2022 Toyota Rav4 Fuel System Problems

On 11/15/23 I went to Byers Toyota Dealership and asked them to check my car due to the gas smell inside of the car when driven and outside of my car when parked for a longer period of time. The smell is coming from the rear. The car also has a very strong gas smell when the tank is open to pump gas. I did not notice any leaks. On the visit on 11/1523, they fixed the leaking evaporator according to your bulletin from May 2023 to alleviate the burning oil smell coming from my car’s HVAC heater.  They also checked the fuel pump and told me that I have the correct one and it should function as designed. The service advisor told me that the gas smell is exhaust fumes and it is normal for Toyota type of engine. They did not have any explanation for the fuel smell when my car is parked. Since the smell was still present, I scheduled another appointment at the dealership on 1/3/24, they kept my car overnight but they were not able to duplicate any of my concerns. I did not contact Toyota Customer Care because they can be very unpleasant if the dealership cannot duplicate the problem. 

When I started my car there was an overwhelming smell of gas. I immediately turned it off and looked under the hood at which time I realized a hose was melted. When the engine is on, gas sprays from the melted hose. I have had regular maintenance which was just 1 month ago. No warning lights were on. I purchased this vehicle new in September 2022. I am extremely concerned that this happened in a new vehicle which has had regular maintenance. Luckily it did not catch fire. I have contacted the dealership who sent a tow truck; however, the vehicle needs to have the engine on to put it in neutral and release the parking brake. The tow truck operator was therefore unable to tow it until the hose is replaced but dealership maintenance is unavailable today due to it being a holiday.

Toyota (and Toyota of Boardman) is purposely overstating fuel capacity on their vehicles. So this is unsafe as drivers don’t the actual amount of gas before the run out and could lead to unexpected stops. This makes it impossible to determine the actual amount of gasoline used, which would also then make it impossible to know the total amount of air pollutants their cars omit. This could easily mean that Toyota is over stating their EPA estimated miles per gallon, the document attach shows that Toyota is aware that their gas tanks have known engineering defects however, they will only address the issue if a user owns a 2019 through 2021 model (RAV4 Hybrid). Also, they said they will only address the problem if the person cannot put more than 9.8 gallons that would mean that they will only address this issue if over 32% of the gas tank is unusable. If I would of known the truth I would have reconsidered buying my 2022 Toyota RAV4 XSE Hybrid.

The fuel tank warning light comes on when the car still has over 4 gallons of gas remaining in the tank. This was confirmed by checking fuel fill versus tank size and also running vehicle well past warning light. The warning light appears to mislead drivers and is inaccurate. The actual range of the vehicle is misleading with this warning light.