6 weeks old and already towed

Today we were parked next to a white Prius and I struck up a conversation with the lady that owned it. She asked what mileage I was getting. I told her that my lifetime mileage was about 44 mpg. She said that she had gotten over 500 miles on a tank. We then started talking about the "guess" gage and I told her that I always filled up at two or three pips. She said that she goes down to one. I asked her if it ever started flashing before she filled up. Get this, she said that she always waits till it flashes to buy gas.

I told her that was a dangerous thing to do, but I am not sure that she believed me. Hope she starts filling up a little sooner.

 

om am not 100 % sure but if i am correct its not good for the prius to fill it up that the petrol almost get out of the fuel opening

something to do with fuel sensors that overfill.

 

You beat me by 6 minutes. Took me that long to think of a nice way to say it.
cecilkitten, tell hubby the fuel gauge is right in front of him because that is what tells him to get fuel, it is way more important than the MFD. Fill up with 2 bars on the fuel guage, you know you won't run out with 2 bars in the tank, no one ever has before.

 

If you are close enough to get any draft advantage, it is illegally close and potentially deadly. If you are 2 seconds behind any vehicle at 65 MPH you are 190 feet (or ~13 Prius lengths) behind. Even at a highly unsafe 1 second (see the link) you are 85 feet behind, much too distant to be drafting for gain. In fact you are more likely in the turbulent wake (especially if it is a semi) and reducing your MPG.

South Dakota Highway Patrol - From the Desk of:

 

I would be the witch in question... and yes, that is spelled with a "w".
Of course, the insinuation that I was waiting to be "entertained" by the OP almost changed that spelling...

 

Re: Gas and Gas Mileage

I have an O6. I've been very successful on averaging over 52 mpg per tank and my prius now has about 45,000 miles on it. I drive this car in all types of conditions (heat over 110 degrees, cold below 30 degrees, high winds, high altitude, long drives and short, freeway and back road). About three months ago I was rear ended and the car was fully repaired, except it did not get an alignment. Its clear now it needs one, as my average mileage has dropped down to about 50. My point is, however, that even with average driving ability, and driving sensibly (not too fast nor too slow) it is fairly easy to achieve reasonable gas mileage (50+) on this car. If you do pulse and glide there is absolutely no harm to the engine that I can discern. If you draft, stay back far enough to avoid accidents (as is true in any type of car).
Moreover, I notice NO appreciable difference in independent low test gas over pricey Chevron or Shell gas. But you've got to use low test. There is no rational reason to use high test -- no difference in mileage. Also I've heard some techies claim high test negatively impacts overall performance on the prius (something to do with the firing rate of the piston....but I am not a mechanic so I don't fully understand this).

 

OK, how did this post get in this thread?????????Re: Gas and Gas Mileage in Re: 6 weeks old and already towed
Danny, what happened??

 

Her and me both. I always wait until it starts flashing before filling up. So far, have gone as far as 35 miles before filling up, but always make it a point to fill up soon afterwards and expect that if I have to go farther than 35 miles before filling it, I may be walking!

I don't think it's as big a deal as you guys are making it out to be. Just drive the damn car. Fill it up when it says it's time to add fuel. Not exactly rocket science!

 

Yet 33% of Prius drivers have managed to run out of petrol in a Prius.

 

I've NEVER run out of gas on the Prius. I was always told that you mess up the computer systems and that it has to go back and get repaired to recalbirate something. I have no idea. I got my Prius and my Prius friends all put the fear of God into me not to run out of gas. I have yet to run out of gas in any vehicle.

 

I treat the Prius like I used to treat the diesel car I drove... keep fuel in it.
It's not a fun day to run a diesel dry...

3 pips and I'm mentally figuring out how far to the gas station.
2 pips and I'm planning on getting there now.
1 pip and I'm in a state of panic.

Usually, it's refilled at 2 or 3 pips. No sense in being stupid

 

I highly doubt this number. What study is it from?

 

I think the problem with this is that there are too many variables affecting how much gas you get into the tank and what mpg you are getting at any given time. So one day you might make it 35 miles on a flashing pip, but another day you might only make 20. Then there is the issue of having no idea where the nearest gas station is because you are in an unfamiliar area or a place where gas stations are few and far between. So waiting until the last pip flashes might work for you in general, but it won't work for everyone and it might not always work for you.

 

You gotta love bleeding a diesel fuel system. Maybe that's what British folks mean when they say: "That bleeding fuel system..." I have to do this on our sailboat after fuel filter changes, and it's never fun. You always spill some fuel, and two drops of diesel fuel can stink for weeks. Keep the rags and Simple Green close at hand.

Tom

 

Sounds like BS to me. My dad has run out of gas on his Prius (ignored the blinking light for too long) and countless others have run out of gas while doing the same thing and I have never heard of anyone damaging anything or requiring a trip to the dealer.

 

I agree. I know 15 people with 2004+ Prii and only one of them has run out of gas (being stupid).

I regularly go to 1 bar flashing and still can't get more than 10 gallons in no matter how I try. Just today I was at 445 mi, 50.5 on the MFD. 1 bar flashing started sometime yesterday so no more than 15 miles. I could only squeeze in 9.08 gallons (rounding to the nearest $0.25 ). My last fill was just over 10 gallons so clearly I wasn't near the bottom of the tank.

Now it might be because I had a TSB done related to a few 2004s dying on the road that some attributed to running out of gas. It sure seems to go to 1 bar flashing a lot earlier after that. The supposition is that the TSB modified the gauge 'timing' (and maybe other stuff, who knows). Other years and 2004s that didn't get the TSB done may have less in the tank at 1 flashing.

Perfect place to put in:

Your mileage may vary!

 

87% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

yeah, don't trust stats

100% of heroin users drank milk as a baby.

so don't feed your kids milk!!!

 

One other thing it could have been is a faulty O2 sensor. I did the exact smae thing, after about 6 weeks I ran out of gas, then a couple of weeks later with a full tank the car behaved the same way. It took two trips to the dealer for them to diagnos the bad O2 sensor. THat was 100,000 miles ago and all is good so far. (except my CD changer just ate my CDs)