I was washing my TCH this weekend. I wanted to dry the fuel filler area, so I popped open the door to the gas cap. Right after doing this I thought this would reset the average mpg, assuming that opening the door is what reset it. But when I started the car the average mpg was still there. It was smart enough to know that I didn't add any gas and kept my average.

 

Good to know! I wonder why they went to an electric gas door opener...I know it's more upmarket, but why not also add an electric trunk opener button too? The trunk lock is already electrically controlled, adding a button shouldn't be a big deal - in fact, the lever/cable mechanism probably costs just as much as a button.

Hmmmmmm.

 

The electric door is part of the evaporative emissions control.

I believe the sensor involved for determining a fill up is the actual fuel gauge sender. My Sienna has a "range to empty" read out as well. It's smart enough to know if you only fill up the tank halfway (ie gas price is high). I don't know about the US, but here the price routinely swings as much as $0.15CAD a liter even over the same day.

For Americans, it would be like seeing gas at $2.80 in the morning, seeing it at $3.20 that evening, next morning it's $3.25, that evening it's $2.75 (unless you stop for milk, then it's up to $3.00), and so forth. It can be very frustrating trying not to feel burned because the day after you fill up it's on a low swing again. Probably one of the reasons I wanted to go TCH.

 

Droid,

Others will correct my if I'm wrong but generally our gas prices don't change during the course of a day. Usually once they're set in the morning they stay that way until the end of the day.

 

I'm in NC and gas prices has changed on me during the day and there weren't any special events prodding it that I could tell.

 

My non-nav version did reset my tank average MPG when I accidentally pushed the fuel door button instead of the ECO button. I suppose your experience is with the nav TCH?

 

lem144 I think the electric delay on the fuel door has to do with venting the gas fumes thru the charcoal canister prior to fueling for emissions control. Also you may hear a sound coming from the tank area a couple of hours after the vehicle is shut down.

 

No, I don't have the NAV version. I didn't open the gas cap, but it doesn't sound like you did either. Very strange.