Ok, I need to know the real deal...I ran out of gas

I clearly read on the manual......NEVER RUN OUT OF GAS.

so i wouldn't tell the dealer about this, otherwise things could be voided out of warranty, not sure, but it can sure happen easily.

why wait until it was so far down? just fill up at the 2nd to last pip. just dont take chances.

let me know if the car has changed in any way after that.

good luck

 

I don't understand why so many people are running out of gas.
Yes The Prius uses less gas............ But Not NO GAS.
Just do what you always did, 1/4 tank left.........Start looking for a gas station.

 

You can clear the warning lights by booting the system 3 times after filling up. Unfortuantely the computer stores the code that tells the service tech it was driven until it ran out of battery power after running out of petrol. If the batteries have been discharged below 40% which is no battery bars showing it can harm the battery, if the battery fails it isn't likely you will get warrantee on the battery if the tech brings up a "ran out of petrol, kept driving" code from the ECU.

I still looking for anyone who ran out with 2 bars on the fuel gauge.

 

Sorry to disagree but the bladder did not cause you to run out of fuel. The person driving did. Yes the bladder varies the usable fuel capacity of the Prius but timing of refueling should be based on what the gas gauge is telling you. The manual says fill-up when you're quarter full; lot of people here refill at two pips remaining and be even more urgent about it at one pip. When your last pip was flashing it was telling you refill now.
Enjoy your new car; most likely you won't have any issues unless you completely drained your battery and I would not tell your dealer about it.

 

You won't need to "not tell" Toyota - they will see it in the computer.

I was wondering what DH stood for as I was reading your post. I've seen it in other posts and thought to myself "darling husband", "dear husband"??? BUT when I read on that yours had the brilliant idea to continue to try to drive just on the battery, I realized that your DH was [I had it typed here and then decided to remove it - a bit unkind] :tape2:

Hope your car is okay. Sorry.

 

I would not recommend volunteering information about your out-of-fuel episode. If you would like to clear the stored fault codes, ask DH to disconnect the negative terminal of the 12V battery for a few minutes, then reconnect. It is probably easier to remove the negative cable where it is bolted to the body.

Then he will probably need to reinitialize the driver's side power window auto feature and reenter the radio station presets. To reinitialize the power window, lower the window to halfway open. Then raise the window until it is shut, and continue to hold the button in the up position for a couple of seconds. Then the auto function should work.

 

Ignore the fact that the owners manual says it's a 12 gallon tank. In the summer you can figure that the bladder will hold 10 gallons, and 8 gallons in the winter. Always use the gas gauge to time your fill-ups. I use one solid bar to tell me I've got 20-30 miles until it will be blinking which means trouble.

How many miles do you have on the car for the first oil change? Be sure to tell the dealer to only put in 3.5 liters of oil, and when you get the car back check to make sure the oil level is between 1/4 to 1/2 on the dipstick. If they overfill, which is very common, your mileage will take a dive south.

 

I've owned an 04 and an 07. They both acted a little differently as to gas filling and I have come to disregard the 11.9 capacity and think of the tank as 10 gal like most small cars. The advice given about cold weather and the bladder is right on. Another problem not mentioned too much here is the vapor recovery system role in this issue. In California where all the gas station nozzles are new it is a real pain to fill up a Prius. In Arizona and New Mexico where everything is loose and older I have had no problem putting in the expected amounts at fill up time. I would advise you however to fill up on the single remaining solid block. The blinking block can be unpredictable depending on how much the tank had been filled.

I have run out of fuel perhaps three times. All the lights come on and it scares the bejeebus out of you but it's really no big deal. Each time after filling up and restarting the lights have gone off. Don't let all the alarmists in this forum scare you. Bottom line the Prius is still just a car sold to the public, not rocket surgery.

I mean think about it. If running out of fuel voided the warranty would Toyota be able to sell this car in the US? Give me a break. I never had any trouble getting the battery charged after running out of fuel. Never had any service people tell me about any codes or voided warranty and I had several warranty issues on the 04 which were fixed without any hassle or mention of any codes triggered by running out of fuel.

 

i dont understand why people think its ok to run out of gas, even if they put in a certain amount of gas.

fill up the tank, when it gets to 2 bars FILL UP ASAP
thats it.

you better plan on spending money on a HV battery in 5 years if you keep running out of gas.

 

I almost ran out of fuel in an airplane one time. You think running out in a Prius is bad... We all do stupid things, so don't take it too hard. It is unlikely that you did any lasting harm, but you should have learned three things from the experience:

1) Trust the fuel gauge, not your calculations. When it says to get gas, get gas.

2) Don't drive after you run out. You can use the electric to get off the road, but after that, stop. You wouldn't try to drive a car after the oil leaked out, or the coolant boiled over, so why try to drive your Prius without fuel.

3) Despite #2 above, if you do run out of fuel, you need to add about 3 gallons of gas before all of those scary lights turn off. The Prius doesn't recognize adding small amounts of fuel.

Tom

 

This is why it's called the GUESS GAUGE. What are you doing in that Prius that you aren't even getting 311 miles on 8-10 gallons? Poor fuel economy could be the result of underinflated tires. Pump them up to at least 42/40.

I don't know anything about a Neon but automotive.com says the tank is 47 liters which is 12.42 gallons. If this is so you were able to run that tank very low. I find it hard to believe that Dodge's fuel gauge showed 1.5 gallons left when you had 311 miles on the tank.

 

I think the reason alot of people have ran out of gas is that the owners manual says that the gas tank is 11.9 gallons. Therefore if you know you completely filled the tank thinking that there is at least 11 gallons in it. Well if I am averaging 50 MPG and the pip starts blinking at 500 miles the assumption is that that there is still another 50 + miles in that tank. Unfortunately this was the mistake of assumptions I made on my second tank when I ran out of gas at 525 miles. And when the car was new I knew nothing of the bladder. At the time when I refilled mine and it only took 9.5 gallons from empty, I assumed that the manual had a misprint about the size of the fuel tank.

 

My Eagle Talon had a Chrysler engine in it that was very similar to the 2.0 inside the Neon and no matter how hard I drove that car it would nail 32 MPG and if I was a little easy on it I would land about 34, My tank on that car I believe was 16.9 gallons and my magic number to fill up was almost always 490 miles when the the fuel light would come on. Go to the pump to fill up and usually it would fill up at just under 15 gallons. I miss having that large for a little car gas tank.

 

Um, no. Not unless DH runs completely out of gas every week. NiMH batteries can take hundreds of deep discharges. The Prius keeps the state of charge between 40% and 80% because the hybrid system will go through whatever the allowed charge range is quite frequently, perhaps daily or more often.

Running out of gas and going to near 0% charge even a hundred times will result in only a 2% to 3% degradation of the battery performance.

On the other hand, I have heard on this forum that when you run out of gas, the gas pump continues to try to run dry. That sounds much worse to me than a little battery discharging. I wonder how long that pump can do that before it damages itself.

Anyway, don't run out of gas. If you do, stop driving.