Ran out of gas.

What was your gas gage displaying before you ran out?

Tom

 

Just imagine that single blinking box, going off-on-off-on saying GET! GAS! GET! GAS! GET! GAS!

We don't call it the Guess Guage without reason...

 

Where is our curmudgeon in chief? He loves to pontificate to folks who test the limits of the Prius gas tank.

 

All these assumptions about the gas tank capacity.... At least you have the ability to note that the car WAS telling you it was running out, and the humility to sit for 20 minutes to wallow in the reality. GET GAS GET GAS GET GAS. The blinking pip and the MFD don't lie. Sorry about your little situation.

 

I'm a relatively new Prius driver and forum poster, but I've already seen so many of these types of threads that I just have to ask. I don't mean to offend anybody and please excuse my tone, it's more of astonishment and confusion than being a smart a$$. But what in the heck is the aversion to stopping and getting gas when the guage gets low?

I just don't get it.

 

I get it.

People are busy, with many demands and deadlines to meet, and have to continually juggle time trade offs to meet them. Sometimes it isn't always convenient to get gas when the guage is 1/4 tank, while straining through thick traffic to get to an appointment on time.

While it is even less convenient to run out and be stranded, running low on other cars has a more predictable outcome... one that people have learned to "guage" down to the last 20 miles, despite the low fuel lights in other cars coming on some 30 miles prior.

The trouble is that running low on the Prius is less predictable. That's why new Prius owners run out of gas.

We established a policy: On our way home, after the last trip of the day, if the tank to any of our vehicles is half full or less, we must stop at a gas station and fill up before finally coming home.

I don't know about how the perfect individuals out there live, because I'm not one of them, so it is easier for me understand when someone runs out of gas. Even with the aforementioned established policy in our home, there are still times when I'm too tired to adhere to my own policy, and slink straight home to bed, with only a 1/8th tank.

But I don't drive the Prius, so I can get away with this sin. My wife however, ALWAYS keeps the Prius tank filled. She ran out of gas just once, when the Prius was only a few days old, and she never will go through that again.

I suspect that for most calculus minded people, it will happen only once for them also.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jmann @ Mar 13 2007, 12:29 AM) [snapback]404558[/snapback]</div>

Hi Jmann,

Rubber shrinks in the cold. So, below freezing you cannot put more than about 10 gallons into the Prius tank. If you gassed up on one of those sub 15 F mornings we had a few weeks ago, well, then you might have been lucky to get 9.5 gallons into the tank.

During summer, it ll take 11 gallons, but just. And only after being stretched out for a few warm weather fillups.

Last spring, I did a fill up one freezing morning, just as the second pip dropped, then again in the afternoon at the same distance from the gas station after the second pip dropped , but it was sunny and 50 degrees. The difference in filling was exactly one gallon. Which is huge when it comes to trying to estimate based on mileage.

Quantized gauges are a problem too. One sees two-pips. Does no that mean .21 to .29 tanks worth left, or does it mean .15 to .25 ? Or worse yet .11 to .19 ? So, that when the second pip goes off, the one pip is left and exactly .1 tanks worth is left. .1 tanks worth is what? In the Prius, which self calbrates the gauge based on the fillup blader expansion, that .1 tank worth could mean any where from .75 (sub-zero fillup) to 1.1 (south texas summer fillup) gallons.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gh4chiefs @ Mar 13 2007, 12:21 PM) [snapback]404897[/snapback]</div>

Haven't you seen the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and the car salesman push the car as far as it can go without stopping? That show was great about spotlighting idiosyncrasies of the human condition. Apparently, trying to outfox the gas gauge can be one of them.

I'm one of the gas gauge pushers, as well. I don't know why, but something inside me just wants to test the limits of how far I can go...there's a small thrill with wondering "Can I make it?"

Of course, it just plain sucks when you don't. I've run out of gas in the Prius once. And yes, I was only able to fill my tank with 9 and a half gallons or so when I did--that rogue gallon or two drives me nuts!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gh4chiefs @ Mar 13 2007, 09:21 AM) [snapback]404897[/snapback]</div>

We're dealing with a number of things here. One is the desire to get the most mileage per tank. Another is the bladder. It's easy to think that if the tank holds 11.9 gallons and I put in 9, I had 2.9 gallons left, but because of the bladder it's only true that you put in 9 gallons. Also, if you ask other Prius drivers how many miles they were able to go on the last flashing pip, that number will vary and while one person was able to go 90 miles, another may go only 5.

 

<_< Howdy jmann

It's indeed a drag running out of fuel. QUOTE: "Here is the problem: 43MPG, 403 miles, 11.5 gallon tank => 91 miles remaining."

This math is not reliable for the Prius, there simply aren't enough varibles considered. Consider the bladder, temperature, different conditions like hills, pavement condition, varying speed, and especially how much fuel is actually "useable," etc. I've found the safest is to add fuel at the single, un-blinking pip on the Guess Gauge or even sooner depending on your travel plans.

Better luck next tank.

 

I was down to one bar yesterday and drove for about 10 miles before fueling up. I was surprised that I only pumped 8.3 gallons. So when it is actually almost empty, that last bar is going to flash?

 

I'm sure this has been covered before as this seems to be a popular topic, but I can't seem to find it.

What is the advantage of this bladder thingy? Is it that much better than a normal gas tank?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cbs4 @ Mar 13 2007, 12:44 PM) [snapback]404911[/snapback]</div>

Yeah but putting gas is the tank is one of those things you HAVE to do, it's not just an "inconvenience." It has nothing to do with being a "perfect person."

 

"What is the purpose of the bladder?"

Fuel evaporates into the air. Now a rigid tank contains a lot of air when almost empty. Like 9 gallons or so - exactly because it's not a Prius tank.
So you stop to purchase fuel and remove the cap - some of that fuel vapour escapes into the atmosphere. More escapes as you replace the volume with fuel (unless your state has the vapour recovery thingy).

To attain the highest rating re a non-polluting car, Toyota put the bladder in the Prius tank. The bladder collapses down to the fuel - little air volume. So any vapour in the tank is almost pure fuel, and its' volume is very small compared to the rigid tank example above. Also while there is almost certainly still -some- air in there, it's a small volume and therefore contacts a small surface area of fuel, which reduces evaporation. So when you stop to fuel up you don't take the chance of releasing 9 gal of air/fuel vapour.

Also, if you have noticed lately you seem to get more outrush of fuel vapour when you remove the cap, it's because of the ethyl alcohol in the fuel. It has a higher vapour pressure than the "normal" components of gasoline. Even though alcohol vapour is less harmful in the atmosphere, it further emphasises the good the bladder does.

 

I did not know that. thanks.

if you fill up when you still have one bar your good to go right? i mean the gauge wont go from 3 bars to none right?

 

Hi "R1200GS"

And... how is traffic on the Tri-State? :lol: Have they ever finished it?

In two Prius and 2½ years I've never had a 'fuel out' problem filling at the last unblinking pip or on one blinking pip if I go ahead and fuel up without pushing the issue. I usually pump 8½ to 9 gallons. I have had the guess gauge drop a pip overnight... that is, say from 2 pips to one or 3 to 2... but always just drops one pip.

 

luckily i never drive. i take the L to work. The highways are horrible but they will be much easier to take in our new (to us) prius. I hate to admit (but not really) this but when its standstill traffic and i'm on the Bike i tend to lanesplit out of the mess. I know I know!! It should be legal. wasting gas sitting in traffic!! Plus sometimes its really really hot and i have to go to the bathroom!!

 

Hi All,

There is another advantage. And anybody who ever drove a VW with the Kjetronic mechanical fuel injection in really cold weather can tell you. That water in the air can condense, and collect in the gasoline. Which then would be pulled along with the gas up into the metering unit, which had very fine clearance pistons. With a cold snap, the pistons would be glued in place by the ice freezing out of the gas, and you would not be able to start the car. Mostly because the pistons froze in a full closed position. With the bladder, water vapour (in the air) never makes it into the tank, and never freezes any movable parts in the fuel system.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(R1200GS @ Mar 13 2007, 08:10 PM) [snapback]405041[/snapback]</div>

Yea,

Your asking to be munched by cars maneuvering in traffic. When you are close behind a car, your body is above the sightline of most cars, and bikes themselves can blend in with the metal of other cars. Its also illegal, on a bike, or any vehicle on the road.

 

I too am baffled by people who run out of gas, and then seem to blame the car! On our Prius, we get gas after driving around 300 miles. Last night I filled up the tank at our neighborhood Shell station, and I was able to get 7 gallons in after the pump clicked off at around 6.6 gallons. So I drove 300 miles and put in 7 gallons, and that matches what the MFD is telling me which is 42.9mpg. We live in a very hilly area and do a lot of around town driving, and I am not a meek driver. I drive this car like any other car and don't try to get good milage. And I'm very satisfied.

There were two pips left on the gas gauge and I didn't feel guilty filling up at that point. Why wait until there is one pip and you have an emergency and need to get somewhere quickly and risk running out of gas?

It's common sense folks. Fill up when it's low and you have the time.

Dave