Avalon fuel readings dead wrong, is it fuel sensor?

My BMW had a similar problem. The fuel level sending unit was dirty. There has been a reported problem with high sulfer levels in the gas causing the fuel sending units to go out. This is an old story, and may not be a factor in youir problem, but the affected refineries were in the southeast somewhere.

Do you mostly drive your Avalon around town? The miles to empty is calcualted based on the amount of fuel in the tank and your recent driving histroy. Assuming you do a lot of stop and go city driving it is possible that your miles to empty might really be 260 miles on a full tank. For the cars I've owned with a "miles to empty" indicator, the miles to empty can actaully increase as you start driving on a long highway trip, at least until the moving average mileage used by the computer to calculate the miles to empty matches the actual mileage.

Of course, there could be a problem with the tank sensor. Just comapre the miles to empty reading before and after a few fill-ups and see if the dleta matches (or least approximates) the miles actually driven.

Regards,

Ed White

"cewhite3" wrote: > felixadacatz wrote: > > > > the digital gauge on my avalon dash says i only have 260 > miles left > > when its at full tank. i remember when we first had the car > back in > > 2000? it would say 430miles on the full tank > > Do you mostly drive your Avalon around town? The miles to > empty is calcualted based on the amount of fuel in the tank > and your recent driving histroy. Assuming you do a lot of > stop and go city driving it is possible that your miles to > empty might really be 260 miles on a full tank. For the cars > I've owned with a "miles to empty" indicator, the miles to > empty can actaully increase as you start driving on a long > highway trip, at least until the moving average mileage used > by the computer to calculate the miles to empty matches the > actual mileage. > > Of course, there could be a problem with the tank sensor. > Just comapre the miles to empty reading before and after a > few fill-ups and see if the dleta matches (or least > approximates) the miles actually driven. > > Regards, > > Ed White > > > > > once in a while it would say 430mi but is only seldom > > > > My friends 02? avalon still says 420miles on a full tank on > her > > digital gauge. > > > > is something whent he fuel sending unit on my car? or is > something out > > of place in the fuel tank? > > > > -- > > Posted using the

interface, at author's request > > Articles individually checked for conformance to usenet > standards > > Topic URL: > > Visit Topic URL to contact author (reg. req'd). Report abuse: the avalon has, avg econ setting, avg mph, and "miles to empty"setting

i understand the econ and avg miles, but the "miles to empty" setting it shouldnt vary, default mpg on the avalon is 26mpg. that means i should have at half a tank around 221 mi left. and full tank

420-440mi. im thinking its the fuel sending unit as spamcatcher said, hopefully someone with the same problem can direct me in the right direction

i went to toyota they were going to charge $80/hr to locate the problem. it means they may take their time "locating".

Actually you think wrong, the miles to empty is a calculation based on the AMPG. Let say you drove in town for the first half of the tank. The miles to empty now indecated would not hold true, if you then drove 60 MPH per hour on the interstate, for the reaming half tank.. The miles to empty would go UP, not stay the same, based on the new higher average MPG. ;)

mike hunt

felixadacatz wrote:

> > Visit Topic URL to contact author (reg. req'd). Report abuse:> well the avalon has, avg econ setting, avg mph, and "miles to empty" > setting >> i understand the econ and avg miles, but the "miles to empty"> setting it shouldnt vary, default mpg on the avalon is 26mpg. that> means i should have at half a tank around 221 mi left. and full tank> 420-440mi. im thinking its the fuel sending unit as spamcatcher said,> hopefully someone with the same problem can direct me in the right > direction > >> i went to toyota they were going to charge $80/hr to locate the> problem. it means they may take their time "locating".

They are going to replace the fuel lever sending unit. In my BMW, this is either $150 or $250, give or take a few bucks, for the parts. (I have two sending units, the expensive one is an integral part of the fuel pump.)

On my car, the needle wouldn't point to F either. When it managed to move off of E, it gave a correct calculation of the remaining fuel supply, both the needle and the Distance to Empty display. If you needle goes to F, then I suggest that the problem with the Distance to Empty is not the sending unit. Toyota could have gotten fancy with the design, and used a separate sending unit for the Distance to Empty display.

In fact Mike is correct for once. If I leave my Avalon set to show miles per empty, sometimes it will go up if I am driving at a steady speed.

Acutely I'm correct 99.9% of the time, you just don't know it. LOL

mike hunt

Art wrote:

when does it know when to recalculate the MPG? when i pump?

Depends on what model year Avalon. Other brands have a manual reset button but the 2001 Avalon restart calculating average MPG everytime you start the car. In other words it zeroes out when the car is turned off. I believe later Avalons are supposed to zero only when you fill up the tank but that is just based on postings I've read here.

No it calculates approximately every five minutes of operation.

mike hunt

felixadacatz wrote:

I own a 1983 Continental Mark VI Signature. I has nearly 90K on the clock. I have never reset the AVG MPG since new. No matter if I drive for three weeks in town or 3,000 on a trip, the average never changes since it has record my average MPG for 90K. Is shows 23.X Naturally the MTE varies in those different scenarios ;)

mike hunt

Art wrote:

replying to felixadacatz, Joann wrote: I have a 2015 Avalon that reads 329 when I fill it up and it usually says around 405. I depend on this a lot because I travel alone from time to time. What has happened? I really liked this feature on my Avalon