I bought my 2002 Lexus ES 300 certified pre-owned from the dealer about 1.5 years ago. I live in Ann Arbor, MI. In the dash there is a meter that digitally tells me how many miles I have left to drive before an empty tank. When I first bought the car it had 54K miles and a full tank meter would read 330 miles. Now, 1.5 years, and 72K miles a full tank meter yields 270 miles. What would cause this reduction? Do I need to take the car in to have it serviced> If so, what should I be looking for?
The only thing that’s acting up, as near as anyone can tell, is that flaky meter. Your Lexus may be running perfectly. You cannot rely on that simplistic dashboard device to tell the truth.
One possibility is that the computer may have reset itself during a battery disconnect and it needs to be reprogrammed or recalibrated according to the instructions in your owner’s manual.
Start keeping your own written records. At least that can tell you for sure if the gauge’s output is true or if it is meaningless.
Man, those things have never read properly for me. My vette used to tell you how many miles til empty and what your fuel mileage was. It would always speed up for the last 40 miles in order to arrive at zero when the tank was empty. BTW, they calculate the “miles left” using your previous fuel mileage and the gauge position. i.e. if you took a highway trip and were getting really good mileage for a few hundred miles, the “miles per tank” goes up. If you drive around the city for a couple days doing holeshots at every light, the “miles pre tank” goes way down. Is it possible you’re getting poorer fuel mileage now? It is possible that you need a tune-up/fuel filter/etc and that your mileage is suffering as a result.