The trip computer is def a p.o.s

[chunderboy]

So, i went to boston this weekend to see the little lady, and obviously i filled her (the 4runner) up b/f i left. On the trip meter it said that i have 345 miles or so b/f empty. The issue here is that the trip door to door was 217 miles, and i literally had a half of a tank left. Is this normal, and is there a way to trully reset it to where it would be acurate?

 

[biglatka]

So, i went to boston this weekend to see the little lady, and obviously i filled her (the 4runner) up b/f i left. On the trip meter it said that i have 345 miles or so b/f empty. The issue here is that the trip door to door was 217 miles, and i literally had a half of a tank left. Is this normal, and is there a way to trully reset it to where it would be acurate?

As far as I know, you can only reset the average mph and the mpg but not the miles to empty, which is based on your average history. I've found that the computer is generally optimistically off by about 7%. Within it

 

[RickyCRX]

Well, since the first 'half' is about 14 gallons when I fill up, and the tank is only 23-24 gallons in the first place, it appears as though your trip computer may not be too far off in telling you that you had less miles left in the tank. The gauge does not appear to be linear at all in the 4runners... On the highway, I can easily get 220-240 miles on a half tank with my V8, but the second half always drops much more quickly than the first half.

Ricky

 

[UoD]

The miles you can drive before you are empty is calculated based on your average driving style. If you are normally driving in the city, your average miles per tank will obviously be much lower. Thus, when you decide to take your car out on the highway, the gauge is going to be off since it is not used to this kind of travel.

There are two ways this system can operate. It can either average several tanks, or it can reset for every tank. If it resets for every tank, you are going to notice your miles per tank fluctuating all the time while driving. If it takes averages (which is what it does), then you will only notice the mileage being off when you deviate from your normal driving habits.

The only way that I know to reset it is to disconnect the battery for a while ....

 

[chunderboy]

But the interesting part is that i made it (with the introduction of an additional 5 dollars worth of gas) the rest of the way.

That was the part that i didn't understand how it was possible

 

[UoD]

Like RickyCRX said, you get more miles out of the first "half" than you do out of the second "half"

I say "half" because when you fuel gauge reads at the half-way point, you have actually gone more than half of your total tank distance.

This problem was even more pronounced in my old 1996 Actual 3.2TL. On the highway, I would get 105 miles out of the first quarter of the tank, then 80 miles out of the second quarter, then 60 out of each of the remaining quarters.

 

[boston_kevin]

you are assuming that the gauge is reading correctly too... I have filled my tank up when it said it was half empty just to see how accurate, and it took 12.5 gallons. Now, assuming that when I see the needle on the E and the light on and I fill up, I can only get 20.5 gallons in the tank (usually), then the gauge is reporting that I have more gas in the tank than is actually there...

Sadly I have never seen a truly accurate fuel gauge outside of racing.