Fuel gauge reset to full with 376 miles on resettable odometer

My wife says the gas gauge was down to two bars and now the gauge shows totally full. The resetting odometer has 376 miles on it so the fuel gauge should not be on full. She is adding gas this morning to see how much it takes. We are getting approx 42 mpg.

I did a search and didn't find anything about this except a mention of "resetting the inclinometer". We do have a sloped driveway and usually back in (front higher than back). Since part of our normal route road is block because of a landslide I turned the car around and parked it on the sloped driveway with the front down, maybe the first time I did this. I powered it off and then my wife drove it 10 min later.

Could this somehow trigger the gauge to reset to full? Anyway to reset it? Thanks.

 

Update: When my wife got to the gas station, the fuel gauge was one bar down from full. She was able to add 8 gallons, so something had fooled the gauge into thinking there was more gas than there actually was in the tank. The odometer reset and the tank shows full now. I wonder how the gauge would have read as the tank got close to empty and if any warnings would have come on before running out of gas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 19 2006, 03:37 PM) [snapback]242228[/snapback]</div>

Except it continued to read full after 10-15 miles of driving on level surface.

 

I understand what you are saying and I assumed that it had something to do with powering off on the incline. But my wife drove to work and parked level and then came home and backed in and parked level again. So I am surprised it never reset when powered off on level ground to somewhere close to the amount of gas that was in the tank. It continued to show a full tank when in fact it was 8 gal low.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusnuts @ Apr 19 2006, 08:12 PM) [snapback]242364[/snapback]</div>

I have a 2006 with about 3000 miles. I don't think there is any recalls that apply to me or the dealer where I purchased it.

 

When it gets close to empty I'll park it nose down and see if I can recreate the problem.

 

UPDATE. I can recreate the resetting of the fuel guage to full. I was down to two bars and parked nose down at the beginning of our driveway which is about a 30-40 degree slope. Turned the car off, got out, locked it, then immediately got back in, powered on and backed out and drove up the street to turn around. As I drove up the street the fuel guage added bars till it was full. I have to take it in and see if this is problem with the sensor or something. It would be great if anyone else could recreate this problem to see if common to all Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ Apr 24 2006, 01:20 PM) [snapback]244321[/snapback]</div>

I know, but after backing out of the driveway I'm on level ground and the fuel gauge is reading full. In fact I watched the gas gauge add bars AFTER I was on the level road. When my wife got to the gas station today she turned the car off then back on and the fuel gauge reset to 2 bars. I think it takes a reading on start-up which throws off the sensor. I'm surprised that after a short while on level ground it does not give a normal reading, without going through the on/off cycle. If the car's info screen had not been on to show the mileage it would be very easy to run out of gas. I have not had this problem with any other car parked like this.

This is the second time and it reset, the first time this happened the fuel gauge did not reset until it was filled up at the gas station.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ Apr 24 2006, 04:13 PM) [snapback]244431[/snapback]</div>

Maybe the way I've explained what happened is confusing. The first time this happened the fuel gauge read full for over 24 hours, the car had been driven around 15 miles, and it had been parked on a level surface and restarted. By the time my wife got to the gas station the next day it had dropped one bar and it wasn't until it was filled up that the gauge reset to full. The second time it happened the car was driven down a hill about 8 miles and it stayed on full till my wife got to the gas station and turn it off then back on. At that point it reset. Maybe it's normal but it seems a bit strange.