Hi everyone! I did attempt to search for an answer before posting, but some of the stickied threads have out-of-date links, so here goes: I have a 2005 Prius that I bought used at ~69k miles in Jan of 2014. When I first bought it, I noticed that I could go approximately 90-100 miles on the first "pip"... now it's down to 50ish miles. For some reason this is bugging me. I liked seeing that I could drive for a while without a change on the meter. In April I had to replace the battery. It's never really been the same since. I was getting around 350 miles to the tank, now I'm getting closer to 300 miles. I've checked my tires and alignment, fluids are good. I don't notice a difference. Driving habits the same. Weather has gotten cooler, but I noticed the change before that. Any ideas? Thanks everyone!
need more info! your car has a rubber bladder in the tank, which makes the gas gauge act funny as the weather changes. nothing you can do about it. as for you mileage, you need to measure mpg by dividing miles driven by gallons added. miles per tank is really useless due to the bladder. tell us more about the battery replacement. 12 volt? hybrid battery? cost? new? used? rebuilt?
Replacement on the hybrid battery. Rebuilt. Aware of the bladder tank, just basing these numbers on what was consistent before.
it is possible you got a bad battery. happens quite frequently on the rebuilts unfortunately. does it have a warranty?
Is your car a salvaged title? Why didn't you go through Toyota for a new battery? Winter gas has less energy compared to summer gas. That's why you see the mileage discrepancy. Also using the heater keeps the engine running longer, thus reducing your mileage. As the summer months come up, it will get better.
It would a lot more cost effective to buy a new battery from Toyota if you only have 69k miles on the car. Your car has very low miles and it'll go many more miles. A refurbished battery will just give you headaches......something you don't really need in a car with less than 100k miles. You most likely could have asked Toyota for some assistance in buying the new battery since your car was about 8 years old and less than 100,000 miles.
You need to STOP figuring your mileage based upon "miles per tank" because that will never be anywhere close to accurate. With the models that have the bladder in the tank it can be WAY off from one fill to another and it seems like the bladder won't fully expand as it gets older. Do you have any built-in MPG displays ? If so, has that changed drastically ??
