Don't know why you guys are talking so much crap about this idea - everyone knows there's sparkles, rainbows, ..aaaaand ponies at the bottom of the gas tank that give better fuel economy. Driving the car until it runs out of gas in the Prius can have serious consequences. Unlike other cars, if there's air in the fuel line when the car starts, the engine won't get power, the car will throw a code, and then you'll have to take the car to a mechanic to manually operate the fuel pump to get the air out of the line.
Ok so the take away: Don't run out of gas. Enjoy that I now get 50+mpg vs 19mpg. And some gas stations have great hot dogs. Easy enough. I can do that. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
*Note: In winter driving conditions where I know gas stations are few and far between, or might be closed, I do not do this.. come on, I'm dumb not stupid.
Well... I'm not sure where you got that from... but BobW has proven that to be wrong. His findings were that you had to pump in more than 3 gallons to get the car to start back up again... but no dealership was required. But I, for one, am not saying run your car out of gas. I have not done that, yet *knock on wood* and I don't plan on it. As I said earlier, I am lazy... running out of gas is an inconvenience that would be counter intuitive towards this life style.
I think if you run out of gas and then immediately refuel it's okay, but if you run out of gas and then try to start the car several times without refueling this can occur, as air gets pumped into the lines. At least on the 2nd gen there are a couple of people who have ran into this problem on this forum and needed a towing to a mechanic. My guess is there's the potential for this to occur with the c model as well. Overall it's just better to just not tempt fate, and refuel with a generous buffer before E to avoid any chance of running out of gas.
The cases I've heard about here on PriusChat involve a software lockout the prevents any more restart attempts after a certain number (3??) of failed starts. The first victims had their cars towed to a dealership, where resets were performed, for a price. Some later victims found the disconnecting the 12V battery for a while also performed an adequate reset.
Ah yes, that I have read about on the forums. Both after a number of attempts at less than 3 gallons and the 12v battery. Good information guys.
Maybe it's my adblock on chrome... I don't get quotes sometimes. I didn't see yours until I logged in with Firefox.
I use Ad Blocker Plus too. Are you saying that you see a persons response but NOT the quote that is supposed to be at the top ??
He's been here. If I were him I'd have already told everyone to F-off. lol Do I see the logic in what he's doing? - nope. But it's his car, let him do what he wants with it.
He had not returned when I made my post but did return soon thereafter. And his post was rather polite and in good humour given the criticism that he received. So I agree, not a troll.
Sometimes yeah. I've got ad blocker plus, ad blocker pro, and a few other firewall blockers on my work laptop. I don't have the issue on my personal laptop, or if I use firefox on my work laptop.
In regards to running the fuel pump low/out all the time it's generally not a good idea as the fuel pump relies on gas to keep it cool and lubricated, as I found out on my 13 Camry it needed a fuel pump after about 40,000.
Did you run it out of gas often? Or was it just a faulty fuel pump? I'm only asking because you left it open ended.
