Gas gage on dash shows empty

I have a 2011 Tacoma Sport. My gas gauge on my dashboard shows empty. Help!

 

Fill it up dude. just kidding. When did it start doing this?

 

The gas gauge in my 2010 is inaccurate every once in a while too; One time I had the key turned to ACC so I could see the needle rise as I filled up the tank, and it stopped at like three quarters of a tank…

Obviously, I thought something was wrong with the gas pump and kept filling manually; I ended up overflowing the gas tank and spilling gas down the side of my truck!



Luckily, it has only done that once…

 

My guess is a sending unit failure or wiring issue.
I’d start inspecting any wires at or near the fuel tank.

 

Until you figure out the problem

Fill up truck
Set trip meter
Fill up again at 250 miles if mostly city driving. 275-300 if mostly open road. After a few times you'll get a feel for how much will still be in the tank at 250 or 300 miles. My fuel gauge works, but I tend to go use the miles on the trip meter as the deciding factor most of the time anyway.

If you've parked recently on a steep incline the gas will all run to one end of the tank and give you a false reading. And it could take a while for it to go back to normal. Not in my Tacoma, but last week I drove up a long, steep incline in my F150. I started with 1/2 tank of gas (36 gal tank), but as I went up the hill the gauge was reading 3/4 tank. I parked for about an hour nose down on a steep hill. When I got back and started the engine I got a "low fuel warning" It was showing 1 mile to empty and the fuel gauge was below "E". I drove nearly 30 miles before the gauges started reading correctly. But I knew I still had 15+ gallons in the tank.

 

Fuse?

 

That is fed from the Gauge Fuse. If it were blown there would be many more issues with the combination gauge.

Wiring, connector problem or the Fuel float assembly in the tank.

Whack the bottom of the tank with a dead blow hammer a bit ( just not too hard ). The float may be just stuck.

 

that's a good way to damage the EVAP system. When it clicks off, do not top off.

 

That happened one time; How was I supposed to know it was the truck and not the gas pump?

 

I always have an idea how far I travelled and how many MPG I get vs. how much gas got pumped in. If something doesn't add up, don't continue to shove gas down the tank's throat.

 

You broke the floaty by topping off. Don’t ever do that. Floaty in the tank is done - let’s us know the repair costs & GL - it needs replacing

 

Overfilling a modern gas engine fuel tank is a bad idea. I did the harpoon mod on my 7.3 years ago and got about 4 gallons extra capacity out of the tank, but there is no EVAP system on there and the float is not restricted with the extra capacity.

 

That actually sounds like a pretty decent mod

 

It could probably be done on the gas engine tank if you are careful. I believe on the 2nd gen the charcoal canister takes suction from the top of the tank but I have never looked inside to see where the pickups, the evap hose, and filler neck hoses come internal to the tank. Go to the 5:30 of the video below to see what I'm talking about.

 

I was thinking fuse for the cluster was blown, but I guess more than the fuel indicator would not be working then. I usually stop thinking half way thru sentences and

Or u saying the gauge is on same fuse as pump would be?

 

Gauge fuse powers all the gauges so nothing exept maybe some indicator lights would work with it blown.

 

When we say Gauge fuse, I refer to that as the instrument panel cluster. Would that be same thing? Maybe that is where I got confused. (Not 1st time)

 

Correct but Toyota calls it the Combination Meter.

And for the OP here's the diagram, resistance across pins 2 and 3 of the fuel tank unit should be 3-5 ohms with a full tank and 107-112 ohms with an empty tank if it's out of that range your sending unit is bad.

 

No, that is not what I am saying.

 

I got it figured out.