Any issues with EV driving with the Low Fuel Light for a long period?

For myself, I would not have risked the health of my car for that, but perhaps buying another car does not worry you.

 

He isn't driving with an empty tank. From reports of past Prii behavior, there would be more than a just the low fuel light lit up if that were the case.

 

don't try to explain it to jimbo, he's too worried about his mother in law

 

The real concern is not the fuel but the fuel pump. The fuel pump is cooled by the gas in the tank and can overheat without fuel. That would lead to a lower life of the fuel pump.

Since the fuel level is completely unrelated to the MPG why would you care when you fueled? It would still say 500mpg

 

With Toyotas, the tank average MPG display is automatically reset when fuel is added.

 

Humm, do we have that feature in PRIME? I can't remember seeing mpg for tank average displayed anywhere. I think DTE is tied to this data but it is not displayed as MPG. And OP is using TripA to record the current tank MPG, as long as he does not reset it, it will continue to update the MPG whither tank is filled or not.

 

Fuel Pumps:

Typically speaking, your only real fear about potential premature fuel pump failure is when you actually starve it of fuel while it's pumping. When a fuel pump is operating, the gasoline is its lubricant. If you starve it of its needed lubricant even for an extremely short period of time they sometimes fail.

So when the ICE is running, your fuel pump needs fuel to keep it lubricated. If not, you might experience a bad day....


Rob43

 

Where? I don't see any mileage number associated with tank on my display. I get a Trip A, Trip B, ODO, MTE ICE, MTE Battery, Current trip avg

 

On my Camry, there is a small display between the tach and speedometer. I can toggle through a tire pressure display and three customizable screens. I currently have instant MPG, trip MPG, tank MPG, lifetime MPG, average speed, and a digital speedometer to just fill that last spot. I think it can also display the map if you have the nav system.

 

I think he meant to say that the DTE...Distance to Empty... automatically resets.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I might need to "give in" and go to the gas station for 4 or 5 gallons of E0 gasoline real soon, I've been running on a low fuel light for the last ~8 days and 0% fuel on the fuel gauge....


Rob43

 

Sounds like it's worth a shot, but but too much tension for a routine practice for me. It looks like you're still nowhere near empty yet. Due to a ridiculous and unexpected distance between gas stations on our vacation trip this past May, we ran ours WAY past "empty." I was sweating bullets. When we finally got to a gas station, it only took 10.26 gallons to fill it.

Not all Toyotas. Prime has no tank average and the only one that resets itself is the "since last start" average that resets every time you shut off the car.

 

That recommendation comes from the old days when fuel tanks were vented and had some air exchange with the atmosphere, not fairly well sealed as required by today's evaporative emission control requirements. PHEV tanks are sealed even better than other cars, so even less moisture can get in anymore. Even at maximum humidity, the replacement air coming in as the fuel level drops brings in only minuscule amounts of moisture. Combined with large amounts of gas line dryer ethanol in the fuel, that small amount of moisture ought to be easily tolerated.

Does the fuel pump even operate when the Prime is running 100% EV mode?

Even on non-plugin Prii, BobW intentionally ran his Prii out of fuel more than 50 times. Anyone remember how much he spent on fuel pump replacements?

Anxiety is in the mind of the beholder. I don't understand why someone driving a PHEV in essentially all-BEV mode, and thus presumably on trips within BEV range, should have any anxiety about the dinosaur fluid getting low in the tank. Plenty of true BEV drivers are out there without any dinosaur fluid tanks at all, and they don't seem to be having anxiety attacks about it.

As for anxiety about a yellow warning light on the dash, some are simply irrelevant to the driver's particular usage and needs. For OP, this example fits. For me, it is a disabled-clutch-hill-holder warning on my Subaru. Having driven clutched vehicles without this feature for 5 decades now, my clutch foot reflexes simply work better with this feature turned off, regardless of the permanent yellow warning light.

I still don't see anything about OP actually letting it run out.

Actually running dry in a Prime might be a problem, in possibly shutting down EV operations too. But OP isn't necessarily running that low.

 

Most of the water in the fuel got there before it entered the car's tank. Deliveries to the station don't wait for it to stop raining or snowing, or the pavement to dry before unloading.

Water in the ethanol will actually protect any aluminum components from corrosion.

 

Ahhh, yes.

 

So ethanol will absorb some moisture but water in a gas station's tank will NEVER be in the gas because they don't emulsify. You can't dilute gas with water. Gas floats on top of water. The water will be in the very bottom of the tank. There are no doubt water separators as well.

 

It does get sloshed around when filled.

But more importantly, the ethanol is added to the gas before it gets to the station, so the water is emulsified with the fuel there. Barring there being enough water to cause phase separation, but stock turnover should prevent that. A station with alcohol free gas would need to monitor the water level as it increases with time until it gets picked up by the pump and could overwhelm the separators.

Ethanol is hygroscopic, but under normal conditions its concentration levels off at 95.4% through addition of water through humidity alone. Any water portion greater than 4.6% in the ethanol portion of gasoline got there as a liquid that entered the supply stream. Humidity and condensation in a car's fuel tank will be a small addition.