Fuel tank size

45L in the tank. The filler tube and such will allow for a little more if you insist.

Tom

 

That's a hell of a drive mate.

 

Personally I wouldn't over fill my car, I see no advantage and it is likely inviting trouble.

 

Trouble is running out of fuel in Soweto or Cape Flats! Maybe if you were bumpin' Mafikizolo or Mandoza you'd fare better. lol

 

As Galaxee has described in detail elsewhere, topping off can cause expensive damage to the fuel system. And it greatly increases hydrocarbon emission air pollution.

 

I put the most gas ever (10.16 gal) in my tank last week. It wasn't on purpose. The gas pump never shut off. I had to stop it when gas overflowed over the side of my car. I've driven 197 miles so far and the fuel gage still has all it's pips. Should I be worried?

 

No. With the overfill, it will take a while for the gauge to drop a pip. Then it will be back to normal.

 

The size of the tank is 11.9 gal. I have put in as much as 11.3 when the last pip had been blinking for about 15 miles. Consider each pip as apx. 1.2 gallons.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't really work that way. The bladder will not always hold the exact same amount of fuel every time. I've been down to the flashing pip and I've never got more than 9.8ga or so in it. For the U.S. models anyway.

 

Note that the OP -doesn't have a bladder fuel tank!- Overfilling it would probably not cause any problems. His tank probably holds more due to the extra space left after removing the bladder and the space in the filler pipe.

My car, with a bladder, can hold quite a bit more if filled all the way. I calculate it can hold up to 6 litres extra. Filling it -full- (fuel is seen at the top of the filler tube) WILL NOT damage the system, UNLESS you allow it to pressurize when the fuel expands. If you accidentally overfill so you see fuel sitting at the top of the filler tube, leave the cap on loosely for a few miles. If the fuel tries to expand and pressurize the tank it will just flow out and not damage the tank. This is not a good way to operate, of course, but we are talking about an accidental overfill here, something that should only happen once a year, on average.

 

I think if the check engine light does not come on then the car should be fine. Good luck!

 

The pip increment is nowhere near 1.2 gal/pip on the average U.S. model (with bladder). The first pip can be well over 2 gallons because either the gauge or the display are unable to show above a certain level. Other pips on mine run well less than 1 gal on average. The blinking pip is only a partial pip and leaves approximately 1/8th of the volume in the tank when triggered.

It doesn't help that the U.S. model's vent system appear undersized for the job. Those fill problems we experience stem from both the complexity and undersizing of the vent lines. When you try to seal a system thoroughly (and you add an extra annulus with a large volume of air that must be displaced separately) you need considerably larger line sizes to handle it than you would on a normal tank. It's pretty easy to end up in choke flow when trying to disengage two phases moving countercurrently through a tube--particularly when the liquid entering might be flashing.

It is important to keep the discussion of the bladder and bladderless types separate as you can't necessarily apply one to the other. If Toyota uses the same shell volume for the non-bladder models then one would expect them to have a larger actual volume. I don't know if they did that or not. Their claimed volume for the non-bladder models would indicate they did not. Considering Toyota's history with oil fill volumes I wouldn't bet on it...

Even if the bladder volume and the non-bladder tank volume were identical the regular tank should have a wider working range than the notorious bladder. Loss of some working range is one of the handicaps that comes with the bladder.

 

I have European version without bladder. Even with last pip blinking I still only did get 40 liters into tank. Is gas tank actually 45 liters? Does anybody else have gauge that works like this?

 

That would be about right and yes the nominal capacity is 45 litres. You can drive approx 100-120 km from when the last pip starts to flash. I reset one of my trip meters as soon as the last pip flashes so that I have an exact reading of how far I have travelled since it started flashing. Using the current tank consumption I can estimate quite accurately how many km's I can get from a tank, so I can confidently know when I have to get to a fuel station.

I know this kind of talk sends our American Gen II Priusers into a frenzy, as the US Gen II with the bladder can be very unpredictable.

 

My Gen 2 has a 45 litre tank and I've put in 44 litres a few times, so there must've been nothing left in it! I fill to when the pump clicks and then round to the next half litre, never to the top of filler neck. I've only been doing this since I got the Prius as I've always filled cars to the neck over the years. I was just a bit concerned after reading posts here, but I think the main issue is with the American cars with the bladder, which we don't have outside of the US. I've found that there's at least 50 miles left when the last pip flashes, but try not to push it too far, as it's as easy to stop and fill up again

 

I thought the Japanese hypermilers were getting about 60L in their GenII tanks, but don't recall whether or not those were the folks jacking up the corner of the cars to tilt the tank for maximum refills.

Do the Euro market cars have different tanks than the Japanese domestic models?

Edit: Not yet finding the photo of a car jacked up on the corner while refueling, but here is a relevant post, reply #5 of this thread -- about 50L level, or 60L when jacked up: Fuel tank capacity

 

The most I've ever put into the "45 litre" tank was 46.xx l. To be honest, once the fuel pump clicks off, you have to pump painfully slow, so getting that extra 5 litres in would take quite some time and patience. I don't really see the point. You still only get the same l/100 km or mpg's at the end of the tank--unless you're going for some kind of distance per tank record.

No, same 45 l. The North American market is the only odd-ball.

Interesting, never heard of that before. I'd be really surprised if they can get 60 l in that tank.

 

Yes, they were going for tank distance records:
1,562 miles, New World Record with a single tank
over 1,600 miles, Another World Record with a single tank
New World Record - 1619 miles per tank
New World Record - 1680 miles per tank
New World Record Challenge: over 50km/L(117mpg) tank
That last one ended at 118 MPG, and 1889 miles (3040 km) on a single tank of 60.16L.

And I finally found that refueling picture in one of Ken's photo albums. This is how they get 60L refills: