[WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III)

Wow, this thread reminds me of the Stiffening Plate discussion! I gave up trying to read everybody's posts and skipped from page 7 to end.

Just for my 3 cents (inflation, you know), I would like to know how far I've got till the edge without falling over the cliff! Just yesterday I had the flash going on and 0 miles to empty, but I had 485 on the tank and wanted to log another 500 mile tank in the book. Not having read about Bob's field tests, I caved and filled up at 494 miles. I was very disappointed that the pump did an autofill shut-off at 9.87 gallons! Shades of Gen 2 Bladder issues? I won't know till next fill up, but I was bummed.

Oh, how I long for the analog accuracy of my '79 VW Diesel fuel gage. I could tell to the cup how much fuel I really had. I don't need Nanny Laws or Nanny Engineering to protect me from my own supidity (like running out of gas, or over taxing the traction battery).

Thanks, Bob for your report.

Lee

 

Yeah! That's what bothers me. Make "E" mean empty and then warn people NOT to let your car go to empty! If they want to put a reserve in it, it should be a seperate compartment in the tank (that circulates the gas as you fill to stay fresh) but be "switchable". I want to make a conscious decision to switch to reserve when I need it.

 

I imagine Toyota made the Prius G III lose power when it runs out of gas to protect themselves, not you. I think Toyota know you won't care if they have to fork out for a new battery pack while your car is in warranty but their share holders care.

Bob does great work and produces great research, I appreciate why he runs his tank dry from time to time. That doesn't mean I have to agree with him running his Prius out of gas.

CAR4TWO, how can there be a 100% probability you will run out of gas stranded in the middle of nowhere and a probability of more than 0% of running out of gas anywhere else?
Oh I once beat the odds according to your graph. I ran out of fuel in my motorbike, including my reserve and coasted into a petrol station!! I was on my way to see my girlfriends at that time who was in hospital.
It was a very wet night too.

 

I did not comment on that graph because I found it on the Internet. I think what they are saying is if you are in the middle of nowhere you have a 100% change of running out of gas. If you are driving on the freeway there is an 80% change you could run out of gas. If you are driving in a business district with service stations all around you, the changes of running out of gas in front of a service station is 0. Like you, the only time I ever ran out of gas my car coasted into a service station. I did not have to push it one inch. From that moment on, I vowed to fill it up long before the needle reached E.

The graph was posted with no explanation. Running out of gas in the middle of nowhere is very likely. It only makes sense that more cars would run out of gas in the middle of nowhere that anyplace else.

There is never a Radiator Springs around when you need it.

 

the graph was trying for irony, like the chance of rain after you wash your car is 100%

 

Hey Car4Two, yes I am having fun with this car. I love to drive it.

 

Yeah, I was just messing about just like you were. I could see it was an off the shelf graph not one you put together from data gathered. Personally after many years of riding motorcycles with limited range I plan my next fuel stop on trips of more than a single tank distance and even on trips of slightly less than that to ensure I always have some fuel in reserve. Petrol can be 200 or more kilometres away in Australia.
Yes, that is me by the RAV4 at the Marree end of the Strzelecki Track.

 

Thanks Bob.

 

Re: [WARNING] Running out of gas

Depends on your car I suppose. I calculate as you do but my '04 will flash when I have used about 9.5 gallons. Why should I have to go hunt a station when I have 100 miles left in the tank PLUS another 20 miles 'reserve'? For my 'regular' driving, that would mean getting gas almost a week earlier than I need to. I don't push it often and have never run out of gas, I generally get about 10.5 gallons. But I prefer to get gas at stations with cheaper prices, not just the nearest station when I get to 1 pip flashing.

 

Apparently they already did by limiting EV to 25 MPH. Nearly useless, ESPECIALLY in the hands of a knowledgeable Prius driver.

 

A friend of mine did in a 2005. Now *I* would have pulled into the closest safe place but no, he drove to his friend's house and the car stopped, battery depleted just as he got in the driveway. Dumped in 2 gallons of gas. Car started fine, no damage to the battery. My GUESS is that the Gen II will not let you drive to 'damage' on the battery even if there are no bars showing. I'm not going to try it though!

 

I will not argue with anyone on this.
I do thank Bob Wilson for continuously testing the Prius for issues that we should know about.

It reminds me of back when I started driving my first diesel vehicle. A friend took me aside, and told me horror stories of how diesel engines behave if they run out of fuel. The mere thought of having to have the fuel injectors primed in order to start the car again caused me to be just that little bit more careful about not letting the tank get too low. Other stories about how the fuel would jell up in cold weather made me careful about when I switched from #2 to #1 diesel (I lived in Minnesota at the time), and when I would carry anti-jelling stuff with me.

Bob provides us with cautionary tales. If his research results makes just one new Prius driver that much more careful about keeping gas in the car (and some people are pretty cavalier about that, believe me!), then I think he has provided a valuable service.

Thanks, Bob.

 

i just want to say thank you to bwilson4web. thank you Bob for your contributions! the stuff you do is very important and most of us are not willing to push the envelope like you do.

sincerely.

 

Interesting aside, I recently read an article regarding sighted and blind people, how they use their senses and how, with long term (multiple week) 'blinding' of a sighted person, the vision 'receptors' in the brain start reacting to other stimuli (sound, touch) AS IT IS in a permanently blind person.

The net:
While engineers thought up the wonderful 'it is safe to walk now' sounds at intersections, blind people find the extra noise makes it HARDER for them to hear the noises they DO need to pay attention to. If some idiot is doing a right on red, paying attention only to potential traffic coming from the left (not for you Brits and others that drive on the wrong side for the road ) and of course, slowing only as much as necessary to not get hit, the blind person walking LEGALLY into the crosswalk could be killed BECAUSE they couldn't hear the car tires or other noises. More noise is NOT the answer.

 

So the one thing Toyota SHOULD have done, but has not yet decided would be of value, is to have an indication that the ICE is running. While most people wanted it in the past to make sure they were holding in 'light pedal EV', it would appear to be a useful thing if you HAPPEN to run out of gas, NOT as a result of an experiment (and according to some posters, because you are STUPID). In fact, what they SHOULD have is something on the MFD (oh yeah, they got rid of it) that says "Engine stopped, out of gas". Generally speaking none of us want, or TRY, to run out of gas in normal driving, but if it happens it would be nice it we were notified ASAP.

I don't know how the 2010 operates, but try this in your Gen II.

1. Fill up
2. Drive it down to 1 or 2 bars
3. Add a gallon or two.

The 'meter' doesn't seem to know about the extra gas. It stays at 1 or 2 bars even though it is almost half full. I surmise it is calculating based on flow and known tank capacity rather than a float or weight and only recalculates if you put in enough gas (like however much it would take to auto reset the MFD mileage). Do this and you better keep track of how much gas you put in and what mileage you are getting or you WILL run out of gas. Although, I did run 100 miles on a full tank, refill (taking a long trip, wanted to be full) with a couple of gallons 2 weeks ago. No reset and the gauge seems to be operating properly. 3 bars, 550 miles 55.4 MPG, total gas 'in' the tank: about 14 gallons so I should have about 4 left and 3 bars is about right for my car (I expect to see two bars RSN).

In the end, when Toyota comes out with a plug-in Hybrid, it will HAVE to be able to drive with no gas. For people like my wife, 20 miles EV a day would more than suit her needs maybe 340 days a year. No reason to store gas in the car if you aren't using any!!

Now my pet peeve, to all who say other cars die when they run out of gas so there is no reason the Prius should not do so as well:

1. The gauges should be hidden behind the steering wheel just like all other cars
2. We should have to suffer a gated shifter that forces you to go through Reverse and Neutral to get to Drive and reverse the pattern to get to Park
3. The shifter should be in the center of the car even though you rarely need to touch it - DONE!
4. The transmission MUST be a stepped gear. None of this smooth continuous acceleration, no we should have jerky shifting and engine revs just like all the other cars. I just LOVED (not) the Hyundai Tuscon I rented in Chicago.
5. The ICE should not stop when the car does and CERTAINLY not stop if the car is moving!!!
6. It should not put itself in Park when you power off
7. You should have to put a key in a slot and twist it to start and stop the car
8. You MUST pull something out of your pocket to unlock the car. But that is OK, you have to insert and twist a key to start it anyway.

Nope, there should NEVER be ANY changes to how cars work, they should ALL be the same as they were 10, 50, 100 years ago because they were perfect. We need huge grills and huge tail fins and 12 MPG is good enough for EVERYONE. Now where did they hide the crank and choke knob on those 1970's cars?? I've had to walk everywhere for 40 years because I couldn't accept improved technology. OK, so I'm not old enough to have cranked a car, but I know about manual chokes.

 

OK folks, we're a little late to the conversation, but here's our official response to this thread:

With respect to what happens to the vehicle when it runs out of fuel, the 2010 Prius system design is the same as the previous generation. It is an owner's responsibility to keep gas in the vehicle at all times. We cannot ensure reliable performance once the vehicle runs out of gas.

Best,
Erica G. Prius Product Marketing, TMS, USA