Ran out of fuel AND battery!!

What do you mean 'even though'?

That was the last warning. That light does not go out. There are no additional warnings before fuel starvation.

What really happened is that you failed to notice when fuel ran out and the ICE died. Thus, you continued on EV until the traction battery was also drained to the lower limit allowed by the computers, which is what triggered the warning light about loss of power steering.

For more detail, read the base post of:
[WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III).

The full story about what really happened isn't discovered until about half way through the very long thread, but you'll need considerable time to find it. Search for Bob Wilson's various posts through that thread. But the very first post has most of what you really need to know.

That depends on how you abuse it while it is out of fuel.

If you immediately put in enough fuel that the computers recognize it, it will restart. Bob has done this 50-ish times without failure. But if you try to restart too many times without fuel, a counter will trip and lock out further restarts attempts, to preserve the remaining traction battery charge. Several other drivers have reported that issue here.

I.e. that dealer charge is not a given, but it is a possibility if you continue to abuse the car.

 

Your assumptions are wrong:

1. When the last bar is blinking you are about to run out of gas (you may get a few tens of miles further). You should never just keep driving as this is also bad for the fuel pump (inside the gas tank) which relies on the gasoline as a lubricant.
2. Running in EV mode after running out of fuel will shorten the life of your traction battery so don't (you'll only get about a half mile at slow speed)
3. You need to put in at least 4 gallons for your Prius to recognize that fuel has been put in so a small can of gas will not help unless you are willing to do a system reset by disconnecting the 12v battery for a couple of minutes and then reconnecting it. This will lose your radio presets and perhaps the auto window close (just raise and lower the window manually twice to reset it).

JeffD

 

The last bar is the notice that you need gas... that's why it flashed. It gives you 1.5 gallons of fuel after it beeps at you... do you really need more than 75 miles to get gas?

You need to add more than 2 gallons of fuel (or whatever the liter equivalent is) in order for the fuel gauge to register that you put anything into it.

 

You'd think, but no.

I'd blame it on the MBA rat-bastards who work for nearly every company and practice their zero-sum philosophy whenever they can. In other words, they think the best way to win is to make someone else lose. Toyota has disproved that theory over the years. Let's hope they haven't forgotten how they got to where they are now.

 

An old teacher of mine would say that "when you assume you make an nice person of you and me".

You assumed wrong and now have an expensive bill. Let's hope you don't assume that you could float like a feather if you fell off a cliff.

 

That's good to know. What happens if you keep driving on the last blinking bar, does the gauge ever display no bars if you are out of fuel? The lowest I driven my Prius to was about 1.25-1.5 gallons left. At that level of fuel it was blinking.

The lesson I'm learning from this is make sure your gauge is accurate and be attentive to range you drove. Were you expecting for it to go to no fuel bars? It's very clear, do not run out of gas in the Prius, being attentive to your gauges is key. Even if the gauge is inaccurate, you should know your range by resetting the trip computer after a full fill up.

 

Forgive the digression, but we all make assumptions; sometimes we have no choice, and inherently, all assumptions contain risk.

However, when we have the choice to investigate the facts, but choose to make assumptions instead, then that is truly nice person-like behavior.

 

There's something about this car that makes some want to see how far they can go on a tank. Doesn't help that it's a totally pointless endeavor.

 

I'm not sure it IS a real problem.
Pretty sure that most people who have run out of gas restarted just fine......after the addition of a minimum of something like 3 gallons.
See other posts here AND your owner's manual.

I think you should be shopping for a new dealer.
$125 is a lot for just disconnecting the battery.

P.S. You might want to change the settings in your profile so it properly shows that you have a C.

 

As previously stated, the Prius gauge never goes to no bars.

My Subaru does go to no bars, but the Prius does not.

The fuel gauge is not accurate, it is just a cheap indicator to help keep you from running out. It isn't designed for precision MPG or range-remaining calculations. Get over it.

And while being attentive to the range you drove, this is only to make sure you don't absentmindedly go over the vehicle's normal range. Beware that fuel consumption is highly variable, and in some situations MPG will be astoundingly low. Don't allow a low amount of 'range you drove' overrule a low gauge reading.

 

I worked hard on this post explaining why some people should NOT own a prius
considering a Prius | PriusChat

I will quote again the part about not running out of gas.
"The Prius is a poor car to run out of gas in. If you do not pull over you can run down the HV Battery trying to travel without the engine running. If your lifestyle involves frequently running out of gas, your HV Battery may be damaged. Once you do run out, you need 3 gallons added before you attempt to restart. Restarts with no gas can trip a failure code requiring a tow to the dealer, draining the HV battery will need a charger not even the dealer has, it will (eventually) come from Toyota regional."

If you are the sort of person who HAS to run out of gas, the Prius is not a good car for you.

 

I didn't ask about your Subaru. Actually, I'm not really asking you.

I never ran out of gas before so my methods and your's are clearly different. You weren't attentive, get over it. Learn, change and get better.. it simple.. but based on your comment, you are missing so many details.. I'll leave it at that..

 

You did ask as a general question and he responded telling you that it had been answered by his previous post... but then he was nice enough to actually answer said question instead of making you read the aforementioned post...
Why the harsh vibe for someone who was trying to help?

 

My bad.. too many quotes and thought it was person who ran out of gas rebutting. The "get over it" remark threw me off. I don't know the reason for that neither as I never noted it was accurate. I was just wondering what it does after the one bar blink?

 

Despite the fact that he clearly understood that the car was warning him that he was about to run out of gas, he actually choose to run out of gas. And then he blamed the car for ONLY warning him TWICE! If there were three warnings, he would have expected a fourth and a fifth and a sixth ...

 

The car stopped to protect the battery-pack.

How far were you able to drive beyond the refill notice and flashing?

 

This thread is AMAZING!!!!

Not only do we drive the most gasoline efficient production car on the planet, but yet there are people that run it out of gas!

If you get 50+ MPG, have a car with approximately a 500 mile range, a working fuel gauge, and even a display of "estimate range remaining"... There are ZERO reasons why someone can't fine ONE gas station ONCE every 500 miles.

I usually pass 5 of them on my 12 mile commute, so I don't see the rationale of ignoring the blinking pip.

 

to make it worse, the blinking pip blinks for over 40 miles... how many gas stations is that? lol.

 

Running out of gas is a horrible inconvenience and extremely unsafe. The car will run out at the worst possible spot putting your life and car in danger. Hope the Japanese never visit PC because they would laugh there butts off at us. You run out of gas and blame the car.

 

In just a few years, OP will be the proud owner of a self-driving vehicle. The car will head directly to a gas station when low with or without the driver's consent.