KZ-TE Fuel tank Conundrum

[WayneMan]

Recently my KZ-TE showed signs of a very slow and gradual leak on the diesel fuel tank. I took it to the agents and also to a private 4x4 company that specialized in fuel tanks to assess. The private company could not find a leak, neither could the agents. Long story short, I took it back to the agents for a replacement of a brand new tank after seeing a few 2nd hand tanks form the scrap dealers – they were all in real bad condition.
Any how, on day 1 at the dealer, the new tank arrived, but was smaller than the one fitted to my car. So they sent it back and ordered another thinking it was the wrong part. This happened 3 more times before they twigged. Eventually, one of the guys phoned a friend as they had no idea why none of the new tanks were different to the one fitted to my vehicle ?!? The story goes…………

Many years ago when the KZ-TE was still sold, you could buy a replacement after market tank, from Toyota that was 85 litres (a long range tank effectively), while the original factory fitted tank is only 65 litres. There was a company in Pine Town that supplied these tanks to Toyota, which have since closed down in 2010 (apparently). They were called Exclusive Tanks. What they did was cut the bottom half of the tank off and replaced it with a larger deeper version which looked exactly the same as an original Toyota tank. This gave the ‘extra’ 20 litres capacity.
However, I never really benefitted from the ‘long rang tank’ as I was not aware of it – let me tell you why…......……the picker or fuel gauge in the fuel tank is still the original and was not extended to cater for the extra depth of the deeper tank, so whenever my fuel gauge showed as empty or the reserve light came on, it still had about 20 litres left in the tank because the picker or gauge was too short to know about it. But not knowing this, I would always filled up when the light came on in the fear of running dry.
It starts to make sense now..........I have read comments by other members on the local forums that they have been able to drive up to 100kms when the reserve light comes on, and this would explain that their hiluxes probably also had the 'larger' tank with the 'shorter' fuel gauge, and them possibly not knowing about it, like me ????

Is anyone aware of this or experienced the same issue ? I will try post some images of the larger tank vs the factory fitted tank when I get them.
Id appreciate your comments.

[Knuppel]

Wayne, rule off thumb on any car.

When the fuel light comes on you should be able to drive at least 100 km at a conservative pace.
I have travelled in more cars than I can count and this has always proved to be the case, even on my land cruiser.

[Rooikappie]

I drove my @002 KZ untill fuel came on , then could only fit 67L to fill it up to MAX.
If it is a 85L tank(like in the manual) I could drive (8km/L X 18L = 144Km) when the light comes on.

I have done 80km when light was on, so that proves there must be at least 10L left.