Xpcgamer

Ok so I go to get fuel tonight as my wife gets home with "that" look on her face. Car is at a quarter tank. Go to pump put in the nozzle and start pumping. The nozzle stops and I can hear gurgling from the tank. Here is a pic of how much goes in.


So I now pull the fuel nozzle out a tad and proceed to keep putting gas in slowly. Here is a shot.



After I do this the car takes more fuel and I continue until I can see the small bubbles. Understand that fuel is not leaking anywhere. Its not coming out of the sides or anything. I am also not filling it up to the point in overflows out. Here is a pic of the total fuel when I am done.



Is this normal? I have to do this every time. I noticed on a 987-S Boxster I had the tank did not vent properly cause the same thing would happen. Trick I would do is rotate the fuel nozzle 180 degrees up and it would fill up completely. I tried doing this on the Lexus and it didn't help.

jbm79

If you say you had a quarter tank left before filling up, with the ES tank capacity at around 17 gallons, 25% would be about 4.25 gallons.

17 - 4.25 = 12.75, which is just about right when you filled up with 12.641 gallons.

I personally wouldn't do what you did trying to fill the tank to the brim. Cheers!

jbm79

... and wow, @ $3.459/gal, I'm jealous!

Xpcgamer

Hmmm? Didn't work that out. Perhaps you are correct. I need to make sure of the fuel before I fill up next time. I figured it was around the 1/4 tank mark.

bc6152

Good catch JBM...

LexHybrid1

that's funny, i also had a 987 that would do the same thing. not sure what causes it or how to fix. it would come and go.

ilexusown

I have noticed the same issue. I went to fill the gas when the low fuel light went off. It filled about 14 gallons. I thought maybe the gas tank is only 15 gallons. I read above that it is 17 gallons, so I should be able to fill more.

jbm79

Low-fuel light going on with 3 gallons remaining (about 18%) sounds normal. I would be more concerned if the low-fuel light goes on with only 1 gallon left (about 6%) !

Arty101

Mind you, by "topping" off the tank you may also be over saturating the emission system including the charcoal canister. Repairs to the emission system can be expensive.

Arty101

And having 1 gallon left with a 300h hybrid is very very risky.

ilexusown

That is interesting because when the low-fuel light goes on, the cruising range is showing up around 30. If there is 3 gallons left, then it should be more than 60 (right now average is 23.5)?

jim256

The range seems to reference the range with something like 2 gallons in reserve on mine. Same as other Lexus I've had. They really don't want you to risk running out.

txes

Don't top off your tank.

While you may be tempted to add a little more gas to your car to round off your dollar sale- even at the risk of overfilling the tank-this is one instance when you shouldn't go with the flow.
Topping off the gas tank isn't just bad for the environment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it's also detrimental for your wallet. Because the gas nozzle automatically clicks off when your tank is full, topping off can result in your paying for gasoline that is fed back into the station's tanks via the pump's vapor-recovery system, which prevents gas vapors from escaping into the air and contributing to air pollution. In fact, topping off might even foul up the mechanism and cause not only a gas-pump failure, but also a potential air-pollution problem.
Plus, evaporation from the spillage of gas from overfilling-which you've paid for, by the way-contributes to bad-ozone days, is harmful to breathe, and is a source of toxic pollutants such as benzene.
You also need some wriggle room in your gas tank to allow the gasoline to expand, otherwise the additional gas could evaporate into your car's vapor-collection system and damage it, leading to a vehicle that runs poorly and has high gas emissions. ::EPA

tterb2564

Same thing on mine, I have never put more than 15 gallons in my tank, I consider it a "Run out of Gas Card for Free" card. One side of my brain says you have at least 40 miles when the car says empty and then the other side of my brain says "Fill it up before you run out of gas" I thought about having the dealership adjust the sensor but then I think, I would rather not run out of gas, so I left it the way it is so even when the display says I have 17 miles to empty, I know I really have gas but I fill it up anyway Better Safe than sorry.

SW17LS

My late model Lexus cars do the same thing. None of my older cars had this issue, but both my 2010 ES and my 2013 GS will quit pumping when there is 1-3 more gallons left in the tank.

We're not talking about "topping off your tank", the tank doesn't fill completely. If you start the car, the needle doesn't go to F. If I start my GS after the first click off when I know there is more space, the needle goes to about 1/3-1/2 of the way between 3/4 and F. Thats not right.

I've found that if I restart the pump and wait for it to stop the second time, 9 out of 10 times it will fill the tank. Sometimes and on some pumps I have to do that a couple times though.