Problems after running out of gas

Running out of gas is almost as bad as overfilling the bladder!
Welcome to to the wacky world of the bladder tank.
Fill at 2 pips, you won't have this problem ever again.
Dealer will add about half a tank if not fill up, reset codes, give you a lecture not to run out of gas, and to add final insult to injury, will charge you some amount of money , it depends on your dealer!

 

You need to add at least 3 gallons for the car to recognize it and start, unlike most vehicles. Also, the fuel gauges are notoriously unreliable. Filling at 2 pips is highly recommended.

 

If you ran the big battery down trying to 'limp' along*, then the big battery will need a recharge. The dealer usually does not have this charger as most owners value their investment. He will have to order it from Toyota regional and wait for it to get to the dealer, then recharge it. If indeed you just failed to read that the car needs 3 gallons of gas before you attempt to restart it, it will take a week less time, as the dealer has gas.

Best of luck. Do try to read the gas gauge in the future.

* NEVER do that.

 

Hi Kpeeling,

Yup, same as above. Best to fill at 2 pips. The gage is not that trustworthy imo. I have seen a few reports of folks running out of gas before the flashing pip.

As long as you fill up when you reach the second pip (next to last) you should be Ok. FYI, don't be alarmed if you see the nozzle kicks off after 5 to 7 gallons. That is normal. The bladder in the Gen II doesn't hold a LOT of gas. The most I have ever put in our '09 was 8.83 gallons and that was when the gage showed one pip. Remember also that the gage will NOT register any thing less than three (3) gallons of fuel added, so it is not a good idea to fill up if you are fixing to go out of town and the gage is reading like 8 or 9 pips. You can go a long way before you have to get fuel @ 45 to 50 MPG YMMV. I say that because a lot of folks like to go on trips starting out with a full tank. It won't hurt the gage if you put less than three gallons in it, but it won't change which will leave you wondering. Plus in the event you do run out, the Prius won't restart unless you add MORE than three gallons of fuel.

Rule of thumb: 3 Pips - think about buying gas, 2 Pips - buy gas as soon as possible, 1 Pip - Should have bought fuel before now unless you trust the gage. Flashing Pip - BUY GAS NOW.

Once you become accustomed to your Prius, then you can decide how much you are willing to trust the gage. I have not run out of gas yet in our Prius. Notice I said yet. I have also never ran down to the flashing pip. I have ran it down to one pip a couple of times, but did not drive much further after that before I bought fuel.

Best of luck to you and "Welcome to Prius Chat!"

 

Most importantly try to get the codes the car logged. It will report exactly what happened and what the car is unhappy about. Anything else is just supposition. The dealer should have this on a printout.
First thing they do is hook there Techstream laptop up to the OBDII port and pull the codes. Post them complete here with the sub codes. XXXX-XXX

This exact scenario has gotten really sticky before with the dealer not able to fix the car quickly and throwing parts at it on your nickle to figure out what is wrong. Restrict them to a dollar amount because dealer list parts and dealer labor adds up to big money real fast when they start throwing ECU's at the car.

It all depends if they have a well trained Prius tech or not. Some dealers don't and it gets really stupid. Sometimes we are better at this than the dealer tech because we have seen this so many times.

Running out of gas in a Prius is very bad as many things can happen. Its almost as bad as jump starting a Prius.

Codes please.

 

I never gass my 2005 until the flashing pip. It usually takes around 8 gallons to fill up, less in the winter. I guess I'm lucky or my gas gauge is calibrated really well.

 

How long have you been driving your Prius?

 

Perhaps he has gas stations more often than every 55 miles

 

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've been driving my Prius that way since it was new in 2005. I do have gas stations every few miles on my commute so once it beeps I fill up.

Back to the original post, if the Prius ran out of gas wouldn't it simply be a matter of putting in some gas in and clearing any codes?

 

While that is what should happen, a number of drivers have inadvertently run into worse. Limping along until the traction battery dies or is locked out, not adding enough gas for the car to recognize the refueling, and trying to restart more times than the software allows before the car knows it has enough fuel, have all created situations forcing dealer service.

A few readers have also had unrelated failures while the gas level was coincidentally very low, and the low gas took the initial blame.

 

The above is exactly why folks here on PC recommend to refuel at 2 pips. When you run to the bottom, there have been occasions where individuals have run into major problems. Yes, you are supposed to be able to simply add fuel and go on down the road. But there have been times where individuals found that the resolution was not as simple as that.

Fill at 2 pips, not much risk. After that as you burn more fuel it becomes like a crapshoot or Russian Roulette. It boils down to how well you trust the guess gage and how much of a risk are you willing to take.

 

Yes, if they would STOP when it ran out of gas and add 3 gallons, all would be well.

It is the limping on, running the battery out of charge, and trying to restart when empty, that cause additional trouble.

 

Glad to hear you got your Prius back and is running again. For reference purpose, would you be so kind as post some info concerning the gage reading, whether it was flashing, and also how far you drove after that last pip was flashing when you did run out of gas?

As you have probably figured out by now, most of us here are familiar with this scenario. However any information you share will benefit the community.

Best of luck to you and enjoy your Prius.

 

And thanks for coming back with the update. Too many folks who join just because of a problem don't come back to post the final result, thus depriving us of important information.

 

Just thought I'd post my fueling data in case others are interested. I'm not saying when others should choose to fill their tanks, rather I'm just sharing my particular experiences. I generally, but not always, fill shortly after I get the flashing pip and low fuel warning. As of today, I've filled the tank on my 2006 262 times. Here is the breakdown of how many gallons I have put in:

<7 gallons: 7 (3%)
7-8 gallons: 7 (3%)
8-9 gallons: 60 (23%)
9-10 gallons: 142 (54%)
10-11 gallons: 42 (16%)
>11 gallons: 4 (1.5%)

 

I regularly drive 50+ miles without a station around. I've reset my tripmeter when the cluster said I had 0 miles to empty several times just testing how far I can go. 60miles no problem. Today I took 1 gallon of gas with me and pushed it to 75 miles when it ran out. Immediately pulled over and put the gallon in and went to fill it up. JuSt my experience with my '10 model

 

Which is NOT a Gen 2.