Help!

are you being serious?
what is your indicated mpg?

try to relax, there's plenty other things to be worried about. it sounds like you're doing just fine.

no, don't call the dealer, they'll take you for a simp and sell you a bridge.

if you're really that worried, talk to you doctor about a prescription.

relax, take a hot bath, you'll feel much better in the morning :thumb:

 

I've driven 185 miles before the first pip disappeared on occasion and also as little as 65 miles. Don't worry about it. It's the bladder in the fuel tank that makes it do strange things.

 

You are getting great fuel mileage already!

On a serious note, that is pretty normal especially if you topped off your gas tank and are light-footed. Don't expect the fuel gauge to move anytime until after 120 to 150 miles.

 

For me the first pip on the gauge is equal to about 3 of the other pips, it's a veritable mega-pip . Relax, it's totally normal to go that far on just the first pip.

 

oh it never gos down you however can borrow my RX8 and watch it move from the fillup.
I get sometime 120-150 before the first dash disappears.

 

Most gas gauges, the Prius included, have a dead band at the top. The fuel level drops for awhile before the gauge starts to move down.

Tom

 

Tom is mostly correct. However, the digital gauge in the Prius is a pain in the nice person because unlike analog gauges it can't show changes in this "overfull" band. The analogs generally will show some response in the top end unless they are pegged well above Full, whereas the Prius digital won't show any change until it drops to ~90% indicated. Since a normal gauge will display a range of about -25% to about 125%, being unable to see a large percentage of the tank's capacity is the bane of the Prius guess gauge system. The flashing pip starts at ~12.5% (~1/8th tank indicated.)

 

very common occurrence especially at this time of year. if you filled up your tank and then shortly afterward, the weather turned colder, you tank will appear full longer than normal. trust me, this is temporary unfortunately.

 

Most of the analog gauges I've used pegged at full. Likewise some of the analog systems have discrete senders, so you get a banded response even with an analog gauge. It's a frustrating situation, and also helps explain why pilots calculate remaining fuel rather than relying on gauges.

The fuel gauges on the Gen II Prius are less consistent than most. Never expect to know exactly how much usable fuel remains in the tank, unless you enjoy walking.

Tom

 

Melissa We are Neighbors! Private Message me...well we live in the same area at least...Buffalo is not that big!

Your fine I am sure, The guage sometimes takes a while to move. You should be fine...they move faster as you the miles go, so you should see it move soon.

But Private Message me and I would love to share Stories and we can meet and share GEN III and GEN II comparisons...If you wish.

 

Interesting. Most of mine have not. They have seemed to peg at times, but well past full (e.g. my current Tundra which displays about three gallons above full.) I could watch them work their way down toward the full indication and I've used it as a way to determine what fill angle gave the best fill to reduce variability.

Same has been true on the bottom end where the E hash mark is typically about where one would expect the 1/8th tank indication to be. The needle keeps on dropping from there...I'm not sure that I ever saw it stop, despite having run the tanks of my previous three vehicles down very close to total stated capacity. Never ran out doing this over about 500,000+ miles.

There is a hysteresis effect that is apparent on cold starts on other vehicles. I don't know if it is intentional, but they tend to display lower for the first few minutes before working up, then back down as fuel is consumed.

The GenII's bladder and digital display make this sort of resolution and accuracy impossible. It's too bad the digital gauge isn't a simple numeric indication with the 2.5% increments of the output. That would be far more useful than driving 200 miles with no change in gauge indication...

 

I think my own standing record is 220 miles before dropping the
first pip, from one of those times a faulty pump nozzle almost
gave me a "squirt event" but I caught it in time and still wound
up with a very full tank.
.
_H*

 

Shawn, I think the hysteresis effect is really a time constant built into the metering system to dampen oscillations - probably nothing more than an RC circuit. Otherwise the fuel gauge would swing up and down around corners and hills. On power up, the dampening circuit charges, so the indicator slowly rises.

I don't doubt that your old analog fuel gauges worked differently than the ones I had. There seems to be a lot of variation in how they are built. I've had some pretty bad ones over the years, and some that were quite good.

On some of the old fuel gauge displays you can see a small overlay piece at the Empty position of the gauge. This piece was attached separately so that Empty would be correctly calibrated. Apparently it was cheaper to glue the piece on in the right place than build a trimmer into the gauge.

Tom

 

As others have suggested ... this is rather normal and no cause for alarm.

After filling up Mithril, our '08, "he" almost always travels at least 100 miles before the first pip goes out.

The longest he's gone with all 10 pips still on is about 175 miles.

 

Welcome to the "Guess Gauge". The only time it is accurate is at empty. Tonight I went from 2 pips to 1 pip by booting up the car.

 

I went from Bend, OR to Castle Rock, WA and the gauge was still showing full. 2-1/2 hour drive. In Bend however my son was fueling up while I was taking a leak, and when I came out fuel was every where. We do have trouble at times with filling up.

 

i have only seen it once or twice in my 04 or 06, but have already seen it several times on the 2010, where i will "grow" a pip overnight. i will frequently shutdown with 8 pips only to have 9 the next morning.

 

Melissa. Welcome to PriusChat. Read all you can about the gen ll Prius, which is what your car ('08) and mine ('09) is. Read all the threads about the gas tank being a "bladder" type, which is nothing to be frightened of nor alarmed about. You just need to think about the tank a little differently. The pip data you've mentioned is totally normal.

Just research the threads about allowing the tank to breath to prevent overflow when filling up and I never allow my tank to go below 4 pips left to fill-up, as the bladder will shrink some and will need to be allowed time and pressure to expand again.
But, no problem, just a heads up on my experience with this.
Read all the threads on the gen ll forum for information.
Knowledge is POWER.
zonie