Can someone explain how this came about? This is the second time it happened. Both occured on my drive back home from work. I was not sitting at traffic for 5 minutes. It was not even a stop and go commute. Pretty much 20 MPH average.
Someone else posted a similar picture a few months back. If my memory is correct (a BIG if) I think it was deduced that they were fiddling with the mph/kph button at the time and it somehow affected the screen. Were you doing the same thing when this happened?
69 degrees? Hardly seems fair....we have snow and in 20's. Can't help you with consumption reading....but count your blessings!
I'm not fiddling with anything, except changing between energy mode and comsumption once in a while. 69, yeah, bummer. And we even had rain.
I can't explain it, but it happened to me once under different circumstances. I was in stop-and-roll traffic waiting to cross the Bay Bridge on a warm-ish Saturday afternoon in early February. I got one bar at 100 mpg, followed by one at zero, followed by another at 100. I may have toggled between the consumption and energy screens a few times during that 15-min period, but I don't think I touched anything else on the MFD. I had the stereo on, but no A/C.
I know you said you weren't sitting still, but the only way I know that to happen is if you use some gas (A/C or heat) when not moving, you get 0, where if you don't use any gas, you get 100. I also find it very interesting that you get regen marks during this period. My professional opinion: weird.
That was my reading the first time this happened. My first 20 minutes from work is usually flat with a moderate downhill, so I usually coast during that part of the trip. That's why seeing 0 was really surprising.
I get this quite often. You've evidently (according to the car at least) gone five minutes without using any fuel to propel the car. Since you can't divide by zero (miles/gal) to make a calculation for that segment, the empty bar is what happens. If your ICE would have come on at all during the five minutes - I mean just for a second - you'd be seeing the "full", 100 MPG bar instead.
That does explain it. Like I said, it's pretty much downgrade from work, so it's conceivable that I did electric/coast for 5 minutes! Thanks!
Same thing happened to me this morning driving down the Pasadena freeway at about 8:50 am. I was coasting/gliding in heavy traffic. The indicator would not move whether I stomped on the gas or just coasted. Then, on the next 5 mile block, everything was fine again. Do you think the rain and very wet road was to blame? Mike
I'd experiment to verify this explanation. It could also be due to a failed wheel rotation sensor or wire.
I got another version of the zero MPG bar tonight. After going out to dinner, we stopped at the grocery store. DH wanted to stay in the car to listen to the radio while I ran in, so I put it in P, put on the brake, and left the car on. When I came out about 7 minutes later, the most recent consumption bar was zero MPG, but it had a half-car of regen. Based on the explanations above, I think I cruised into/through the parking lot (just after starting a new 5 minute period) without using any gas, hence the zero MPG. I used the brakes as I drove through the lot and to come to a stop in the parking space, hence the regen. The next bar was 100 MPG, as the ICE did come on as I left the parking lot.
Hey! We have two of the same threads running...too funny! Just happened to me two days in a row with the 0MPG bar...both while running for over 5 minutes in EV mode! see other thread too for pictures http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=17043&hl=
While I understand the "empty" bar, I wish they'd have been consistent and made it "full" instead. When you 're driving and moving, and the ICE isn't running, you use no fuel to propel the car. However, the FE bar on the right hand side of the consumption screen shows full instead of empty. It's the same situation ... zero fuel used. In this case it's just an instantaneous readout instead of a five minute readout. So, they show similar circumstances in different ways. Anyway, it doesn't affect the FE # and that's the most important thing. That's still a measure of fuel used (injector pulses I think) over the distance traveled.
