Fuel Gauge Issues...

Hello everyone,

First let me say that I love my new taco. I love it. I appreciate the overwhelming majority of tacoma qualities. Some facets of the truck, I'm neutral on. But there's just one small thing that drive me nuts....

Our fuel gauges are absolute jokes.

I've driven about 2,000 miles in my taco now. Each tank over the past month has experienced roughly the same exact pattern of driving and commute, 80% highway. I noticed this stupid issue on my first tank, and have since kept tack over the past 6 tanks of gas. I'm not talking about MPG efficiency. This isn't one of those threads. I'm talking about the literal accuracy of the gauge. Here we are in 2016, with fancy pantsy queef wireless phone charging, and roughly a century into having fuel gauges on our vehicles. So why can't our basic needle gauges keep accurate scale of remaining fuel? The five indicator marks should have no problem reading empty to full, with quarter marks appropriately placed. But in reality, each quarter-indicator gets hit at different values. The marks are completely irrelevant and frivilous, meaning the scale is wrong. Plus there's no reason for the fuel needle to go beyond full. There's no reason I should be driving 68 miles on average before my truck indicates that it's full of gas. That makes no goddamn sense. I know a lot of cars do this, but it's counter productive. The only point to that gauge is to measure empty to full. You literally can't be beyond full, so why not push the full marker out more to the actual full point instead of playing mind games?!

There's two way to view the issue as I see it:
(1) the electronic sensor that measures fuel is inaccurate
(2) the physical gauge markers are misplaced

I'm posting this to see if anyone else gets bothered by this or can explain the reasoning behind our fuel gauges. I've owned many cars, and I've noticed this trend moreso with newer vehicles than older ones. But this 2016 is by far with worst offender of my 15 car experience.

 

"fancy pants queef wireless charging" ---- I do not have this in my truck, was this an added option?

 

You are very passionate about fuel gauges.

 

This is with every vehicle I have owned.....I think that's just how it is

 

I come from a long lineage of fuel gauge experts. It is my passion in life.

 

Take apart the dash and set the needle yourself if it is bugging you that much did it on mine so E is absolutely empty, no wiggle room

 

OP you need to run out of gas so we know how much is left in the tank after you pass E on the gauge. I'm with you though, I just want a simple "XXXX miles until empty" but they didn't have that amazing technology available in 2015 apparently.

 

This is common on Toyota vehicles, my 2008 Scion TC would go 100 miles until it would hit the "full" mark. I've always kept track of my gas via miles on the trip meter.

 

You're saying the needle could be set improperly? You just moved the needle without adjusting the actual design of the gauge?

Hahaha yeah...

Look I know this is a stupid thing, but it's certainly an annoyance. I'm not regretting this truck or anything, I love it, I'm just starting a conversation about an annoyance I bet we all have. I think it speaks volumes of praise about the new taco that something this stupid is my main complaint.

 

It's good to see I'm not the only one with OCD...LOL.

I was just venting to my Dad about this yesterday on a road trip back from the airport.

Your post cracked me up.

The reality is that I have also noticed this exact same pattern with basically ever car I've driven in the past 15 years.

I never was that analytical about it to be able to say if the Taco is any worse than the others.

 

I'm used to a more primitive era of auto engineering from this 80s and 90s. This issue didn't exist for me honestly. But once I started experiencing modern cars, more computer-flogged cars, the problem jumped out to me. I don't see how this is possible. This is one of those super primitive technologies that society has far surpassed, yet we're totally botching it. Make's no sense. Gauges should be absolutely precise by this point in history. Full should mean full. Half should mean half. Empty should mean empty. Period.

 

A large piece of black tape over the fuel gage will take care of your problem.

 

Even that's not very accurate on the 2016. Still have a couple gallons left when the display hits 0.

 

Look at the shape of the tank and report back.

 

Just print yourself out a rage face gas gauge and problem solved.

Shitty pic, but best I could find...

 

And remember, "full" is not to the top when the proper vapor space is there, and "empty" is not bone dry because the fuel pump needs to be submerged to remain cooled.

 

The last car I had with a reasonably accurate fuel Gauge was my Model A. The gauge was connected directly by a metal rod to a float in the tank. The only thing was that it would go up and down, up and down as the gas sloshed around in the tank, which was DIRECTLY in front of the dash, by the way.

 

On the first gen, I've noticed that the first half of the tank depletes way slower than the last half. It's just how it is....No matter what the gauge intervals are, Empty means it's time to get gas. I don't understand why there are complaints....