I have the Grand Highlander hybrid max limited and am averaging around 23 mpg for daily driving. The gas tank max capacity is supposed to be 17 gallons but I am only able to put in a max of 12.5 gallons once the low fuel light comes on. Is there a large reserve tank and do I have an extra 4.5 gallons of range left when the low fuel warning light comes on? Please let me know how many gallons you are able to put into your tank once the low fuel light comes on (I still had 19 miles of range left once the low fuel light came on). Thanks!
Fuel Tank capacity issue
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I know the 2.5 gallons of reserve is by design… I’m talking about it potentially being closer to 4+ gallons, which is what could be causing all of these issues being discussed.
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.
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.
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…like suing McDonald’s because the coffee was hot…..
Push your dealer. It was a known issue when they ran the service codes at my dealer.
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.
What known issues / service codes / potential TSBs were referenced? Did you get any documentation or references that you could share? Sorry if you already posted it and I missed it...
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...
I did not get any further information. That is what the dealer service rep said to me.
Update. Took it down to 4 mi range again and could only pump 12.3
I would love to know where these extra gallons are.
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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.
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.
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.
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...
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!
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.
I just did a full fill-up for the second time in my Hybrid MAX. I pulled into the gas station with the DTE gauge reading 4 miles. I was able to pump in 11.802 gallons when the pump auto-clicked off. I pumped in the first 9 gallons on the high auto-pump setting, and then bumped it down to the low auto-pump setting at 9 gallons until it clicked off at 11.802 gallons total. Like last time, I could hear the gas coming up the filler neck right before the pump auto-clicked off. When I got back into the car, the fuel gauge read a full 4 bars, and the DTE gauge read 339 miles. This has lowered from when I took delivery of the car a couple weeks ago, as well as my first full fill-up, where the DTE gauge said 362 miles both times. I think we're averaging right around ~21-22 MPG combined (my wife gets around ~20-21 and I get around ~26-27 combined on average... but it's her primary car).
Now that I've filled up twice and have only been able to pump in ~11-12 gallons both times, I plan to report it to the dealer to start a record trail.
Now that I've filled up twice and have only been able to pump in ~11-12 gallons both times, I plan to report it to the dealer to start a record trail.
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I think all of us are curious if anyone has gone past the zero DTE. I wouldn't (and don't) want to try on my brand new GH I hope to take good care of, so I wouldn't request that of anyone either. Just wondering if anyone like @incerat0r, who feels confident there is still gas left, if you feel confident enough to track mileage past zero.
Serge posted that he did. He said that he took his past 0 miles DTE, but the car gave a warning message and shut off after driving about 50 miles past zero. I asked him if he thought that he actually ran out of gas, or whether he thought the car's software shut itself off as a self-preservation safety precaution (to protect the fuel pump and/or hybrid system) since it thought it was about to run out of fuel... but I don't believe he returned to answer that specific question / try to make that distinction.I think all of us are curious if anyone has gone past the zero DTE. I wouldn't (and don't) want to try on my brand new GH I hope to take good care of, so I wouldn't request that of anyone either. Just wondering if anyone like @incerat0r, who feels confident there is still gas left, if you feel confident enough to track mileage past zero.
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Thanks, it probably was a protection feature (a guess of course) since some mechanics, like the CarCareNut say truly running dry would likely kill the fuel pump at minimum. He'd have probably mentioned any ill effects. Maybe he'll get back to us. I'd also be curious to know if Sarge kept track of how much the engine was running during those 50 miles and what speed he was averaging to see if the battery was carrying the load. I was really hoping for a near 600 mile rang too (34x17=578) for road trips and being choosy about when to fill up. Its still a great car, but really took a chuck out of my road trip dreams (being efficient can be a curse...).
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