Distance to Empty and other useless gauges

[ManglerYJ]

So I finally have two vehicles that are relatively new and reliable with a lot of bells and whistles - a 2013 Toyota Sienna and a 2016 Honda CRV. Both of them have a gauge on the dash that resets each time I fill the tank and typically show over 400 miles on a full tank. Out of old habit, I still always reset the trip odometer after each fill up (the CRV does it automatically for me - handy in case my wife ever decided to get gas. HA!)

So something I have noticed is that by the time I get home from the gas station (less than 10 miles), the CRV shows like 360 miles to empty. What kind of crap is that? The van does something similar, but less noticeable as to when. The trip odometer usually shows about 360 miles on it when I fill the tank the next time (typically with less than 10 miles to empty.

So, by my math, that's a 10% variance from reality. Almost useless in my impression. Darn good thing they both have heated seats to make up for it.

Anyone else have similar experiences, or suggestions as to how to remedy? Or just ignore it and focus on the gas gauge like I do normally? What also bothers me is that the gas light is tied to the Distance to Empty, since it trips at 25 miles to empty each time, so there's no real way of telling if that's accurate.

 

[LBarr2002]

So I finally have two vehicles that are relatively new and reliable with a lot of bells and whistles - a 2013 Toyota Sienna and a 2016 Honda CRV. Both of them have a gauge on the dash that resets each time I fill the tank and typically show over 400 miles on a full tank. Out of old habit, I still always reset the trip odometer after each fill up (the CRV does it automatically for me - handy in case my wife ever decided to get gas. HA!)

So something I have noticed is that by the time I get home from the gas station (less than 10 miles), the CRV shows like 360 miles to empty. What kind of crap is that? The van does something similar, but less noticeable as to when. The trip odometer usually shows about 360 miles on it when I fill the tank the next time (typically with less than 10 miles to empty.

So, by my math, that's a 10% variance from reality. Almost useless in my impression. Darn good thing they both have heated seats to make up for it.

Anyone else have similar experiences, or suggestions as to how to remedy? Or just ignore it and focus on the gas gauge like I do normally? What also bothers me is that the gas light is tied to the Distance to Empty, since it trips at 25 miles to empty each time, so there's no real way of telling if that's accurate.

It depends on the average mpg over the previous X miles. I don't know how far back its averaging, but say 25 miles? If I drive my wife's 2005 Yukon XL around town for a couple days then fill it up, it will say something like 420 miles to empty. If I immediately get on the interstate, that miles to empty will not decrease, and at times will even increase. It's not making fuel. It's the difference between averaging 12 around town and 18 on the highway, and recalculating the remainder based on recent average.

On a long trip if I fill up right off the highway it will say closer to 500 miles to empty.

It really screws with my truck when I've been averaging 20 then throw the trailer and jeep behind it and get 11...

 

[VortecJeep]

I mainly just pay attention to how many miles I’ve driven o know when to get gas. Except in my wife’s car, she never resets the trip odometer.
As for question about useless indications...
Tire pressure sensor light should go on the useless list. One of the sensors on my wife’s Camry is apparently going out and will randomly trigger the light to either flash or be constant on.
My F150 has a inclinometer on one of the screens you can choose on the instrument cluster. I’m sure everyone uses that everyday!

 

[ManglerYJ]

I mainly just pay attention to how many miles I’ve driven o know when to get gas. Except in my wife’s car, she never resets the trip odometer.
As for question about useless indications...
Tire pressure sensor light should go on the useless list. One of the sensors on my wife’s Camry is apparently going out and will randomly trigger the light to either flash or be constant on.
My F150 has a inclinometer on one of the screens you can choose on the instrument cluster. I’m sure everyone uses that everyday!

I agree with you on the tire pressure light. I have it on the Sienna and when we go from a really cold morning to a warm afternoon, it kicks the light on. Funny thing is that at the dealership, they said they put nitrogen in the tires to keep it from doing just that, but it still does. If the light comes on, I do a quick walk around and kick and go on my way. If it stays on for more then 20 miles, I check the pressure with a real gauge. If all is well, I disregard.

 

[Fabrik8]

The distance to empty is not a trip odometer that counts down. It's an algorithm that is dynamically based on fuel consumption. Kind of like how oil life percentage displays dynamically change based on load, RPM, engine temp, all kinds of stuff.

 

[Fabrik8]

I agree with you on the tire pressure light. I have it on the Sienna and when we go from a really cold morning to a warm afternoon, it kicks the light on. Funny thing is that at the dealership, they said they put nitrogen in the tires to keep it from doing just that, but it still does. If the light comes on, I do a quick walk around and kick and go on my way. If it stays on for more then 20 miles, I check the pressure with a real gauge. If all is well, I disregard.

Nitrogen doesn't prevent it, it just makes the pressure change lower versus temperature, so you'll still have problems with big temperature swings if the system is very crude. And that's only if the tire cavity is purged properly of moist air. I've never had a problem with TPMS in anything I own, but I don't own Toyota products, and they must use a really shitty TPMS system to save money. The TPMS on the truck works fastastic, but it's off by about 0.5psi on two of sensors (it has a pressure display, not an idiot light, and the sensors are probably only accurate to 0.5psi).
The wife's Civic doesn't even have TPMS sensors; the TPMS is all based on wheel RPM and tire diameter from the ABS encoder readings, and has a "learn" mode to reset the calculations. I set off the TPMS light on a dealer car during a test drive though, I cooked it around a corner and light went on because of the change in tire radius under load. Must have already been low on air on all the tires, else there wouldn't have been enough compliance to set it off.