How many miles per quarter tank?

My taco drives my crazy in the way its gas gauge displays mileage per quarter tank. First quarter i get 100 miles, second and third quarter 75 miles, last quarter reads about 50 miles. Does yours do this too?

 

beats me....when it gets close to E, I put in gas.......This really drives you crazy? LOL

 

I wish mine did that! Jk. Mine goes 150 to the half tank and another 100 after that

 

mine does it, I get more with the 1st quarter tank than I do on the next 3 quarters

 

Yeah its a bit annoying haha

I feel like theres extra "room" past the F and the E marks

 

Definitely not very linear, but I got used to it. Have to drive ~50 miles before the needle starts to drop, usually hit 3/4 after ~110 miles, 1/2 by ~200 miles. When the light comes on, the needle is pretty close to E, but the tank still has ~4.5 gallons left.

 

I find the light goes on between 17.5-18 gallons and yes, the the gauge is not linear. Surprisingly, I get about 300 miles when the light does go on though most of the time I usually fill up at the quarter mark but I do a lot of 1 way 270 mile trips.

 

I think all my vehicles have done that. The only thing I pay attention to is the one hash mark before the letter E.

 

I drive ~75 miles to the F mark, then a total of ~125 miles at the 3/4 mark, ~220 at 1/2, at the 1/4 mark it's around 320 and the light comes on around 400... give or take a few miles here and there. Fuel economy has dropped around 5-8% since ethanol blend fuels hit the market.

Here's a picture back when I was averaging 25mpg on E0... the good old days:

 

Same

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuEdU_lrtZk

 

Poeple playing with their phone while driving is a bigger burr on my saddle

 

I was curious about this myself untill I replaced my fuel tank with the extended range LRA 35 gallon tank. The way the fuel pump sits in the tank is at the lowest point of the tank as you can see in the photo below. The float that sets the needle gauge doesn't rest completely on the bottom of the tank nor does it completely rise to the top when full. There's still quite a few more gallons of useable gas above the float if you fill it up till the fuel nozzle auto shuts off. My best guess is that you will have an additional useable 2 to 4 gallons of "undocumented" fuel that the float doesnt register. Youll also have additional fuel after your float completly goes to empty. NOTE: Your fuel pump is cooled and lubricated by fuel so it is unwise to run your fuel tank completely empty.


https://www.partsgeek.com/gbproduct...MI1ND9sZzG4QIVBlcNCh0_sQSZEAQYASABEgKKTPD_BwE

So basically in a perfect scenario with a stock 2012 tacoma, you should be getting 21 street / 25 highway miles per gallon. Altitude and fuel grade and road grade and tire PSI amongst others will play a factor in your actual fuel milage. The 2012 tacoma has a 21.1 gallon tank per the user manual so fuzzy math puts a completely full to completely empty tank range of 443.1 to 527.5 miles per tank. Wow, I would love to get 527 miles out of the stock tank, but thats a pipe dream.

The construction of your fuel tank also is designed to have extra air space above the fuel pump for thermal expansion of your fuel and also positions your fuel pump to sit at the lowest point in the tank. If you're curious as to what your average fuel consumption is would be to follow a straight forward formula. Upon your next fillup, fill your tank up to the auto shutoff of the fuel nozzle. Do not top off otherwise you'll be replacing your charcoal filter. Set your Trip Odometer to 0 and drive till you feel comfortable. Drive till the E light illuminates and jot that mileage down when your at the fuel pump to fill back up. Put more gas back in and write down how many gallons you put back in your tank so as an example; you drove 415.8 miles on the odo, and you put 19.8 gallons of fuel back into the tank. Divide 415.8/19.8=21 miles per gallon.
Do that for at least 5 fillups to give you your average driving habits. Add up all your MPG numbers and divide by the number of fillups; 21 + 24.3 + 19.3 + 18.7 + 22 = 105.3/5 = 21.06 mpg * 21.1 gallons = 444.366 miles. Now you can comfortably take that number and use it as your benchmark of what your usable milage is per tank. Granted, do not empty your tank completely otherwise you'll burn up your fuel pump. Using that number in the example above, I would be looking for a gas station around the 400 mile mark if I was road tripping.

What I mentioned above can be moded into your vehicle, I believe ScanGauge I and II both have a fuel range setting that would do that for you automatically. I've kept track of my milage since I first bought my truck with only 5 miles on the Odometer and its very interesting to see how different states and road trips increase or decreased my fuel milage. Bigger tires and heavy bumpers have reduced my average MPG to 12ish MPGs. When I installed that LRA fuel tank, it bumped my fuel range back up to 425 to 525 miles per tank even with the crappy fuel milage.

-J

 

Mine also has about the most not-linear gas gauge of anything I've owned.

The full-to-3/4 weirdness I always attribute to filling it above 'full'... my 1st gen 3RZ would go 80 miles before the needle came off F if I really topped it off.

It also had a gas gauge that was like clockwork. I almost always got ~16mpg, and it's got a 16 gallon tank... odds are it'd be right around 1/2 right around 128 miles. If I hit 140 miles, I knew I was getting better than average.

My first few tanks with this one were full of me going "damn, how bad is my mileage gonna be?" as I'm watching it drop 1/4 tank in like 40 miles, with what should be 5 gallons per quarter.

 

because the gauge relies on a flaotie ball in the tank to indicate position. so until it passes under the diameter of the ball, the needle doesn't move. And on empty, because the light comes on for the last 3 gallons.

 

it does as it pleases

 

First and third quarter are always best for me. I’m assuming because gas in the full tube, then maybe because the way the tank is shaped. I have actually gotten to the point where it’s about an hour of time per quarter tank.
But to be honest I’ve slowly learned to not even worry about gas, just fill it up when it needs it. Get on with your adventure.

 

As others stated, mines n

Same here

 

I generally get 110 - 135 miles out of the 1st qtr. tank. After that - It's all over the place.

I generally drive until the low fuel light comes on; then fill up. MPG most of the time - 20.0 - 21.65 mpg

All that matters is your mpg over a full tank.

And remember...it's a truck. No amazing MPG from trucks.

 

I try to not pay too much attention to the fuel gauge as I reset the trip odometer when I fill up. I have figured out when the low fuel light comes on I have 3 gallons left.