88 mile commute to work

Not too shabby. You might need to show her some tricks to improve her mileage.

 

give her one of these from me!

 

Just remember, getting more gas is cheap compared to getting a new wife.

 

Giving such instructions to my wife is like throwing gasoline on a fire. Well, not that bad but she did make me promise to leave her alone about her fuel wasting ways in the Prius. Coasting is not in her repertoire so she generally gets about 10 fewer miles per gallon than I do (but I say nary a word).

 

when i ride with my wife, the only thing i ask her to do is back off a little from the vehicle in front of us. and even that does not go over well. no proem for her to ask me to slow down though, 'but honey, i'm only doing the speed limit'. 'i know, but that's not like you'.

 

I would never take one trip as a sample - I had an identical trip every Sunday, similar time, similar temperature, similar traffic using DRCC, one week I had 3.6l/100, next week 4.1, next week 3.8.

 

Remember, the real goal is to use less gas, not to get the best MPG, needlessly driving extra miles is not helping you use less gas.

 

The other thing - I'd fill the tank now. My experience with my last 3 cars is that somehow, the first tank's readings aren't representative - no idea why, but they can be quite optimistic or pessimistic.

And my dashboard readout is about 5-7% optimistic.

 

Don't overdo the blinking light - I think it's best to treat it as a "WOOPS, I should have filled up yesterday" warning. TOYOTA regards it as a WARNING. Running out of fuel in a modern car can have serious consequences sometimes.

 

"Approximately" - which was very inaccurate when it happened to me (not a PRIUS) - and over $350 and 2 wasted days later ... . It's just a suggestion - stretching your fills right to almost empty achieves nothing. You might have a better chance in a new car, but the last part of a tank is where sludge and other undesirable contaminants hang out - which is what destroyed my fuel pump. Some Fuel Injection systems require bleeding if they run out of fuel, not sure if PRIUS is one of them.

 

Why exactly?

 

Bob Wilson intentionally ran his Gen1 and Gen3 out of fuel more than 50 times, for fun / sport / engineering curiosity / testing. He never reported needing anything special to get running again, or any need for fuel pump replacement, but did report plenty of interesting technical findings that would have been impractical or much less accurate without his out-of-fuel runs.

We did learn from others to not crank the engine too many times to attempt a restart before putting in adequate fuel. At some small number, the ECUs will lock out further attempts regardless of later added fuel, and require a reset.

 

I suppose not "serious" - but I didn't take $350 + 2 days wasted light-heartedly. (see post #16).

I also had a friend quite a few years ago with a NISSAN where he had to get the Fuel Injection bled and that cost him more than my $350. Besides a tow, it needed a new Fuel Injection pump, recalibration, went through 2 fuel filters, and they had about 3 goes before it was running right again. Not worth the risk in my estimation.