My Toyota RAV4 manual says the fuel tank holds 15.9 US gallons. I ran the RAV4 deep into the red the other day, yet it only took 12.7 gallons. Question, how far past empty has anyone ran their RAV4?
Fuel tank capacity?
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Deanjet
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the only problem I am having in my 2006 sport is that when I am trying to figure out my gas milage i just cant go by what the tank is supposed to hold at certain lines, compared to what it is actually holding.
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Fill the tank and set the trip odometer to 0
Drive the car
On the next fill up divide the gallons it took to fill up the car into the miles driven.
Example: 100 miles divided by 4.0 gallons to fill up. That equals 25MPG.
It doesn't matter if the tank holds two gallons or 200. It's simple math.
That's better than what I had witnessed.
I saw a girl post that her car gets worse gas mileage as the price goes up. She was calculating miles driven by $ amount paid for the gas, LOL.
342 miles / $48 put in the tank, 7.1 mpg. Not very good gas mileage, LOL.
tis a wonderful world we live in, ain't it?:thumbs_up:
Now that we've had it more than a month, my wife is averaging 25 mpg, and she's no featherlite on the throttle :thumbs_up: Gotta love living out in the country.
I don't think I've ever reached 13 gallons at fill up, but I almost always wait for the light.
Good to know I've got plenty of buffer, plus it's generally a good not to run the tank dry anyway.
It looks like that's just what people have said they've driven after the light turns on...and then filled up; not how far they've gotten after the light turns on to run the tank dry.
Good to know I've got plenty of buffer, plus it's generally a good not to run the tank dry anyway.
That can't be right...I've run it close to 33 miles after the light, and even at 13 gallons to fill up, there's still almost 3 gallons left in the tank.
It looks like that's just what people have said they've driven after the light turns on...and then filled up; not how far they've gotten after the light turns on to run the tank dry.
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407 Posts
If there are, indeed three gallons left, what is the sense of having 20% of your fuel capacity as "reserve"?
It would also make more sense if the low-fuel light (and possibly a red zone on the gauge) would come on before the "E" to alert you to an impending walking situation. When the gauge actually got to the "E", you had better have your sneakers ready to go.
To be even MORE accurate, get a piece of paper or a logbook, and compute for several tanks, not just one. Yes, it involves just a little more math, but all you have to do is subtract your starting mileage from your ending mileage, then divide that by the total gas that was used.
The longer you do this, the less any individual error will matter. :shrug:
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I've got a log book for all my vehicles; log the date, mileage, volume, and cost...what else are you going to do while you're waiting for the tank to fill?
I do slightly worsen my calculated mileage by clicking off to a $0.25 intervals, however...residual from when i used to pay cash.
If you want to really find out just carry a couple gallons in one of those new totally sealed gas "cans" and run it out.
I actually used to calibrate the gas gauges on all my cars, engineer style. I'd run them out in my garage by disconnecting the return fuel line and draw a diagram of the needle positions as I added a gallon at a time.
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As a former real-time programmer I would do a dump of the management system, find the code in question and note the high/low markers. You must be a hardware guy. Good on ya for that.Sent from AutoGuide.com App
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141 Posts
This discussion reminds me of the Seinfeld when Kramer and the car salesman see just how long they can go after hitting E on the gauge...
We've had a variety of Toyotas over the years -- Avalon, Corolla, Tercel, and Rav4. They all basically behaved the same way, the gas gauge goes down slowly at first and then between 1/4 and 1/2 full showing it goes down much faster showing nearly "E" fairly quickly relative to the other gauge marks, at which point the warning light comes on. However that behavior is, I think, planned by Toyota so ensure that no one runs out of gas. It shows nearly empty when there are still 3-4 gallons left. If someone is worried they actually have a smaller tank than advertised, I guess you could pull the tank and measure it (a lot of work, and for what?) or run the car to actual empty condition -- which is not advised as that is not good treatment for fuel injection systems.
I guess for me, personally, there are more pressing things in the world to worry about.
When my fuel light comes on, in whichever car, I tend to plan to get more gas fairly soon. It's no big deal. For me this happens between 250 and 300 miles, typically.
I guess for me, personally, there are more pressing things in the world to worry about.
When my fuel light comes on, in whichever car, I tend to plan to get more gas fairly soon. It's no big deal. For me this happens between 250 and 300 miles, typically.
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