Today I'm driving home from the movies after watching"Be Cool", which was a good movie by the way, and my low fuel level light comes "on". The problem is that the needle isn't near the "E" mark yet and the light comes "on". Isn't it supposed to turn "on" at or below the"E". My SE-R's light comes "on" just below the "E"...What gives? Does your xB's low fuel level light do the same thing and should I probably take it to the dealership for a possible repair or should I not worry?...

 

It's designed to come on at around an eighth of a tankfull. Measured mine the other day and come to find out that when the light first come on it has only used 9.5 gallons which if my math adds up... 11.9-9.5=2.4 gallons left till empty when light first comes on. So yours is normal

 

mine always comes on just before the empty mark

 

hmmm ive never seen mine, i always fill up early i guess

 

I'm wondering if its the same way with the Tc?

 

Doubt because they have a different tank and sender prolly.

 

so does mine

 

its fine, that way when you go on empty, you still have 2 or so gallons on reserve

 

I just filled mine up for the very first time and it took 9.58 gallons with the attendant topping it off. The light never came on before I filled up but as mentioned above it is suppose to have a 11.9 gallon tank.

Kind of disappointed in the MPG. Doing the math that's only 25.678 mpg for 246 miles. That's 75% highway 25% city and staying out of the accelerator. I've seen postings claiming 32-34 mpg.

Are we stretching the truth a little? My cars better than your car thing!

What are you guys/gals getting in the city?

How many miles on average on a tank?

 

umm mine came on waaay before then... i think when i filled it it was just about 9 gallons... technically high 8s but with topping off came to nine... interestingly... had a mpg high that day at 32-33 mpg. which is exactly right... got it driving harder and faster than i normally do too... shrug... maybe the car likes to be pushed..

or it could be the gas i've been using... i started out using a no name brand cuz everyone claimed gas was the same.. switched to exxon... saw slight improvement.. went to mobil (dunno how that was seemed about the same as exxon) ...
went to 93 for 1 tank to see if that helped... it didn't.. oddly hurt mpg a little... next tank was BP (amoco) 87 and that's what I got my mpg high with so far.

oh in case you are wondering... I used to get about 26-27 before too... but winter and winter gas might play a part in that... its just starting to warm up arounds here so..

 

The way our tank was design was to come up with the low fuel light with around 1 1/2 left. If you search for FUEL and LIGHT you might be able to find a few posts regarding the same topic...

 

wait isn't our tank capacity 11.9 gallons? if i filled mine at 9 gallons which was only a little bit after it came on... that means i had close to 3 gallons left in reserve... that's a lot

 

Yes that is alot, somthing must be wrong there. so thats roughly 3/12's of a tank left of which is alot to be left with. My festiva had a reserve that would get you about 5 miles, my box will go like 60 or so....

 

My tC light comes on before it gets down to E. Which I found odd. My last car - Mitsubishi light came on when it went below E.

So I guess its normal. I wonder if its only scion or do toyotas in general do that.

 

I beleive this is a Toyota thing, I've had 4 Toyota's including this one and they all do this. They are just more conservative/cautious about when you run out of fuel. Better safe than sorry though, right?

 

I had mine come on the other day as I started my 22 mile drive home from work.

When I got near home I filled up and still had about 2 gallons left.

I like it this way. It just let me know that I need to fill up at the next opportunity, but I don't need to panic.

 

Wait until you break your engine in, because your MPG will go up over time. Mine sucked too when it was brand new, but now after 15k miles, I hit what I'm supposed to, unless I get bad gas (which has happened a lot lately with gas prices skyrocketing)

 

mine comes on about the same time as yours, I don't think I would worry about it.

 

The first tank of gas was supplied by the dealship so I'll try some higher grade gasoline next fill-up. Oregon doesn't test gasoline quality like other states. All the sh.ty gas comes to our state.

As for the light coming on with 3 or so gallons left, I'd say theres a problem with the level sensor being to high in the tank. Warning you when you have 100 miles left in a tank isn't cautious its a mistake. For some people that could be a week worth of driving to and from work.

 

Toyotas always "warn" you early...

My mom's 4runner has a digital display to tell you how many "miles left until empty" One time I let it go all the way to 0 and I still made it to the gas station around the corner from my house!

I roll it till the light has BEEN on for a while and I've still never been able to put more than 10 gallons in my xB, so with an 11.9 gal. tank, there's your proof...

-THE DON