My gas gauge is kind of screwy on my "New" 2006 Prius. getting an empty tank light at about 200 miles. Not exactly 200 but about. I need to find a level surface to try to reset the gauge but have not been able to yet. What I have been doing is driving 350 miles, which should give me a comfort zone, and putting in just over 7.5 gallons. Seems to work for now. Done it twice now. I checked the distance between the gas station I went to and home and it is 11.2 miles. My distance gauge that resets itself when you refill shows 11 miles so seems pretty accurate because Google maps shows 11.2 miles. I have read that the sensor in the tank is a crazy job and really expensive if it comes down to it? Second question related. Gas gauge is showing 41.8 mpg and got up to 42.2 on a recent trip. A little low. I did a calculation and got between 44.3 to 44.4 mpg by dividing distance traveled by the amount of gas. . That seems a half decent MPG for winter and that I have been driving shorter distances with more up and down hills than before. Anything that could be throwing off the mpg reading? I have plans to clean the MAF sensor later this week
I know it has one but I know that even though the gas gauge shows empty at what would be 4 or 5 gallons burned, I can still put a couple of additional gallons of gas in the tank. So the bladder cannot have contracted to the point where there are only 5 gallons in the tank.
Where the tank is listed as something like $1500. Damn. Maybe I can just reset the gas gauge and solve the problem.
Even though the fuel pump and level sender are sealed in the tank, there are some diagnostic procedures you can do to confirm the failure of the pump or sender. mr_guy_mann has posted those details quite recently so I'd go look those up and do the tests. A lot of the problems with fuel filling on the Gen 2 are attributed to the 'bladder' but I can identify most of the same issues on Prii without bladders and I conclude the 'bladder' gets far too much credit. I think that people need to expand their horizons and look elsewhere. ChapmanF has posted about the ORVR/EVAP system a few times (and I don't think people are taking as much notice as they should (IMHO)) with a good level of detail so I'd urge a bit more research looking at that. Here is a link to one such Oct 21, 2021 post with that info. As to the "just reset the gas gauge" idea, there is no such procedure. The most talked about procedure resets the horizontal and vertical inclinometers in the CM (combination meter). The only real reason to execute that procedure is when you've removed and replaced the CM. The only other good reason I can think of is if you suspect someone else has executed the procedure when not on a flat and level surface. Finding a flat and level surface to execute the procedure would be worth doing. I urge you to do proper diagnostics and if you do find out the fuel level sender or the fuel pump is faulty then it is a new tank for you. If you can be assured that both are in working order in a secondhand fuel tank, then that is a more affordable option.
Having a 200 mile range in the winter is not unusual for me. My car has a range of between 200-450 miles, heavily dependent on air temperature and amount of fuel that I can put in my car. In winter, the car will often take only 6 gallons of fuel, and in the summer, it can take up to 9 gallons. This means that I can expect my winter range to be 200-250 miles, my summer range to be 360-420 miles, and my spring or fall range to be 300-350 miles.
The computer has a difficult job calculating fuel economy and range, when your driving keeps changing. I find that the Gen 5 does a better job of that than the Gen 3 did, for what it's worth.
I think the best for me is not to anything major and just drive 350 between fill up. The gas gauge being funny is something I can deal with.
