Ok - Another gas fillup question

[watchcrazy]

So the book says our '07 Camry has a 18.5 gallon tank. When I get gas at the most I put about 15.5-16.0 galons. What is the lowest you have ran your car (I guess the way to word this is, what is the most in gallons you have put in when you are on "empty") I bought a Scangauge II to try to find out my DTE (distance to empty), the SE doesn't have that on the computer. Why would I want to know this? I drive 120 miles a day and I am just trying to figure out how much fuel is left so if I get caught in the middle of nowhere I will know if I can make it to a gas station or not. So far the Scanguage is working out pretty good, but I am just currious if our tank is actually 18.5 gallons or smaller.

[geoff5093]

I would set it to 18 gallons, simply because if you actually rely on that for knowing how much farther you have to go until you completely run out, then you may reach a slight incline or something, and then run out with a few miles left.

[lalojamesliz]

i have one too just set it to 18 gallons and fill your tank and go to fill up in the options and push the done button. i have the V6 and its like 9.1% diffrence for the fuel and i have 4% for the speed. just look through it and you will see what im talking about. geoff5093 if you go up a incline you have to give it more throttle and the scanguage will know so its very accurate. i have saved alot of gas using this in my tundra when i go on long trips thanks to the instant mpg read out as for my camry..... i drive it a little faster so you know how that is

[sappy74]

The most I ever filled up was 16 gallons, and that was when the empty light came on and I drove for another 35 miles... Doesn't seems like an 18.5 gallon tank...

[slick07LE]

When I first got my car, I ran it well below the E. I didn't pay attention to how many gallons went in it though.

[lalojamesliz]

if you want to fill up with 18.5 gallons i think you would have to drive it until it dies then im sure you will be able to.

[thoots]

I actually did a relatively controlled test in my XLE a while back.

Of course, the "low fuel" light comes on long before you're even close to "empty" -- it's about 14.5 gallons if I just stop and fill it up right there.

My controlled test was a trip up and back on the freeway, started after the "low fuel" light came on when I hit my driveway the night before I did the test.

The XLE has a "cruising range" display, but that really changes depending upon your current driving conditions -- on the freeway, you can have "one mile to go" for several miles before it'll finally drop to zero. And, I've got all kinds of different fill amounts with the cruising range closely around the zero point -- it's not a good predictor of how much you've got left, at all. I'd have to call it roughly at best, but the zero cruising range usually comes on somewhere within 15+ gallons used, and the "Empty" line comes in somewhere pretty close to 16 gallons used.

The bottom line with all of that, though, is that we are still talking about "at least two gallons left in the tank," even with all of these displays screaming at you that "You're outta gas!"

On my test run, I wound up going 40 miles past the "cruising range zero" point, and I put 17.237 gallons in the car -- still a gallon left in the tank, plenty to go another 25 - 35 miles, if you're on the freeway in reasonable traffic.

The "low fuel" light behavior really bugs me -- it should be more like where the "cruising range zero" comes, if not later than that. Truly, with the guage reading totally empty, you probably can depend upon having at least two full gallons in the tank -- heck, that is where the "low fuel" light ought to come on, as far as I'm concerned.

At any rate, that's how it has worked for my car, if that helps anyone!

[JMSinMD]

I know since the 1992 Camry it's been stated that the gas tank is 18.5, what I have heard a few times is that the system holds about 2-2.5 gallons just in case someone ignores the red low gas light, it'll take them another 40 miles.