. For unspeakable reasons I ran out of gas on the highway and drained the batteries getting to an off-ramp and onto surface streets. By sheer luck I wound up in front of a Scion dealership where forum member SquallLHeart happened to working - you know him, he was the first to black out the center portion of the front bumper with vinyl wrap. He's a Toyota dealership mechanic and happened to be at that Scion dealership. . Anyway, when the C is out of gas the READY light for start-up will NOT come on until there is enough gas back in the tank. Everything electrical was working - windows, radio, navi, OBD dash lights... just no READY light. . I had called AAA and they poured in 2 gallons of gas but the READY light would not come back on. SquallLHeart removed the battery cover under the rear seat for one of the AAA guys to hook up a jumper box while the other called their dispatch to report the situation. I was ready to tow the C to Toyota when the AAA guy said they were advised to pour in two more gallons of gas and to rock the car. Sure enough that did the trick - the READY light became available. I guess sloshing the gas about the tank either activated a vaccum, a sending unit or maybe floated a float? (AAA had poured in enough gas to half fill the tank). . The lesson learned is: 1. Fill up the tank prior to that blinking bottom bar on the fuel gauge. 2. Don't rock your rear bumper too vigorously, the bumper cover popped out of its clips from the quarter panels but did go back into place with a couple of well placed slaps. . Thanks again to SquallLHeart and AAA. .
Good info and you must be a lucky person to end up with a mechanic nearby who's a forum member and the AAA guys who got the correct procedure to get the car going.
I thought I heard running out of gas in these forums was an expensive ordeal. And does this trick work on the other Prius models....?
In speaking with SquallLHeart, he recounted other versions of the Prius which ran out of gas and required a battery jump in addition to gasoline. . I probably drove the batteries to exhaustion getting off the freeway and drained every drop of gas out of the tank and lines trying to restart the car. Come to think of it, the OBD of the battery icon was empty of bars and there was no longer a blinking lower bar on the fuel gauge. I guess I had put the little Prius into 'C'oma mode.
I always go to the blinking light but I guess I'll stop doing that. Glad you were able to get it going again.
When I had to queue for gas last Friday (about thirty minutes wait on the first day of odd/even rationing on Long Island) the blinking bar started while I was on line. I filled up until the pump clicked off and it took just under 8.5 gallons, so there had been almost a gallon left in the tank when the light came on.
Probably not a great idea to go below a gallon, there are fuel inlets, pumps, etc. which may not like air very much...
One of the things I do NOT like about the Prius C is the instrumentation. While I like digital and LCD displays, I find the instrumentation lacking readouts of basic things such as RPM and engine temperature to be disappointing. I also find that gas quantity is something easy to miss. Most of the time, that little beep is the only thing that keeps me from being stranded on the road somewhere.
Good story. Must have said your prayers this morning to end up right there where a forum member could be of assistance. One good thing about the Ultra Gauge, and there are many, is that it tells you how many gallons of fuel one has left in the tank. I watch it a lot. Dan
Just fill if it's anywhere between 1/2 and 1/4 tank remaining, when it's convenient. I can't understanding "stretching tanks", no benefits, lots of potential problems.
Yeah, I filled up this morning just after the blinking started. It only took in 8.3 gallaons. So, there was a little more than a gallon to go still. This even/odd thing works, BUT I couldn't fill the gas when there was absolutely no one at the pumps. Is that retarded or what? The law is getting lifted today. Hope you LIers are recovering from power outage and other troubles. Good point. I got close to empty once, but I'm not gonna let that happen again. Hm, I can think of one benefit. Not having to go the gas station often, wasting time. I used to own a Nissan Pathfinder as my DD. I drive a lot for work, so I used to fill up 3x/week. With the PC, I fill up once every 5-6 days. I love it.
Historically 3 gallons need to be added. I don't know if the jumping & rocking were necessary. I filled up yesterday & pulled right up to the pump. Going home the PA commuters crowd into the Citgo in Burlington. Turns out the Shell in Delran was also cheaper.
Not always and there is a wide variance across the state. On occasion I've seen cheaper gas in western PA & SC. Sometimes you want a bigger battery. Sometimes you want a bigger tank.
Long story short - that 9.5 gallon tank is a disappointment. Granted, it takes less time to fill up, but I'm doing just as often as when I was getting 25 mpg. Oh Well - can't have everything. And, I'm liking this car so far. Two weeks and 2500 miles.
What's wrong with that? The bigger the tank, the more dead weight you're taking along, and the more the tank structure needs to be beefed up. Toyota had to make a size decision; they sized smaller, by a factor to make the fill intervals comparable with a regular mpg car. Not a bad decision: (as you say) your fillup goes faster, and they've saved a little weight, helping with mileage.
Probably. If I knew exactly how many miles I'd drive any particular day I might stretch it a bit. For example; tonight I filled up with about 220 miles in anticipation of driving another 200 or so tomorrow. If there wasn't a 10 to 15 cent differential in gas prices between the two states I would just fill up at 400 miles or so. As it is, I like to filling up with the lesser priced gas. As for dead weight - with a couple gallon larger tank, I'd be back to the starting point in half a day.
