How far do you go when the fuel gauge blinks?

Good to know...just filled up my second tank two days ago and wasn't sure how far I could go before absolutely having to stop. DTE was still showing 23+, iirc... Nice to know it is trustable...even with the gas gauge beeping and flashing ;-)

 

I find it more trustworthy than the blinking bar, particularly at 0 miles remaining. Don't forget though that what you see is the result of a computer reading the same old type of variable resistor in the gas tank that a conventional gas gauge uses. You can't depend on it anymore than you can an old fashioned needle type gas gauge, which is to say it's very dependable until it isn't.

 

I test drove mine with the gauge blinking red and the dealer said not to worry! I didn't and all was ok. Now looking back, I wish I knew how much gas it took when the dealer filled it for my delivery. I've never seen it red again though.

I've gone 48 miles after the dte showed 0, with a blinking first bar and filled it to 10.5 gals. I've found my actual mpg is about 3 less than the display so I do the math, knowing I have a safe 11 gallons, more if I want to push it but I see no reason to do that. I pushed this one because it was one of my worst mpg tanks, 47.9 at the pump, commuted against the wind of a northeaster and snow. My commute is just under 100 miles each way and I'm determined to go 5 legs on a tank.

 

Out of necessity, I ran mine down to 11 miles remaining. My fuel-up took 9.6 gallons. If I want to play brinkmanship I suppose it could have gone another 75 miles but why have an anxiety attack. It's not worth running out of fuel in a Prius.

 

I usually go to 0 miles left and then 50 more miles, when the commute and the lower priced gas station locations allow. Typically, gas is cheaper by my house than where I work so I try to coincide it with that. Also, it's more of a pain, location wise, to get it at work.

 

"I'd appreciate a large sample of responses. Thanks"

I usually get gas shortly after the blinking light, but sometimes I push it 50-60 past DTE=0. The most I have driven past the blinking light is 117 miles and 82 miles past DTE = 0.
I had a little over a gallon of gas left, mpg was close to 65.
I think you're pretty safe using David's (Codyroo) 10 X HSI (display reading). 10 X HSI should = ~10.5 gallons of gas used.

 

With the wide range of MPG's being reported by the members, I think you are asking questions that have no difinitive answers. Do your own calculations based on your particular car. In other words, "Stick you finger on the hot iron and see if it's HOT!!!" .

 

I usually go another 50 miles once it blinks. There's at least 2 gallons in the tank when it blinks, even though the displayed range at that point will read zero.

 

I was wondering this also... currently about 2k miles into my new Prius. On a recent Vegas trip, I stopped at the Cal-Nev state line but wondered if I could push all the way into Vegas where gas would be at least another $.25 cheaper. My DTE said 29mi when the distance is about 40mi... wasn't sure if I should push it, so I stayed safe and filled up with just a few bucks.

After that I noticed that the DTE didn't change much depending on how I was driving. 40miles to Las Vegas driving 60mph should make a big difference over driving 80mph. But DTE stayed the same. After reading this thread it sounds like I would have been fine though.

 

I know that I was down to 11 mile and it took 9.6 gallon. I think pushing it any farther could have an effect on the fuel pump longevity. I'm not willing to take that chance. I think a good rule of thumb would be 75 mile left at the zero
mark.

 

Welcome to the forum, I usually fill up when the display down to 2 bars or drove over 400 miles. I drive 135+ miles daily and need to fill up around 3 days, so...it takes around 8.2 or 8.5 gallons and the DTE shown about 90+ miles left.

When I pick up the Prius back in 2011, the car salesman suggest than SHOULD fill up the tank once it reach 2 bars fuel gauge left, because the car does not have low fuel warning indicator, it just blinks. I believe the Prius "V" HAVE low fuel warning light.

 

I travel 500 miles a week and I find it a real pain filling up when I have 2-3 gallons in the tank so basically I brim the tank then forget the fuel gauge and range indicator. because they are hopelessly vague.

What I do is reset the MPG reading and reset the trip odometer. Then the theoretical maximum range is simply the MPG reading X how ever many gallons are in the tank. EG 50mpg x 12 gallons =600 miles

Then I just take 10% off for good measure so your effective max range is 540miles.

I have done this for 45000miles or so and I have always have at least 2-3 litres left in the tank. I admit the calculation is easier for me because I have a Toyota Auris HSD (I live in the UK) which has a 10 Gallon tank so the maths is quite easy.

Doing it this way means I can do the whole week without having to stop to fill her up. The only time it nearly caught me out was when I didnt brim the tank one time because I was in a rush , luckily I remembered before I got near to empty

Doing it this way it doesn't matter wether you are having a good week (ie summertime) or a bad week
you always know exactly how far you can push the miles if you really need to

I hope this helps

 

I typically go 120 - 140 miles beyond the blinking. I don't use the range doohicky, but instead take the displayed mpg minus 10% and multiply that by 11 (gallons). That gives me a conservative range for the tank, assuming driving conditions don't change radically. I've used this technique for almost 9 years of owning a Prius and it has never let me down. The most I have ever had to fill the tank was 11.3 gallons, and that was going 143 miles past the start of the blinking.

 

I suppose the snarky answer would be "until it suddenly stops blinking" !

Honestly, I have only filled mine twice now. I don't know for sure how much gas can actually be used from the tank, so I figure I'll just fill up every 500 miles whether it needs it or not...!

 

Yesterday I went 25 miles past the "zero" miles to empty or 45 miles past the blinking stage. Put in 10.014 gallons. 100 miles past the blinking point would still have close to 1 gallon in the tank. Good to know the next time it blinks on my way to work. I still have plenty of gas to get back home. I have over 33K miles on the car and have only put more than 10 gallons in the tank two times now. I have gone past the zero mark probably ten times times.

 

When you make calculations based on how much fuel it took to re-fill the tank, be aware that some gas tanks hold "unusable" fuel. Some of that fuel you thought you had left might not be available due to the design of the tank. I'm not saying this is the case with the Prius tank....but I guess it could be.

 

After collecting data for a few months, I decided to push my luck and drive about 80 miles after the last pip was blinking. I knew that I had about 1.8 gallons left because I usually needed 9.9 or 10 gal to fill it at that point. I had been averaging 48-50 mpg at highway speeds. My trip odo was at 500 miles so 580 sounded like the max to me. At odo 578 miles my ICE cut out and I was at my exit ramp, 0.5 miles from a gas station. Although ICE wouldn't fire back up, I was able to use EV to run at 45mph (no ICE, per scan gauge) to travel the remaining distance. Still had 3 bars left on battery. I wouldn't want to ever do that again, but it did answer the question about using battery only when completely out of gas. When I mashed the pedal, the display bar went way past centerline and the Prius really MOVED on just EV! The one thing I regret not trying was powering down at the pump, then seeing if I could power up again from a cool engine on EV ONLY and moving the vehicle a bit to another pump. But I was scared $&@tless and just wanted to get home

 

Agreed! I'm the same way.

 

Well, since you have the scangauge, if really want to know how much fuel actually in the tank, make sure the Scangauge II with the latest firmware (4.06), you can use the X-gauge function to add the "Fuel Level" so that it will tell you how many gallons still in the tank, this will give you an idea are you running on vapor. the latest firmware add a lot more useful function to the scangauge, I just did a few like "state of charge" of the traction battery, the actual in car "room temperature" and the "fuel level". I find it more useful now with the scangauge II. I had the really old firmware and I pay $25 to upgrade the firmware directly from Linear Logic.