Ran out of Gas, got BAD advice from Dealership!

1. do not rely on the tank being 11.9 gallons and do not rely on your own calculations. if the bar is blinking, get gas. the bladder gives you extremely variable fillups, and rarely do they get much over 10 gallons.
2. do not run until the electric dies. this can cause serious problems with your vehicle.
3. roadside assistance was discontinued after the 05s
4. the prius takes 3 gallons of gas to reset the gas gauge and the MFD, it does make sense in some twisted way.

lesson learned: if the car says to get gas, LISTEN!

sorry for the rant, but there's no reason to ever run out of gas in any vehicle, especially one that gets over 400 mi/tank.

please, spend some time on priuschat and get to know your car a bit before something else crops up that you're not sure about. good luck.

 

Dealership not the issue. You need to become an informed driver. You have a vehicle that is very different in some ways but has hard to screw up instructions...listen to your vehicle and read the manual!!

 

A friend of mine brought her car today to the dealer for an unrelated issue. She is still on her first tank, and has about 1/4 of a tank left. The dealer gave her strong advice to never let the tank go below 1/4... and those that do are likely to get expensive repairs. She was not sure why... but the dealer added that it would not be covered by warranty. Once again... I do not know if that is really accurate.

On a similar thread... my (exceptional) mechanic recently changed a fuel pump for $650 on my daughters Jeep. He asked her if she routinely ran the tank low... and she said yes (college student without extra money). He claims that he changes fuel pumps every week for people who let their tanks run low because the submerged fuel pump gets its cooling from fuel. He said that if you never let the tank go below 1/4... then you will never need a replacement fuel pump.

I have no idea if this is acurate or not for the Prius... but to me it is crazy to see how low you can go with the fuel in your tank. It is not hard to fill up more often. Maybe it is my training as a pilot (we don't have mid-air refueling for Cessnas )... but IMHO there is no advantage to allowing the fuel to go low.

/Jim

 

I have to say I'm puzzled with what seems to be an obsession of seeing the most you can get out of a tank. Most of the guys(and girls) doing these seem to be getting good mileage anyway. I've only let it go as low as 3 bars...well, that's my preference.

 

I suspect that this a bogus story.

 

I can attest to the poor fuel pumps in Jeeps if you let them run below a 1/4 tank. My sister has a love affair with Jeeps....her only two cars have been an 89 and 99 Blue Jeep Cherokee. Our mechanic and our father continually remind her to fill up often, but she has yet to learn. Three fuel pumps later...I have yet to drive her Jeep without having to fill it up.

On the same line as the pilots...my father was a fire chief...and obsessively starts thinking about filling up the tank at 3/4.

 

I'm with you on this.

 

I learned when I was young that it costs just as much to keep the tank full, as it does to keep it empty.

 

I had exactly the same experience, except that I got to a filling station before the battery died. 45 X 11 = 495 right? Now I look for gas as soon as the guage begins to blink. It usually takes between 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 gallons.

 

I guess I'm in the minority here. I've been driving an 01 for 5.5 years and 80K miles, and I've always waited for the blink (and the ding). I usually get filled up 40-50 miles after the blink. The only exceptions were during long trips when I was taking a rest stop anyway.

I did the same thing with all my previous cars, but of course wouldn't dare to go another 50 miles. I have never had any trouble with any fuel pump, nor have I been stranded. The 01 did stall on me several times, but that's a different issue and had been fixed.

I'm on my 3rd tanks with the 06 and yes, had let it blink twice. I don't know if I'll change my ways for the 06. Old habits are hard to break. I generally pay very little attention to the car, even a Prius, until it starts to call my attention. Thank goodness the Prius gives a lot of feedback about low fuel, even on the MFD.

I'm not dismissing the wisdom of keeping the tank near full, I'm just offering another data point. Procrastinators can drive a Prius, too

 

I **LOVE** "I ran out of gas," threads.

Only those of us with the RIGHT STUFF, true members of the brotherhood, can claim they intentionally ran out of gas in search of an elusive 600, 625, 650!, dare I say more(?), mile tank.

Not that I ever did that. nudge nudge wink wink, Right Evan?

Not in Michigan in the Winter! HOLY CATS! Down half a tank at 150 miles! In the summer, I don't lose the FIRST BAR until 200 miles!



http://www.w8kc.com/priusmileage.htm

 

Please do not blame anyone other than yourself for running out of petrol. Isn't this one of the fundamental things you are taught when learning to drive? Sure, Toyota lied (or that one person you spoke to didn't know any better) but who did you really talk to when you called? Don't hold them all to that standard because you may have talked to the lot idiot.

Wasn't the roadside assistance - or lack thereof, explained to you when you purchased the car?

Sorry for that rant - I woke up this morning deciding that I was going to stop pandering, being politically correct, and just put it on the table.

Okay, on to filling the tank before it drops below 1/4 - this is highly recommended for a reason. But no, it will NOT affect your warrantee - that was completely an assinine thing to say.

It is RECOMMENDED (but not required) that you add fuel to your tank before it drops below 1/4 because in time, sediment and other contamination settles at the bottom of your tank. If you consistently run it from the bottom, that sediment gets into your fuel filter and other engine components.

Now, with that said, I think this was very, very important on older cars and also because fuel and its processes were less refined.

Oh, and by the way, welcome to PC!!!

 

I learned when I was old that it costs MORE to keep the tank empty as it does to keep it full.

 

I too am in the "fill it up before I absolutely need to camp". Usually around two bars.

But for those who insist on thinking that they should be able to get 11.9 gallons of operation out of a 11.9 gallon tank, I feel I must point something out. Even if you ignore the fact that the gas is really inside a big balloon in the tank, there's another factor.

Have you ever noticed that when you drink soda with a straw, it's hard to get every drop of it out of the bottom of the cup? You usually have to tip the cup so all the soda runs to one side and then it's deep enough to suck most of the rest out, right? And when you tip the cup, part of the cup bottom is high and dry, right?

Well, think of your gas tank as a big 3 foot wide cup full of gas. How deep do you think a gallon of gas would be in this 3 foot wide cup? Less than an inch maybe? And what would happen to the level of gas across the bottom of the cup when you tip it, by going uphill, downhill, or by turning, braking, or accelerating? Part of the tank bottom would be high and dry, just like the soda cup, right? And when that happens, the fuel pump starts sucking air.

And when that happens, the Prius's ECU decides that you must be out of gas and shuts down the engine. However, while other cars might just sputter a little and keep going, the Prius's ECU will refuse to restart the engine until it knows that you've added more fuel (3 gallons or more to be exact).

So, while the Prius may have an 11.9 gallon tank, it can't practically use all 11.9 gallons in the tank, unless the tank was shaped like an inverted cone or funnel.

 

Hey!

I live in Chicago area, with just as harsh winters. Does the MPG on these cars suffer THAT MUCH during Winter?

-Steve

 

It seems (after reading some older entries in the forum) that some areas ARE getting roadside assistance and some aren't. The 2006 pocket guide from Toyota specifically mentions it. I know I checked with my dealer and he confirmed that I DID have it.

If you got one of these pocket guides with your car, you might inquire with your dealer about it.