As a software tester I sometimes find interesting bugs in everything that around me. This time my new 2015 Toyota Corolla LE surprised me with really unexpected one.

A little story. I usually fill up my tank at a gas station that is not far from my home and offers good prices on gasoline. I love to save money, but who doesn’t? And you know this moments… it happens… and I went almost out of fuel when I was far from my favorite gas station. Oh, yes, I know. I should have filled my tank before 🙂 So, I decided to stop at a nearest gas station to add some fuel to be able to get home. So, I thought that 1 gallon would be enough for my trip. And I put 1 gallon in my tank. But how was I surprised, when I saw that my range wasn’t extended! I thought to myself… just don’t rush.. give it a couple of minutes. But nothing changed even after 5 minutes of waiting. So I decided to start my trip. After about one mile warning light came out, but range kept lowering! That was fun, and I imagine what kind of a surprise it would be for somebody who didn’t know the whole story from the beginning 🙂

Following are some pictures.

Here I realized that I was running out of fuel and took a picture:

Actually, my car throws warning light every time she gets to the range of 30 remaining miles.

Then I arrived to a gas station where I took a picture before the fueling:

And then I took a receipt (The secret is… that wasn’t my first time when I found that issue, I knew what to do :):

Then I took a picture after the fueling and I was going to start my trip:

Despite on that range and warning light I decided to start my trip. (I added 1 gallon! Why shouldn’t I? 🙂

And then while I was driving, warning light came out but the range kept lowering 🙂 (Sorry, the image is blurry, I was excited and driving 🙂

Luckily, I knew that I put a gallon into the tank, so I got home safe! But at the end of my trip the range was 0. 🙂

My experiments showed that when I add 1 gallon of fuel in the range between 20 and 30 miles the computer will extend the range according to 1 gallon of fuel. But when I add 1 gallon at the range 14 miles or less – computer won’t extend the range. Every time I tried to add more then 1 gallon, e.g. 2 gallons the computer recognized that amount and extended the range. So this issue happens only when 1 gallon is added at a low range mileage 🙂

Toyota! Test your vehicles better, please 🙂 I don’t think everybody loves this kind of surprises 🙂

I caught another repro on video: