We are having the same issue. I contacted my dealer and they said they had never heard of this before. There was once a class action lawsuit for the regular Highlander Hybrid for the same issue. From what I found is that the suit was dismissed. I am working with another dealer now to see if they have any information about this issue. We love the car, however, we are pretty disappointment with this issue for a vehicle at this price point.

 

I'm also experiencing the same. I have a limited hybrid which I believe has 65L fuel tank capacity. Fuel economy has been great as with almost 2,000km, I'm averaging 6.3 L/100 km (~ 37 MPG) with mixed city / freeway driving. Range though is nowhere close to where it should be for the fuel economy and tank size.

My first fill up, I had 74 km left to empty but was only able to put in 40L before the gas pump auto shut off. My trip distance was about 690km.

My second fill up, I had 62 km left to empty and was only able to put in 43L before pump auto shut off. Both fill ups were at Costco pumps for what it's worth and the low fuel light didn't come on for either. My trip distance was about 680 km.

There's been some posts on another forum that some have been able to drive 120 - 160 km (or 75 - 100 miles) once their low fuel light came on and others have said that the lower than expected range on the guessometer is by design by Toyota as its bad for hybrid engine to run out of gas.

Are those with the gas only engine experiencing the same issue?

The more we can have folks add to this discussion the better informed we'll all be.

 

The most I’ve been able to put in is 13.3 gallons.

 

Just did a 640 Km trip, with about 35 Km left on the tank. Filled up and the gas auto-stopped at 50L. I thought I made a mistake and added more and it stopped around 51L, and then I did a bit more and it stopped at 52L. When I started the car, the meter said it was full.

 

The next time you fill up after the nozzle has shut off and the gas settled down, see if you can pump more gas into the vehicle by slowly holding the nozzle about half way down. This is our third Toyota vehicle we have a Camry and had a Seinna van before this, and in all of them the gas would click off the pump like it was full and then I could pump another 2-4 gallons into the vehicle. I have a friend that has a Rav 4 and he tells me he can do the same thing.
I am not sure its a safety thing with Toyota or what, but after the nozzle has shut off you can add more gas.
After filling up my Hybrid Max, I see 350 miles until empty when I get back in and start it up. Currently we are getting 25.1 miles per gallon, a little over 1600 miles on it, mostly highway driving.

 

Even when adding the extra the total amount never exceeds 13 gallons and the tank is supposed to hold 17.1 gallons. This is when the fuel gauge shows only 40 miles left

 

I have noticed that I can put more gas in after it initially shuts off but still not able to get close to the 17 gallon max capacity. If you are averaging 25 miles per gallon and when you fill up it is saying 350 until empty...that would be 14 gallons. I just took a road trip and the fuel economy of the Hybrid Max was only 22 MPG and my average speed was 78 MPH. This does not get anywhere close to the MPG they claim.

 

This is EXACTLY what I’m experiencing as well. How will they fix it other than replacing the fuel tank and pump (which is what they told my dealer to do)

 

With the Limited hybrid, you should get about 800 km (500 miles) on about 55 litres (14.5 U.S. gallons). With that, I know I have about 10 litres (2.6 U.S. gallons) in reserve or about another 145 km (90 miles), give or take, to go before true empty. Knowing this, I can gauge how much further I want to drive before I need to fill up. I'm perfectly fine with this. You will definitely get the advertised range if you're willing to take the tank to empty for which I'm sure many of us are reluctant to do.

Toyota's fuel indicator will never let you run out the reserve capacity. Your DTE will go to zero but your fuel reserve of 10 litres is still available as a safety margin. Toyota's claims are correct because technically the total mileage is based on the entire fuel tank capacity. My two cents.

 

What's the most volume L or gallons that folks have been able to put in the tank in one fill up with your distance traveled and fuel economy?

 

Like I said, about 55 litres from empty (DTE=0) or 65 litres from true empty. Overfilling is not a good idea for the sake of the EVAP.

 

Hybrid Max Platinum. I am getting 8.9l/100km (26.7 mpg) in mostly city driving according to the car. Amazing. Range according to car is apx 550 km or 340mi - not so amazing. I think at meter showing empty, it still has lots of reserve.

 

Hybrid Max. Fueled for the first time. Confirm it is getting 8.9 l/100km (26.7mpg). With 65L tank, should yield 730km (450mi) to empty. Gas meter on the last square, the car actually still has 1/3 of tank left. What range are people getting before the low fuel light comes on?

 

I've got a limited hybrid. Yesterday was the furthest I've gone on a tank at 750km (~ 460mi). I averaged about 6.3 l/100km (37 mpg). My distance to empty reached zero and it changed to say 'refuel' but I only went about 2km from that point. I used the fuel pump on auto until about 40l went in to the tank. I slowly manually put fuel in but the pump still auto shut off once 48L was put in the tank. Distance to empty showed 810km range with the fill up.

 

I recently purchased the Platinum Max Hybrid and noticed I could only put 13.7 gallons in max. Low fuel note comes on at 16-20 mile range remaining. Took it all the way down to 4 mi range and still could not get it beyond 13.7 gallons.

My dealer told me it’s a “known issue” and Toyotas recommending a new fuel pump and tank. However there are zero in the country. And no idea when they will arrive. Could be weeks. Could be months.

I am disappointed because it would add another 100+ miles to my range.

 

Glad you got it acknowledged by the dealer with at least some specificity on a potential fix... As for the amount of gas you're able to put in at the point the low fuel light comes on, you have at least 2.5 gallons left in reserve at zero miles remaining on the gauge, so that at least gets you within the ballpark at ~16.2 gallons total (of the 17.2 gallon stated max capacity). Did you have to top off to get that 13.7 gallons in there, or was that the reading the first time the pumped clicked off? Thanks for sharing.

 

No issue with this so far

 

Glad to hear that! You're the first person I've seen post who hasn't had this issue (so far).

 

I called my local dealer in Alberta, Canada where I bought my GH hybrid from and not surprisingly, the person in service said they haven't heard anything from other customers about issues with fuel tank capacity and haven't heard from Toyota Canada.

Granted sales of the GH are much lower in Canada than the US because of fewer allocations, and they only hit dealer lots at the beginning of September.

I called Toyota Canada to make an official complaint/documentation. I also booked a service appt with my dealer so we'll see what they say when they see fill ups have much lower than expected volume.

 

...the person in service said they haven't heard anything from other customers about issues with fuel tank capacity and haven't heard from Toyota Canada.

That's BS. It's a well documented issue with the 4th gen Highlander Hybrid. There's even a TSB addressing this.

 

Driving my GH last weekend and was down to 30 miles left on the tank according to screen. When I stopped to fill up I was only able to get 13.5 gallons and that's with squeezing as much as I could get it. What's up??
Getting 25 MPG on first 3,000 miles according to guage on screen.

 

Congrats on getting your Grand Highlander @jgeary1206 and welcome! How much fuel did you have left to fill after it stopped filling up? Has it happened before or since?

 

I am having the exact same fuel capacity issue with my Grand Highlander Hybrid !

 

What are you experiencing? Not being able to put in as much gas as you expect to be able to at the pump? What does your range to empty say immediately after you've filled up? Does your fuel gauge reach the F, or stop short of F? Thanks.

 

The other day it said I had 18 miles of range remaining. The gas pump clicked at 11 gallons and I the coaxed another 2 gallons in to the tank. I called the dealer service and they referred me to my sales person. The salesperson said that the Toyota has a 4 gallon reserve which I called BS on ! The service dept will not call me back after two requests. I have had the vehicle for 4 weeks and have approx 2000 miles on it. Every fill at the gas station has the same results!

 

The salesperson said that the Toyota has a 4 gallon reserve which I called BS on

Why do you say that? What the salesperson is partly correct as there is about 2-3 gallons in reserve.

 

The guage on the dashboard showed that I had 30 miles before empty. The fuel guage was almost at empty. I'm guessing I had 1-2 gallons of fuel in the tank. Thant amount plus the 15.5 gallons that I stuffed into the tank brings it to 15.5 gallons. It happens all the time and don't understand why. It's the first time I let it run down that far.

 

All I can say at this time is what I speculated in reply to your post above… may actually be an issue, may just be an inaccurate reading, or could be due to an understated reserve capacity.

 

I posted this in another forum....Couple days ago I managed to put in 55.4L (14.5gal) when I filled up my GH hybrid limited. I drove about 10 km (6.2 mi) past the 'refuel' light showing (ie. past 0 km DTE).

No top off... what I did was put in about 35L (9.2 gal) with the fuel pump on automatic fill. I then stopped the pump and let the fuel 'settle' for about 20 seconds. I then manually pumped in the gas as slow as I could manage.

The gas pump auto shutoff never activated but I was worried I might overfill the tank so I stopped with 55.4L put in the tank.

If the tank reserve, per the manual, is truly 9.7L (2.5 gal) when the 'low fuel' light comes on, it seems like the tank size really is 65L (17.2 gal).

Maybe adding gas very slowly is the only interim solution to prevent the gas station pump from prematurely auto shutting off.

 

Anybody have any other "official" references to a 4+ gallon reserve on GHs? Toyota, dealers, TSBs, etc.? I think we only have official documentation of a 2.5 gallon reserve (owners manual), but if we start hearing "official" mentions of a 4+ gallon reserve, that would start to shed some light on things... and begin to highlight some potential remedies.

 

Just filled up our GH for the first time. I filled up with 30 miles distance to empty on the cluster. I was able to put in 10.634 gallons before the pump clicked off the first time. I could hear the tank being filled and the gas rising up the spout right before it clicked off. I decided to wait about 15-20 seconds then let it auto-click off again and it let in another 0.337 gallons to get to a total of 10.971 gallons. I didn't try again or top-off from there. When I got back in the car and started her up, the distance to empty was 362 miles. That's pretty much exactly what it was when we took delivery of the car (assuming we took delivery on a full tank). The gas gauge reads full F. When I drive, I can get around 27 MPG. When my wife drives, she gets around 21 MPG (22 MPG being the average MPG for the car's life - the odometer is at 278 miles). Since this is our first fill-up, I expect the full-tank distance to empty reading to tick up slightly and settle around 378 miles... that would be 22 MPG x 17.2 gallons. Based on the limited data I've observed to-date, I think I'm getting a full tank at fill-up, and I think the current reserve is between 4-5 gallons when the distance to empty would read 0 miles. I'll keep testing...

 

Need to put a 1-gallon can in the back of the car, then drive it to empty / out-of-gas to answer the two key questions: 1) what is the actual size of the fuel tank? and 2) how many miles were you able to drive after 0 DTE (at your estimated mpg). I’ll do this upon delivery of my GH in a couple weeks. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

So I just got my GH hybrid limited checked out at a local Toyota dealership. I went in with about 28 km/17 mi range left (low fuel light came on at about 36 km/22 mi range left).

They added fuel until the low fuel light went out (pg 522 of the manual states the vehicle has about 9.7 L / 2.5 gal of reserve when the low fuel light comes on).

After the low fuel light turned off, they then drained 'all' the fuel from the tank into a jerry can, which was about 17.5 L / 4.6 gal drained... they estimate about 2.5 L / 0.67 gal actually left in the tank so that it wouldn't be bone dry and potentially damage the fuel pump.

They then put the fuel in the jerry can back into the vehicle and took it to a gas station about 100m / 0.06 mi away to fill up.

45 L / 11.9 gal went into the fuel tank before the pump auto shut off.

So based on their experiment, the fuel capacity is indeed 65 L / 17.2 gal and the tank does accommodate that much at fill up.

They believe the issue is that either 'by Toyota design' or 'mis-calibration', the low fuel light is coming on when there's actually about 20 L / 5.3 gal left in the fuel tank....which also reduces the lower than expected DTE upon fill up.

So, at an extremely conservative consumption of 7.0 l/100 km (33.6 mpg) that means with 20 L/5.3 gal, there's about 285 km range (178 mi) from when the low fuel light comes on before the car truly runs out of gas.

There wasn't much they can do other than document and notify Toyota Canada about it. It's a fairly large dealership but I'm the first one with a GH hybrid that's notified them of this issue. Considering the GH only reached Canadian dealer lots at the end of Aug and there's much fewer inventory of hybrids (compared to regular gas) arriving, I'd imagine it'll take longer to gain traction with Toyota Canada compared to Toyota USA.

Hope that helps folks.

 

So I just got my GH hybrid limited checked out at a local Toyota dealership. I went in with about 28 km/17 mi range left (low fuel light came on at about 36 km/22 mi range left).

They added fuel until the low fuel light went out (pg 522 of the manual states the vehicle has about 9.7 L / 2.5 gal of reserve when the low fuel light comes on).

After the low fuel light turned off, they then drained 'all' the fuel from the tank into a jerry can, which was about 17.5 L / 4.6 gal drained... they estimate about 2.5 L / 0.67 gal actually left in the tank so that it wouldn't be bone dry and potentially damage the fuel pump.

They then put the fuel in the jerry can back into the vehicle and took it to a gas station about 100m / 0.06 mi away to fill up.

45 L / 11.9 gal went into the fuel tank before the pump auto shut off.

So based on their experiment, the fuel capacity is indeed 65 L / 17.2 gal and the tank does accommodate that much at fill up.

They believe the issue is that either 'by Toyota design' or 'mis-calibration', the low fuel light is coming on when there's actually about 20 L / 5.3 gal left in the fuel tank....which also reduces the lower than expected DTE upon fill up.

So, at an extremely conservative consumption of 7.0 l/100 km (33.6 mpg) that means with 20 L/5.3 gal, there's about 285 km range (178 mi) from when the low fuel light comes on before the car truly runs out of gas.

There wasn't much they can do other than document and notify Toyota Canada about it. It's a fairly large dealership but I'm the first one with a GH hybrid that's notified then of this issue. Considering the GH only reached Canadian dealer lots at the end of Aug and there's much fewer inventory of hybrids (compared to regular gas) arriving, I'd imagine it'll take longer to gain traction with Toyota Canada compared to Toyota USA.

Hope that helps folks.

wonderful information. Thank you for translating them to US Gallons. This makes sense. Someone mentioned a firmware update. Hopefully that will fix it. Thanks again!

 

incinerat0r, this is AWESOME info! Thank you for following up and sharing, and great job by your dealer's service department for actually doing some troubleshooting and experimentation to gather some hard data! Please keep us informed as things progress with Toyota.

 

Ditto! Nice work incinerat0r - knowing this, we should never see a GH on the roadside out of gas….

 

Have the same issue with my 2024 GH Platinum Max. I even tried to run it dry until there is no more gas. Then went to gas station and could only put 11.5 gallons. Went to dealer, for the second time with this issue (first time they brushed me off as this is known issue but no fix for it). Told them this is not the gage - this is not able to fill the tank. With manager involved they opened case with Toyota and ordered new tank. Waiting to see results, the car is still at the dealer...

 

Thanks for reporting back. When you say you "tried" to run it dry until there was no more gas... did you just try, or were you successful in running it dry to where the car actually ran out of fuel and died? Thanks.