this clears things up a bit.

 

[eddiebx]

You can watch your "miles to empty" readout and your odometer and they will not be 1:1. Sometimes you can go several miles and your "miles to empty" remains the same. Now, if you reset your average mpg that function will reset but the miles to empty does not take the new numbers into effect except as part of an average.
t.

You know now that you mention this, it does make sense. I remember the first day I came home from the dealer with my 4runner, it was showing something like ~400+ miles remaining; but now no matter how I reset my meter, it's no where close to that. I guess like you said, there some kind of other database that it calculates off of and is not easily reset-able?

However, I think OP is talking about something else; he seems to have an issue with the display reading 0 miles left even though the tank is no where near empty. I ran across this once before, and I forget what fixed it. I recall just needing to refill the tank to full. Most of the time I think my display showing ~20 or so miles left when the low fuel light comes on, so something sounds out of sync for OP, right?

 

[Jesse1983]

I've experienced this. The next time I filled the tank it was corrected. To be clear, filled, not $20, not $30, filled.

 

[4Run4YourLife]

I think the MTE takes the average mpg (like engineer was saying) and multiplies it by only 20 gallons (not the full tank of 23 gallons) to get the range.

 

[Hellamatic]

I think that the mileage to empty is just programmed to be incredibly pessimistic. My Tundra is the same way - I think they just set it up like that to trick you into not running out of fuel.

 

[1000MPH]

It is definitely not based on overall MPG. 1E's theory sounds about right.
BTW, I think this is my highest yet.
It was at 444 but I snapped the pic a few seconds too late. The damn thing doesn't recalculate until you start driving...I think.