Martinjmpr
New member
Just got back from the first really long trip (6 days, 2100 miles) in the 4runner since I bought it in July of '09. Overall it did well, although I guess I never realized how noisy it is at highway speeds!
Anyway, as posted previously, I put on an Ultra-gauge, which is an OBD-II driven scanner sort of like a Scangauge, only cheaper. This trip was my "beta test" of the UG.
Overall, it did well. About the only sour note is that it seems to have overstated my MPG by a fair percentage (Ultra Gauge said I got 20 mpg average, my own calculations put it at closer to 17.) I think the problem here may be one of calibration, so I'll keep on working on it.
Since the 3rd gen 4runner doesn't get fuel gauge information from the OBD scanner, the UG has to calculate it. The way it works is this: When setting up the UG, you put in the fuel tank size. The UG then measures distance traveled and fuel used and gives you both "instant" and average MPG. Finally, based on the MPG and the fuel tank size, it gives you a "DTE" or "Distance To Empty." This DTE became my defacto "fuel gauge."
First time I checked it, the UG gave my DTE as just over 95 miles. At ~20mpg that would mean that I should have had about 4 1/2 gallons in the tank. However, as I was able to fill up with about 15.2 gallons, which meant I actually had just over 3 gallons left, or about 65 miles to empty.
I figured that something must have been "off." My thought is that the UG is either underestimating fuel usage, or overestmating miles driven. As a temporary fix, I went back into the "setup" menu and changed the fuel tank size to 17.5 gallons. That way, I would have a nice cushion in case the UG was wrong.
With the UG set to think I had a 17.5 gallon tank, I tried it for another tank and filled up with the UG saying the DTE was 85 miles. The tank took just 13.9 gallons which meant about 4.6 left, meaning the UG was accurate enough for me to be able to count on it for fuel. Personally, I wouldn't let the DTE get below 50 miles for any reason except an emergency, but that's just me.
Anyway, I'll keep tweaking it. Calibration is the tricky issue. I used my GPS to calibrate mine but how do I know the GPS is accurate?
Anyway, as posted previously, I put on an Ultra-gauge, which is an OBD-II driven scanner sort of like a Scangauge, only cheaper. This trip was my "beta test" of the UG.
Overall, it did well. About the only sour note is that it seems to have overstated my MPG by a fair percentage (Ultra Gauge said I got 20 mpg average, my own calculations put it at closer to 17.) I think the problem here may be one of calibration, so I'll keep on working on it.
Since the 3rd gen 4runner doesn't get fuel gauge information from the OBD scanner, the UG has to calculate it. The way it works is this: When setting up the UG, you put in the fuel tank size. The UG then measures distance traveled and fuel used and gives you both "instant" and average MPG. Finally, based on the MPG and the fuel tank size, it gives you a "DTE" or "Distance To Empty." This DTE became my defacto "fuel gauge."
First time I checked it, the UG gave my DTE as just over 95 miles. At ~20mpg that would mean that I should have had about 4 1/2 gallons in the tank. However, as I was able to fill up with about 15.2 gallons, which meant I actually had just over 3 gallons left, or about 65 miles to empty.
I figured that something must have been "off." My thought is that the UG is either underestimating fuel usage, or overestmating miles driven. As a temporary fix, I went back into the "setup" menu and changed the fuel tank size to 17.5 gallons. That way, I would have a nice cushion in case the UG was wrong.
With the UG set to think I had a 17.5 gallon tank, I tried it for another tank and filled up with the UG saying the DTE was 85 miles. The tank took just 13.9 gallons which meant about 4.6 left, meaning the UG was accurate enough for me to be able to count on it for fuel. Personally, I wouldn't let the DTE get below 50 miles for any reason except an emergency, but that's just me.
Anyway, I'll keep tweaking it. Calibration is the tricky issue. I used my GPS to calibrate mine but how do I know the GPS is accurate?
