Fuel Guage

[Bigbud1]

Hi i have a Toyota Iq and im not sure wether my fuel guage is stuck or not.I filled my tank up to the limits a week last tuesday the guage states full, but none of the blocks have moved, i dont know wether im panicking or wether the guage is stuck what do i do?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Barbara - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

The bar type fuel gauge - the design is common across a few Toyota models (IQ, Auris, etc) - doesn't operate in a linear way. Often the gauge still shows full for a good few miles, after which it will drop quite quickly to half.

How many miles have you done since filling up??

[Gasmater]

Welcome

[Red Yaris 54]

Moved to IQ forums

[dash]

You could drive 80+ miles before you see the top bar disappear !!

[Cyker]

Yeah, I've had the top bar in my Yaris go from anywhere between 50 and 120 miles depending on time of year, the way I've been driving etc.

The ones after tend to go increasingly quickly alas!

[bobkneale]

I can drive 100+ miles before the top bar goes out, and 250+ miles before the second bar goes out.

I recon I am getting well in excess of 400+ miles per tank however I have never let it go below the last bar so don't actually know.

My scan gauge tells me I am getting just about 70 MPG.

It does go down quicker in the second half of the readout so it is not linear !

[Celica Euan]

You do have to wonder what's wrong with a simple linear needle gauge at times... the Celica was the same for having a non-linear "blocks" display.

[bobkneale]

You get used to the non linear operation and then it's not an issue.

I always play safe and don't let it get right to empty !

[Guest]

I try and keep an eye on the fuel gauge to spot when that first bar dissapears, then I see how many miles it's done on that first block. Last time I checked it was 112 miles, but I have had around 130 miles on it. It's a bizarre set up but as Bob says, you kind of get used to it -being a problem.

[s44gtw]

It has always seemed easy on an iQ to brim it,

run about an indicated 300 miles , then brim it and see how many litres are needed to brim again.

It has a 32 litre flat tank, so a gauge that can tell the fuel level with any accuracy was never going to be a simple thing.

if you got 70 mpg from all of 7 gallons the car would go 490 miles.

400 miles travelled and you would have plenty in reserve. If you have filled it up the pipe.

6 gallons used, (27.3 litres) @ 55 mpg, would take you 330 miles.

if you are filling up the pipe and have 8 gallons in, (almost 36.5 litres) and get 70 mpg then that is 560 miles possible.

you could use up 7 gallons, go 490 miles and still have 70 miles worth in reserve.

I would check the Scan Gauge or your milometer, and track how many miles you actually do by use of GPS.

george

[johnan]

My Scangauge, which I have used in my IQs since 2009, usually gives a day trip mpg figure of about 53mpg for the mixed urban driving that I do.

I was very careful with the calibration so am happy that that figure is quite accurate although the long pipe down to the tank and oversensitive nozzle cut-offs make it difficult to be spot on.

John

[EastLondonGuy]

What's a scanguage? My IQ went from two bars to flashing reserve when I brought it back home a couple of weeks back, luckily I was near a petrol station as it frightened me!

Since filling up to full tank of v power, I've done a dozen 1-2 mile small journeys and the blocks still show full.

I'm glad I read this thread as I thought I had an issue.

Mind you going from a 3 litre lexus to a 1.33 litre iq is a major change from an mpg perspective.

Look forward to a response.

[tarquin]

There is a lot on here about the fuel gauge including me going into long explanations about algorithms and how the sensors are not linear. Short version is the tank is a flat one with not much in the way of depth so its difficult to get a proper level for a sensor so Toyota have to add lots of predictable calculations to give some kind of gauge.

If your car sharing it can be a nightmare handing a car over with what you think has a half a tank left, only to find 50 miles later its flashing last digit. But, even that isn't consistent . Over the years on hear, it has been sort of agreed that you have about 50 miles left in the tank for safety when the last block is flashing on a manual car. Mine on the other hand is an auto and get about 23. Depends if motorway or town. Also it could be flashing for 15 miles and when you stop and re-start, you have 2 blocks again. Again very misleading if your sharing use of the car

David

[tarquin]

Scangauge is a display unit that plugs into the OBD11 diagnostic socket Toyota use to check your and gives you accurate information about RPM , speed, MPG etc from ECU data not from the inaccurate displays in the car like speedo, rev counter, fuel gauge

David