How far can you drive on the battery when the gas is gone?

Apparently I too am having the "bladder effect". It is realllllly cold here right now and I am going to Florida for a few days at the end of next week. Do I just fill up in the warmer weather and the bladder will stretch out again or need I do something special. I usually only let the gas pump nozzle click once/twice and then I am done filling. Like Scarlett I will never let my Prius go hungry again! I'd appreciate any advice.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(thpeaky @ Feb 11 2007, 01:14 AM) [snapback]388314[/snapback]</div>

Yep works for me. Try filling the Prius at -40, and you will either develop extraordinary patience, or go completely monkeys*** and be locked up at the Health Sciences Centre psych ward.

I've come very, very close ...

 

Ha ha ha... I used to WORK in a psychiatric hospital. When I got the job I called my Mom to tell her and she replied after a few moments of dead silence "Well, we always THOUGHT you'd end up in the State Hospital one way or another". Lord, I miss her...she was SO funny. Thanks!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(thpeaky @ Feb 13 2007, 08:24 AM) [snapback]389422[/snapback]</div>

My Mom used to always joke with me about things like that too. Actually both my parents had/have a great sense of humor. My Mom is also gone, she had a massive stroke and passed away in her sleep, Christmas day of 2005

 

I filled up the tank just down the street, pushed the "reset" button on the consumption screen as always (I know it resets the miles automatically but I always manually push reset to reset the mpg average). I drove to Houston and back, and I was just about 15 miles from home with the trip meter reading about 495 miles and about 52.7 MPG as I remember it, I took the freeway exit early to get on the slower back roads for better economy and shorter distance thinking "11.9 gallon tank, 52 MPG, I should be able to get 520 miles and still have at least a gallon to spare so I can get home, unload the car and get gas in the morning" but as the trip rolled over 500 miles I felt the slight vibration you feel at a stop when the ICE shuts down and I could only think... "ah crap, that wasn't normal". So, I turned off the A/C and radio and monitored the SOC carefully as I slowed down, fortunately the Texas back roads are straight and flat. I probably went at least a mile before I reached the tiny town of Marion (you'll miss it if you blink) where they have a quick-e-mart habib type gas station. I pumped $5 of gas and I was on my way home, started up and drove just fine until I got gas the next morning, no problem! I would certainly not advise using your MPG calculations and fuel tank capacity to judge your range by any means, it can be quite inaccurate. If the light is blinking, just stop and get some gas or you'll be wishing you did. I happened to know the area I was in very well and knew there would be a gas station at least every 5 miles. If you do run out of gas, be sure to consider your SOC (you don't want it to get too low because that can damage the battery as it will normally never go below about 30%, although I understand it will self power off for safety which could be a disaster if you are still coasting), also you have to keep in mind the operating temperature ranges of the HV battery, if you are forcing it to continue without the option of the ICE you could be overheating it causing potentially serious damage to the battery. There's probably several other factors but the moral of the story is, just get gas.

 

I despise visits to the gas station. My other car is a Toyota Landcruiser Troopcarrier with a 4.2l Diesel engine (I know... but I live in Australia where actually we do need that type of vehicle when not in the city!) and it's got an auxiliary fuel tank for a total capacity of 270 litres (about 72 gallons). Gets me about 1200 miles (2000km) on one fill. But it also costs $230 to fill up!

Now if only the Prius had a big tank! I'll never understand why they make you go to the gas station every 500 miles or less. what's wrong with 1000 miles range?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Balt @ Feb 14 2007, 10:40 PM) [snapback]390617[/snapback]</div>

We have similar issues in Canada too. Imagine it's -40, a terrible blizzard is upon you, and you're literally stuck on some highway far from help. That petrol tank had better be full, or you'll be the next Ice Man.

I get into the habbit of keeping the tank topped off in winter.

 

The other reason to keep it topped off (I refill at 1/2 full tank - see, I'm an optimist), is you can choose when to refill. Didn't want to refill two days ago, as it was -25 C and windy. Yesterday it was sunny, -5 C with no wind, so I filled up.

That's on the anti-Prius. I've still got to add the audio module that goes "glug-glug" when the fuel door is open. Last tank only got 18 l/100 km. Prius would probably do around 6 l/100 km in these temps.

 

I don't plan on doing this again, but here's what happened...

Last night I picked up friends to go to dinner and the 1 pip started blinking.
I planned to only go 20 miles and get gas today.
Going to the gas station I realized we actually drove 50 miles.
A mile from the station, going up a hill the ICE stopped and the dash got a triangle icon.
Luckly I had enough Battery and drove to the pump.

I don't plan to do that again...

PS: That was my 1st fill-up

 

Here is a solution for the Running out of Gas problem. Cut out a tiny little peice of black electrical tape just large enough to obscure the far left bar on the gas guage. The one that blinks. In this way, the second bar will become the last bar. If you let the second bar go out, you will see no bars and need to buy gas right away.

Mind you, this is coming form someone who's family always set their clocks ten minutes fast while I was a child. Whenever we went out, we would look at the clocks and say, We really have ten more minutes, and then we still ended up being ten minutes late to everything.

Oh, I did run out of gas the first week I had my Prius and I wholeheartedly agree with all who have said this is not good for the battery. But at the time, I was naive and thought, "How Cool! I can still drive to the gas station!" (Which was about 2.5 miles away). I made it just over 1 mile before the synergy drive started shutting down to protect itself. It was about 1/2 mile relatively flat, followed by 1/2 slightly down hill, followed by 1/2 mile slightly up hill, followed by a cell phone call to my AAA spouce. She is a blessing!

I don't plan to run out again.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HarryDriver @ Dec 29 2006, 07:33 AM) [snapback]368173[/snapback]</div>

Edmunds actually did a little experiment to test your very question during their long-term test of their 2004 Prius. Full text can be found here: Article

Relevent text is below:


"Aggravated at the pessimistic gas gauge in our 2004 Toyota Prius, and curious to discover if the service bulletins mentioned in our last update actually fixed anything, our vehicle reviews editor, Jeff Bryan, went on a mission to find out just how far our hybrid would go beyond the "low fuel" warnings. For his experiment, Jeff stowed an emergency gallon of gas in the cargo area, and drove the Prius until it literally wouldn't move.

Our brave editor reports, "I kept to familiar roads, stayed off the freeway, and was always ready to ditch the car into a driveway or parking spot should it completely die. Surprisingly, I was able to drive the Prius 158 miles after the low-fuel warning message appeared. My careful driving also resulted in our best mpg average this quarter, 45.2, and our best distance on a single tank ever, 516 miles.

"Once the gas finally ran out, the engine shut down like it normally would, but a myriad of warning messages and lights filled the instrument cluster. I had just pulled into a quiet neighborhood with no traffic, so I continued to drive very carefully under battery power alone. This lasted all of a half mile, probably because I had just been sitting in heavy traffic with the A/C blasting (the A/C is powered by the hybrid battery). I coasted into an empty driveway as the car completely shut down and added my gallon of emergency fuel.

"The Prius fired right back up just as if nothing had ever happened. The hybrid battery gauge was lower than we'd ever seen it, but the car drove away without fuss. The engine revved higher for a few minutes, working to recharge the battery, but otherwise all was fine."

Toyota has programmed its hybrid system to protect itself. Even though the car stopped moving, the battery pack wasn't really completely drained. In fact, the battery gauge only represents a small window of charge level. Cycling the battery between deep charge and full discharge would shorten its life, so the computers never allow the pack to reach its extreme limits.

What did we learn from this risky experiment? Running out of gas in any car, Prius included, is not a good idea. Yes, the Prius will keep moving with zero gas, but not very far — and at risk of vehicle damage and driver safety. Once the gas gauge blinks "E," there's still about 2-3 gallons left. Actually, most cars are like this, but the safety net is more generous in the Prius because the car gets such good mileage. A car that gets around 15 mpg would be lucky to go 40 miles on two and a half gallons, but the Prius could go more than 100."




The moral of the story? Edmunds has a lot more money than you do.

Don't run out of gas. There is no excuse for it in these cars. :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ilusnforc @ Feb 14 2007, 02:04 PM) [snapback]390265[/snapback]</div>

ACK! Always always give yourself some slop! I use the 10 gal rule of thumb: your average x 10. Math is easier, and you'll be giving yourself some wiggle room in case you couldn't get the tank completely full the last fillup (and likely, you didn't, unless the outside temp was hovering in the hades range).

Think about it - have you ever heard of an airline pilot saying "well, the fuel gauge SAYS there are 1,000 lb of fuel left, so let's go ahead and plan to use 999 lb." <_<

 

This is why we don't have flying cars yet, even though decades ago they were promised to be normal by now. Just look at how many people ran out of gas in their Prius. Do that in a flying car and you're really going to have a bad day. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Silver Phoenix @ Apr 5 2007, 12:35 PM) [snapback]418362[/snapback]</div>

As the good old pilot saying goes, "any landing you can walk away from is a good landing"...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pviebey @ Feb 10 2007, 10:39 PM) [snapback]388260[/snapback]</div>

Actually, an aircraft gauge is only required to be accurate at zero usable fuel, Calibrations cards are required for 1/4, 1/2, 2/3 and 4/4. Even with a calibration card one should never rely on the gauges as they are notoriously inaccurate :blink:

Some aircraft (not all) do have bladders and they have had similar problems to the Prius over the years, indeed an AD was issued for the 182 series aircraft to fix the problem.

I think most light aircraft now have "wet" wings.

Mark

 

I'm new to this site. I've been driving my Prius for three weeks now, and I've never gone below two bars (I've been averaging around 48mpg). What happens once you only have one bar? How long does it stay on before it starts beeping? And how long can you drive once it beeps? In my old car (a Corolla) I knew I could still drive home (I have a 25-mile commute) once the light turned on, but I have no idea about the Prius.

BTW, what does SOC mean?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HarryDriver @ Dec 29 2006, 09:33 AM) [snapback]368173[/snapback]</div>

Right after getting my first Prius, an '06 I had the flashing light on the interstate in Florida. Next exit was 6 miles and I thought I could most likely do 20+. At 1.5 miles from the exit the ICE died.

I was doing 70 (had a bit of energy to carry me down the road), had to climb up the exit and still made it to the gas station on electric. So yes you can drive on electric with an empty tank.

Records show that at 4026 miles on the car I put 12.8 gallons of gas into that tank (I know that is more the book says I should). Learned two things, don't trust the bottom end of the gage and the blatter makes fill ups inconsistant.

And as others have said, better answer is not to run out of gas, it can't be good on the fuel injectors.

Hope this helps.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wright @ Apr 14 2007, 06:40 AM) [snapback]423208[/snapback]</div>

Before the single bar starts flashing, do you have one single bar for a while (not flashing) or does it flash immediately?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qleaper @ Apr 14 2007, 12:24 PM) [snapback]423314[/snapback]</div>

It will go down to a single bar or pip for a while before it begins flashing and the "Add Fuel" bar pops up on the MFD.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Dec 29 2006, 09:03 AM) [snapback]368203[/snapback]</div>

The car I just ordered IS meant to be driven without gas. It would suffer serious damage if anyone put gas into it, since there is no place to put it. Instead of gas, it takes electrons. It's a Zap Xebra.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qleaper @ Apr 13 2007, 11:07 AM) [snapback]422827[/snapback]</div>

When the second bar goes out, there is one bar for a while. Then that last bar starts to blink. There is no consistency between cars regarding the distance you can drive at this point. Some people may have 30 miles, others 5. For best results, fill up at the first convenient opportunity when only one bar shows; fill up as soon as you possibly can when the last bar starts to blink.

SOC stands for State of Charge, and refers to how much charge the big battery has. On your MFD the battery icon shows 8 bars, essentially the allowed range of the battery. All 8 bars is around 80% SOC and zero bars is around 40% SOC. The computer will not allow the battery to go outside this range, unless you drive without gas. Lots of people have driven without gas with no ill effects. Others have had to pay lots and lots of money to fix the damage done by driving without gas.

And in case you were wondering, the reason for holding the SOC within these narrow numbers is that it very greatly extends battery life. Normally, the battery will outlive the car. If it was allowed to discharge deeply and charge all the way up, you could go farther in EV mode, and the car would get better gas mileage due to increased buffering in the battery, but the battery would die and you'd have to replace it within the life of the car.