I saw the sticky thread with the pdf of the TSB for the '04 prius. Has anyone with an '05 seen this as well? I filled up yesterday and have driven over 100 miles, but the fuel indicator still shows a completely full tank. What gives? Thanks. Rich
that's pretty normal. the gauge isn't linear by any means. mine normally drops around 120 miles, many people can go longer than that. check out some of ray moore's threads. he usually notes when his first light goes on super high mileage tanks.
Regarding the application of the TSB, lets put it this way. I bought my car in August '04, and door jamb says it was made in June. It doesn't qualify for either modification. I can go 150-200 miles on full depending on MPG and how much I was able to top off.
I'm starting to see this behavior. I went about 120 miles before the first bar in the fuel guage disappeared. As long as this is 'normal', I guess it's okay. Thanks. Rich
As captain Barbossa said "Its more of a guideline than a code!" Every time you refuel the amount of fuel the tank holds varies. The gauge then recalculates the vaule of each "square" on the gauge to correspond to the new fuel volume. This also takes into consideration the built in bias to have the fuel gauge decrease slower on the upper end then increase as the gauge lowers. (all cars due this, its a trick to get you to think you get good mileage, then get you to think you need to refuel so as to not run out of gas). I have found one somewhat consistency, fhowever many miles you travel from the time you show one bar remaining to the time the "add fuel" warning comes on will give you a real good idea of how much fuel is actually left in the tank. So, if you go 25 miles at 50 mpg from one bar to flashing bar (for example) you would then have 25 miles left at 50 mpg or say 12.5 miles left at 25 mpg. Other than that experience and filling early are your only guides. Plus I have found the MPG readout in the car to be quite accurate, and that is the real test of how well the car performs.
