GS Gas Tank
 

Does this happen on anyone else's GS? When my tank is getting low I have the fuel light come on and I usually wait untill the needle goes all the way down and is almost below "E" before I go fill up. Now here's the thing, when I fill up the tank I've noticed that i've only pumped anywhere from 16 - 17 gallons of gas, I thought we had almost a 20 gallon tank (19.8 i believe) :uh: ... does this mean i still have an additional 2 gallons of gas remaining when the needle hits the bottom? or is my fuel light coming on too soon? Is my gas needle not accurate?

-I have an '01 GS430 btw ...

Hmmm I usually fill about the same and mine's full. But it did do that to me for a while though. It's working fine now, but sometimes my needles says I have half a tank still, and next minute it goes down to 1/4 tank in a matter of 10 seconds...

Well mine has never changed that drastically, but when i do fill up it goes from empty to all the way above full. But it only takes 17 gallons max, why isn't my gas meter showing those last 2 - 3 gallons?

I hope someone can chime in here, but usually when my car is on empty, and I fill it up, it only takes about 16 gallons.

Mine takes abt 16 as well.

I think there was a discussion about this before as well and there is some info on it on the manual as well

--but

the light usually comes on when there is a quarter tank left....I dont think the light means that there is a reserved being used...so even wen u hit slightly below E that doesnt mean ur compltely drained..there is still a 2 gallon reserve...possibly....

thats what im assuming..

well im glad because in my g35 it lets me fill over 17-18 gallons, so i end up paying 60 for a fillup. on the gs430, i usually can fill 15.5-16.5 so it feels like i dont spend as much on gas

The fuel gauge on our cars are a combination of the float meter and a "estimation" algorithm. The engine computer looks up the float level in the tank, then also takes your acceleration load into account to display the fuel level. It does this by monitoring how much fuel the injectors shoot into the engine. It's more of a "luxury" feature so your gauge needle won't bob around when you turn or hit dips.

It works accurately unless your car is modified(fuel system specifically). It doesn't work too well for me because my upgraded fuel system flows more than 3x of the stock system. It has left me stranded on the highway out of gas a few times due to an "incorrect estimation". The worst was the time I was cruising down the highway and according to the gauge, and I "thought" I still had half a tank left...apparently I didn't lol. Basically, when I accelerate hard...the engine computer doesn't know I'm consuming over 2-3x the stock amount of fuel. By the way, that's the fuel price you pay for 400hp+ :)

Anyways, back to the original topic. The car will let you run down to empty and use up to about 19 gallons. This is basically driving till you stall out from no fuel. Don't ask me how I know :p. The fuel gauge is VERY conservative...usually when the gas light comes on, you still have about 5 gallons left in the tank. There is no reserve tank, the light is basically just a very early warning to when your tank will run empty.

I'd never let my gas tank get that low of fear of having some crap clog 1 or more injectors. I always refill at 1/4 tank just to be safe. Can we use Seafoam on our cars? I've used it on my Cobra, but never thought about it on the Lex until now. Hmmm....:uh: Has anyone ever tried Seafoam in their car?:confused:

The needle does go below the E mark. Once the needle hits E, you have about 20 to 25 miles left before being empty, maybe more.

Actually no, both the cars have identical fuel tank capacity.

the most I've been able to pump in was a hair over 16 gallons...only getting like 270 to the tank...

Damn thats good compared to me !! im getting around 225 to the tank avg. - 250 if im nice, and drive highway ALOT ...

I'm getting about 16.5-16.9 to fill.

Same here i fill up about 16-17 but when i do get the E light on i dont belive there is a reserve because the trip info( if u have nav) shows that i have about 12 more miles when the E light is on. Just what i know im not 100% if the trip info is right.

when the light comes on, i fill up not more than and its always 15.9-16 gallons