We finally went green and got an '08 in September '07, and we've been asked some questions that we don't know the answer to. The most common one is "How far can it go just on battery?" We also have a question of our own- We accidently ran it out of gas, ("Whats with all those warning lights?") and because we didn't know what had happened we called the dealer, they told us to bring it in. So we went as far as we could, until the battery died, and then called a tow truck... Luckily we figured it out before we looked too stupid, and we got a gallon of gas that got us to the gas station. Was there any damage done? Does this void any warranties or anything? How Green Are You?
It's not a good idea to run out of gas, and it's an even worse idea to keep driving after you do. Now that you've been scolded, I can say that you probably didn't do any damage. At the most, you've taken a little life out of the battery, but the Prius is very cautious about how it uses the battery. Most battery problems from running out of gas occur when the car is driven until it shuts down, then restarted and driven some more. I hope you have learned your lesson, but if you run out of gas again, just add gas. Do the same thing you would do with any other car: get off the road and add gas. The question about the range of the battery is fairly pointless. The Prius isn't an electric car, and isn't designed for driving any distance on electric only. The short answer is about a half mile, but there are a lot of factors which influence the range. Still, as I said before, it's not a useful figure. Tom
i drove about 3-4 miles at 40 mph without the ICE starting up at all, over flat ground. battery still had a lot left in it according to the display
We didn't know what was going on! We thought something was wrong with it, and Toyota told us to try to drive it into their shop if we could! How Green Are You?
About a half of a mile to a mile on battery power. You do NOT want to drain the battery.... It may void your battery warranty...
No real problem but assuming you are still under warranty, I would recommend 'clearing the codes' if you feel comfortable with the process. Simply disconnect the negative battery terminal at the car frame for about 5-10 minutes and reconnect. This will clear the codes, all your radio settings and the window settings that some silly service writer might try to claim voids your warranty. It isn't that common but why run the risk? Bob Wilson
Toyota (but I assume you probably meant a dealer?) didn't realize that you had merely run out of gas. If they had they would not have told you to drive it in, they would have told you to park it in the nearest safe place and refuel it, or *maybe* drive it to a gas station if there were one within a mile. See http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/48705-what-every-newb-should-know.html
