What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

It’s more likely what she did to me.
I had about 26km range, then it dropped to 9km. Then to 1km range. But no warning lights and check out the fuel gauge. Software bug, most probably.

 

On the plus side, at least your climate control was telling you "Hi! Hi!"

 

It dropped before I switched to 4x4, so not that

 

Had you experienced a loss of traction (spinning) just before it happened? If so, the algorithm likely said, "I'm making lots of RPMs but I'm not going very far" and dropped the "expected" range based on that?

 

Did the gas light ever turn on?

 

@GenoBluzGtr nopes, no hard acceleration or anything
@nimby no, it did not, in the meantime we made it to costco and filled up - pump showed 71 liters, the most I ever filled up.

Edit: so i googled the 4R tank size, it says 87liters (23gallons).
I still had 16 liters of fuel, what is the reserve after you hit 0 on the gauge?

 

At Empty you should have roughly a gallon left in the tank as an OH LAWD last resort. Decades ago car manufacturers realized people’s perception of gas in the tank is real weird. When filling up people like to know that they have a full tank for a bit, which is why the needle doesn’t immediately go back down right when you start driving. Similarly, when you’re at empty, people actually want to have just a touch of fuel left over to get them to a fill up. So gas gauges are really only as accurate as manufacturers care, they’re mostly “eh close enough” gauges.

 

I've gone past the 0 miles left mark on the range estimator. It was similar to your situation where it dropped rapidly and skipped numbers on the way down. However, my fuel gauge was reading E and the low fuel indicator light turned on.

I probably went an additional 5 miles after hitting the 0 mark. I'm sure I could have gone further.

 

This was us literally yesterday

 

surprised someone here hasn't done the "how many miles past empty" test yet. there's always a forum member who just has to know exactly how far they can push it.

 

My 2018 user manual also says:
“Low fuel level warning light
Indicates remaining fuel is approximately 3.5 gal. (13.1
L, 2.9 Imp. gal.) or less”

And I’ve found that to be about true. I wouldn’t trust that range calculator very much. It does some sort of sampling/averaging algorithm with a built in huge safety factor.

On a recent road trip the low gas light went on, range display said 21 miles. I drove 20 miles to a gas station, the display said 1 mile left. I filled up, and it clicked off at 20 gallons, the most I’ve ever put in it. So with 3 gallons left at “empty” in the tank I still could theoretically have driven about 50 more miles.

 

The way they usually work is measuring the fuel flow. As a we all know, that changes. For example, you're driving down the highway at a constant speed and the fuel management system says "30 miles remaining". Go up a small but long hill, that number could drop to 12 remaining. All the prediction is is a prediction for right now at this fuel consumption rate.

 

Good analysis

 

Well today I picked up my C4 rear bumper (with swing outs and all, C4 gas skid, C4 rear diff skid. I am not looking forward to lugging around the added weight but man am I looking forward to the protection from these parts and having a spare tire again onboard (spare doesn’t fit underneath with the tire sizes I have).

 

Get that bumper slapped on and post the pics

 

So are you going to change the oil at 8,000 miles next?

 

I stalled a better USB/C charging port

 

Does it allow high speed charging? Mine in that location does not, but the console does. Can you post a link to where you bought this one? Thanks

 

$14 Ouffun 56W USB C Car Charger Socket, Aluminum Metal 12V/24V Multiple USB Outlet PD 20W USB-C and Dual QC3.0 Ports with Power Switch USB Port 12V Socket for Car RV Boat Marine Truck Golf Motorcycle

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092M6S98V?ie=UTF8

 

I normally do at 5k but I was on a big trip so I uncomfortably pushed it to 6k before the change. But based on that report I think I’m gonna go to 8k and sample it too and see what they say. If it still looks good I’ll probably stick with that if not I’ll cut it back some and test again. There the experts and I definitely trust there opinion, no sense in throwing out perfectly fine oil

 

What if after that sample they say you're fine going to 10k.......would you go to 10?

 

I sappose it depends on the amount of additive left. Say it’s close ish to being done then I wouldn’t. I wanna leave a buffer to account for access idle time or heavy duty use, off-roading or having more than usual load. Gonna run it 8k on this one and see what it says I sappose, and go from there. I use black stone for my lml that I pull 22k with and I change it every 7k and the oil is still good. It actually picked up the trace Coolant in my oil when I thought I blew a head gasket. Turns out it was, Heads are currently in machine shop.

 

Is it Costly and time consuming getting the oil checked? (Ie: where do you send it, typically how much/often, how long do the results take?)

 

So, will you drive it another 8000 miles, take a sample, send it to Blackstone, get their report, then decide how much longer to run it before changing the oil?

Because that’s the way I’ve understood this process makes sense. As for industrial machinery and big trucks with many gallons of oil.

If you’re always doing a $30 postmortem oil analysis you’re almost doubling the cost of every oil change. Might as well just use the Toyota recommended heavy use number and change it every 5000 miles and forget the analysis.

 

If you get on black stones website they send you as many test kits as u want. Then you pay whenever you send it in. You can pay after u send the sample or I just enclose a check in the sample kit when I send it. Comes with pre paid package to send it back. $30 for the test then an extra 10 for the tbn test which is for the additives so see how much life is left. But the general test checks for all metal and contamination. All engine materials are of a different composition so if somethings abnormal they can basically narrow it down for u wether it’s scored cylinder walls, a bearing starting to seize, cracked or worn piston. Or even dirt from say a cracked intake or mis aligned air filter, or leaky injectors. I generally do a few on a vehicle to see how long I can push the oil changes, that alone eventually makes up the money you spend for the test. Then I’ll do one every 15-20k just to check up on the engine and make sure nothing has changed. They have a podcast called slicktalk radio where they talk about real life scenario where it’s saved massive engine failures or confirmed what was happening before engine tear down( like in my case with head gaskets) oil testing is big in aviation and rental companies like cat all do them regularly. I personally am really impressed with it

 

You do the first few to get a baseline to determine how long you can push it. Then you just do it periodically to check overall engine health. If you do it right, ie. not every single time the rest of the vehicles life then yes it will save you money and allow you to catch any issue before it becomes a complete disaster, like with the head gasket in my truck. Had I been off lesser mechanical incline I would have kept driving till my engine hydro locked and bent or broke a rod or piston or siezed my crank or something crazy.

 

Say going to 200,000k for example
5k changes 40 times
8k changes 25 times
At roughly $40 a change for oil that’s what $600 in savings every 200k miles so that leaves you with that much in testing and you should spend nowhere near that for tests. Once you get a baseline and do periodic checks. So yea there’s savings in a small compacity rig and even more in high compacity rig

 

How do you like the set up over your pro suspension?

 

Sorry it’s like a 3oz bottle and I take a sample when changing oil. Just catch some as it comes out. And you get results in like a week or 2

 

Thank you. I just ordered my test kit. Although I am on my second old change 11k miles and 2 years old. I will have to do it at my next one now. Doing it for both of our cars. Thank you for sharing.