Hey guys. I have a 2005 Prius. I purchased it as a commuter car about a year ago. My biggest gripe with the car is the fuel capacity is TERRIBLE. I know about the bladder etc but my gosh it’s awful. I’m curious if something is wrong with the car or if it’s just what I should expect because of the bladder. Anyways, when it’s summer and warmer temps, I have never been able to get even 8 gallons in it. Every gas station will usually click off around 7.5-7.8 gallons. And this is usually ran all the way down to a blinking light. So I’m not able to get remotely close to some of these extended ranges. It’s even worse in winter as most times I cannot get more than 6.5-7 gallons in it. This along with the generally lower winter MPG means I’m constantly at a gas station. Sometimes I’m lucky to get 250 miles out of a tank. It’s so frustrating. The car has never had any trouble lights or anything like that. Any ideas?
After opening the cap let it breath for a minute or two, or possibly the bladder is damaged, I never had any problem with filling, does the gas gauge say it's 3/4th full when you fill it or does it say full?
Similar when I had my '04. I generally filled between 10 and 20 miles after it started blinking and pretty consistently it would click off at around 7.2. I had a bad experience damaging a fuel pump on a Golf when it ran out of fuel so I never took the chance on carrying gas and seeing how far it would go before running out. I'd be glad to hear from others who have run to empty, intentionally or not, and how much they could then get in before the pump clicked off. With my '12 PIP it is only slightly better, pump clicks off at around 8.3 when running a bit on the blink.
i had an '04 and '08 that took 10 gallons from empty every time. not sure what the difference is between the ones that work, and the ones that don't. unfortunately, toyota could never be bothered to try and figure it out.
The gauge is a common problem, but it doesn't mean the tank is too small. It means you actually have more gas left than you thought. My 2004 has been that way since new. Just be glad it isn't off the other way!
Our 2006 has the problem...sometimes less than 6 gal fill-ups in the cold. I am confused what the problem is. Theory(1) winter gaso with more butanes is confusing the filling system Theory(2) less flex in the gasoline tank. It *sounds* like the tank is getting full when the pump shuts off. But the pip level gauge barely gets to 10 pips, suggesting the tank is not full. In the summer, the first pip can take up to 150 miles to disappear. So it seems like cold weather either effects the bladder, or it effects the level gauge, or both. The thing I might try is going back the next day to see if it takes a couple more gallons after the weight of the gasoline maybe puffs up the tank. I got under the car, and I guess we cannot visually see the tank.
I wonder if you've somehow gotten gasoline between the bladder and the actual tank. preventing the bladder from being full size.
That is actually the question. If it were the case then we could safely go another 150 miles after it starts blinking. I have not heard anyone recommend that.
150 miles... no. 20 miles... maybe. That is going to vary from car to car. That is something you will need to do yourself with your own car. Look up the fuel tank capacity in the owner's manual. Then go for different miles past the point when the fuel gauge STARTS blinking and measure how much fuel that you put in. I would advise always having at least 1gal / 2L still in the tank when you refuel to avoid sucking crud from the bottom of the tank into the engine.
It does fill for me too, but the issue is how many miles you get before the first pip is gone. In my car anyways, a good fill-up can be as much as 150 miles before the first pip goes away. But I only get maybe 20-30 miles in winter.
Ignore when the gauge says Full. It's when it says Empty that matters. BTW, on my 2004, I can top off the tank and it still says one block down from Full. The sensor is offset from the actual state of the tank. Not something that can be adjusted. You just need to learn to live with it.
Mine always showed full when full. I believe the most I ever went before dropping one pip was 180 miles. This still doesn't tell me where the missing 4+ gallons are hiding.
Military talk from WW-II. It was the only way to express frustration over the airways when things were FUBAR.
