[Art64]

Originally Posted by teacozy

So, I ran out of gas today on the 5 NB near Aliso. After the initial break-in period, my truck has been averaging 16-17 mpg on 91 octane. This is mixed use, highway and city driving.

Whenever, I filled up the tank, I would reset the trip odometer and measure how long I can go until the low fuel light comes on and the needle is exactly on the "E" empty marker, not past it. When I fill up at this point it usually fills up to 23 gallons and total miles driven is right around 360 miles. Hence, theoretically, I would still have 3 gallons left in the tank and could drive approx. another 48 miles before the truck goes bone dry.

Even though Toyota states that 87 octane is fine and that 91 is not required, I notice that I get better gas mileage with 91. The last time I filled up, it was out of necessity and not choice, was an Arco in Huntington Beach.

Today the vehicle trip odometer was at 350 miles and I was headed for the Costco Gas off of Alton in Irvine, about another 4 miles from El Toro. Just before I pass the offramp for Aliso, the engine stalls and I lose power.

What's interesting, is that the engine is still running and I can see the tach reading about 1500 rpms. So the vehicle is maintaining power steering and brakes, however when I press on the throttle, no go. I coast through the intersection and end up on the side of the road off of Aliso and then the vehicle shuts down completely. Across the street is another Damn Arco!

I manage to get 3 day laborers who were chillin' out at the bus stop to push the Tundra over to the Arco. Let me tell you our truck is not light. They were really struggling to push the Tundra and these were big muscular guys. I paid them each $5 and thanked them for their help and put in $20 worth of Arco gas, just enough to get me to the Costco to fill up the rest.

The only time my total miles per tank dropped below 350 miles was during break in period and the few time after that when I put in regular 87. After that I have been using exclusively 91 octane Costco or the local Shell near my home. Thus, I have a suspicion that the Arco in Huntington Beach, either by mistake or on purpose put 87 octane in their 91 octane storage tank. This truck is pretty sensitive to octane rating and unfortunately I found out the hard way that the local gas station mixed fuel grades.

Yes, I know, it's bad to run the vehicle so low without at least a quarter tank of gas, etc. I just thought I'd share my experience with other Tundra owners so they know what to expect when they run out of gas. I don't know if it is a safety measure built in, but for about a half mile the vehicle was able to coast and I had fully functional power brakes and power steering.

Since the price of gas went a little bit down, I put 91 octane in mine just to see the effect. It seems like I'm getting more mileage on the truck particularly in city driving. More responsive engine too and less downshifting. I used Unocal 76 and Shell. I need to do this a bit more just to confirm it. I try to stay away from Cosco, Arco and other cheap brand gas. It makes a big diffeence here in So Cal. Our engines are high compression and respond well to octane changes. In other states, it may be a different story. But one thing I would never do is to run out of gas or risk running out of gas on the Tundra. It just looks bad on the truck and on the driver.