my 05 prius fuel gauge has some issues, i went to fill up at BJ's the other day , ( 2 bars on the gauge ) put the gas nozzle into the filler hole and bang it wont fill up, so i took it out and tried again, same result. so i waited and tried again and now its starting to fill up, and then it clicked, at 15 dollars! i thought thats just craziness since gas here is 3.26 a gallon, it usually takes 25 dollars to fill up with two bars, so i kept trying to fill it up pulling out the nozzle and kept trying, and yet it wouldnt take more than the 4.whatever gallons i put in, surprised, i drove it today, and it went down two bars already. why is this happening?
There was a TSB for the gas gauge and filler neck on the 2004s that had to do with erroneous readings with the fuel gauge. Perhaps your 05 falls into that category. Check with your dealer. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the TSB. Mine was done in January 05 and it involved replacing the whole instrument panel, gas gauge, speedometer/odometer, etc.
My 05 had that problem... It also gives the low fuel warning when there is about 10 litres of gas in the tank... I have resorted to using the fuel usage gauge to calculate how much fuel is required. Most gas stations will has issues with the fill up triggering early. Twice I ended up over filling and spilling some gas. So of this issue might have to do with the Prius expandable fuel tank that was designed to minimize evaporation of fuel. But may prematurely trigger the pressure sensor in the pump. I would fill up once with a slow fill rate until the can see fuel overflowing... (Do it slowly... don't waste gas). Then I would calculate fuel needed to fill... My problem has since been minimized... do not know why though....
