32 gal tank - How much gas left when low fuel light comes on?

Sounds like you had a failing sending unit. There were quite a few reports like that in my Tacoma forum but mine was consistent for the entire 15 years I had it. Hope the Tundra repeats that.

 

Hey everyone. One related question I’m interested in clarifying, if someone knows for certain?.?. Is there actually a separate reserve TANK, or is the reserve fuel simply an extra amount in the one and only tank in the truck?

 

1. no oem manufacturer installs an extra reserve tank in a non-commercial truck on any brand (please show an example where you have seen this on a non-commerical truck)(if you do see one, than that was added after the purchase)
2. the reserve is just a calculation done by the ecu computer in the main tank to reserve a set amount of gas in the tank.

 

also to add, you can replace the oem tank with an aftermarket tank, but since the 3rd gen is so new no one has probably built one yet. aftermarket can usually add 10-20 gals depending on space.

i know on the 2nd gen the 26gal tank can be replaced with a 46 gal tank but they are pretty spendy, like $2.3k for aftermarket. oem 38 gal is like $1100.

on 3rd gen you get either 22gal (SR or SR5) or 32gal tank (SR5 with pkg, all trims higher than SR5 come with 32gal)

 

6 gallons is not a lot if towing and that's probably why they have such a large reserve. Out west it's easily 60+ miles between gas stations, occasionally it's 100+ miles depending on the route.

 

lol you should see my wife when it starts getting close to 1/2 tank. she starts freaking out if it gets below half. might have to do with our winters up here and being stuck and having enough gas to keep warm until help arrives

i keep telling her, if you dont leave town, its not a big issue, nope still freaks out at 1/2 a tank even in town.

 

Interesting the other day I had been busy and got down to “20 miles” (We all know there was way more gas in there) but the pump put in 28+ gallons. Gas light was still not on. I am thinking it adjusted due to driving habits and mileage metrics.

 

That receipt amount is exact reason I fuel up at half tank. Prem on top of that. I do half prem then 87 next time.

 

Yes, pretty much my experience for every Toyota I’ve owned. On my first gen, I’d feel completely comfortable doing 60 miles of freeway driving with the fuel light on. The wife’s 2.5 Camry, comfortable going 65-70 miles.

 

That’s about as good a price for premium as I will find here in Colorado. This station is conducting a massive gas price war agains the stations nearby and the lines are ridiculous. I usually hit Sam’s if in town and it’s about the same price but not a big drama like quik trip.

Probably will only go back if nearby during off hours.

 

I noticed a while back that the 32 gallon tank is extremely long. I also suspect this has something to do with the abnormally large reserve capacity. Because of this, I typically fill her up at about 1/4 tank. If I was highway cruising, I wouldn't be too concerned about running it to the low fuel light, but not whipping through tight turns in the city, or especially off road.

 

Def a great price. Been paying right in that range and higher for 87 in mod Michigan all year. 93 is anywhere from 60 to 90 cents higher, depending on the station/town

 

No reason to add premium at all. You sound like my wife. It took me YEARS to get her to finally realize premium gas is not better if you don't need it.

If you need it, you'll hear it. Otherwise, you are wasting your money.

 

I drove mine well after the fuel light came on and it said I had 2 miles left when I filled up the 32 gallon tank with 28 gallons so I had around 4 gallons left.

 

I've also felt my supposedly 32.2 gallon tank feels too small. FWIW the estimated driving range after refueling is about 460 miles, and the computer displays an average consumption of 18.5 MPG at that point in time.

So I was paranoid that the 22.5 gallon tank was installed by mistake, so I contacted the dealer. They responded that the tank appears to hold 25 gallons with a 7 gallon "reserve". I placed quotes around "reserve" as other posts have pointed out there is no physical/separate reserve tank, but rather a manufactured reserve shown by the trip computer.

I plan to run the tank very low while on a long road trip this weekend. As long as it takes more than 23 gallons, I'll be convinced that the lower-than-expected driving range is due to the overzealous "reserve" amount being excluded from the range.

 

i did the same over my last 2 fill ups because of the same concern. I filled 26 gal then 27 gal. My estimated range went up a little as I stretch it. When I fill up it says about 420 miles and I have been refueling around 450. I should be able to get close to 500 gal on a tank without running out. Good for peace of mind but I will probably just fill up when the light comes on from now on.

 

You will easily do 500 miles on road trips. I recently did a road trip to FL and back, 1020 miles each way, on 1 gas stop each way. And the tank wasn't even 100% full to start. Of course, this is not towing.

 

Same exact thing with 38 gal tank...6 gallons left when light comes on.

 

My best DTE recording yet. If the shit hit the fan I could go well over 600 miles (be on fumes, but still)

 

I know this has been an ongoing issue and has been posted to death. I just want to put my 2 cents in. The other day I let my 2022 Tundra gas gauge go to empty on the dash display, it only took 24 gallons to fill it back up.WTF Toyota I am asking too much to have an accurate gas gauge reading.

 

In addition to my reply above when my tank is completely full my range til empty is 340 miles

 

Just did a 4500 mi trip towing an offroad toy hauler. 8k lbs and it was 7-9 mpg the whole trip. Pushing fuel range to get 220-250 mi per tank I'd regularly put in 27-29 gal when refueling and DTE was showing 20-30 miles.

As mentioned the "reserve" seems much more normal when you consider two things. One the reserve range when getting towing MPG out west with gas stations quite a ways apart seems much more reasonable as it might only be 40 mi at 7 mpg. The second thing, as someone mentioned is that it is a really long tank. I wouldn't want to park on a steep downhill (uphill?) with just reserve left in the tank as you might uncover the fuel pickup and not be able to restart the truck. I have heard of that happening.

None of those issues exist when I drive around rural SC and initially I thought the DTE and reserve was absolutely ridiculous, but now I kinda have a alternate point of view.

 

Not meaning to rehash the same debate, but I’m curious on the correlation between the fuel light and the calculated DTE.

On page 516 of the 2023 manual, it says the fuel light comes on with 3.4 gallons left. I’ve only run a few tanks so far, but on my last fill up, the light had not come on, and the DTE showed under 20 miles when I stopped. I put in just shy of 30 gallons. So it sure seems like the DTE and the fuel light have nothing to do with each other which is kinda ridiculous. Seems obvious to me that DTE should be an accurate calculation of when you run out.

What are others seeing on the DTE reading when the reserve light comes on?

 

It seems like my low fuel light comes on with a 20 mile DTE. The 2-3 times I've actually ran it down to 0 miles, I've been able to fill up with 26-28 gallons. Because if this, I've always assumed a 4-6 gallon reserve once my low fuel light comes on.

 

I'm not sure if there's an issue with mine, but I did a run from West Texas to Central texas and wanted to see how far I could go on a single tank. I made it to a gas station with 10 miles remaining on the estimated range and my low fuel light never came on.

 

Do you recall how much it took to fill up?

 

No sorry I didn't think to record it at the time.

 

Ran mine down to the light and it took 28 gallons. My average fuel economy is 13.5

 

Now I’m wondering. My light came on and said I had 9 miles till empty. Instead of waiting I pulled in to fill up. The needle was to the right of empty so I figured I had a few gallon’s left. To my surprise, it took 30.66 gallons to fill up. Now mind you, I quit filling up when it clicks and I don’t add any more. I only have a 1 gallon reserve what gives?

 

if i remember correctly the low fuel light and DTE is based on your previous mpg. so it will adjust the reserve down to 10% of the tank size but may go up to 20% (3-6 gals) but it shouldnt go below the hard limit of 10%

toyota usually maintains a minimum hard limit of 10% of the tank size across all models/years from my observations since 1980's of owning toyota's

i have seen trucks go up to 20% reserve.