2010 Prius Gas Tank

Oh, I thought only USA cars had the bladder... so you also have it in Canada... sorry to hear it.

 

Can someone confirm that the bladder is gone in the 2010 model? If so, has the 'burping' problem and the low fuel capacity in winter also been solved?

 

Do we know how many gallons are left based on each Pip?

 

According to the Speed test drive (just watched it last night and again today) the fuel tank is composite, not steel. Not sure if that is correct, as they also messed up on a few other "facts" (like saying "the new car also has an aluminum hood, while the GII had a steel one". Maybe they should hire a better fact checker!

 

When I filled up today, I had 1 pip showing 47 miles left to go. It took 9.1 gallons to fill it up. If we hold 11.9 would I not have 2.8 gallons remaining with 140 miles to empty? When I gassed up the instrument panel reset to show 533 miles left on a full tank. I would like this to be a litte more accurate. Knowing how much fuel is remaining is pretty important. Why don't they show us how many gallons remain so we can figure it out from there?

 

I would also like to know how many actual gallons are in the tanks per pip? Do I need to keep a spare gallon of gas in the trunk?

 

Each pip does not correspond to a consistent number of gallons. This is true with almost all automotive fuel gauges. With the Prius, as with many cars, it takes awhile before the gauge starts to drop. With experience you should have a good idea of remaining fuel when you get down to the bottom of the gauge, but don't expect it to work with great precision.

Tom

 

What we need is a simple fuel flow meter that tells the driver how many gallons have been used and how many gallons remain in the tank. We have them in our airplanes. Why not cars?

 

Money. Everything is about money. That said, the Prius does a fairly precise job calculating fuel usage by measuring injector pulses, which is how it figures MPG. Unfortunately Toyota does not use these data for fuel used/remaining calculations.

Tom

 

How's this any more useful than how many miles remaining in the tank?

 

That's how pilots know how much fuel is left in the tank. There is no completely reliable and accurate method of directly measuring the remaining fuel in a tank, so pilots start with the amount of fuel put into the tank and subtract the amount used. It's a safer and more accurate system.

Tom

 

What I mean is, if your gas tank is nearly empty and your destination where you have to get in a hurry is 15 miles away, would you rather know how many miles you have left in the tank or how many gallons remaining?

 

Miles left in the tank is a function of gallons remaining. Without knowing the remaining gallons it is impossible to calculate the remaining miles. Given the remaining gallons, you (or the car) can project the remaining miles based on some sort of heuristic. The two most common systems use current mileage or average mileage. Neither is perfect, but at least they give you some idea of how far you can travel on the remaining fuel.

Like you, if given a choice, I want to know the remaining miles, but unfortunately there is no way to do this with certainty.

My old Ford Aerostar van had an electronic dash with a fuel computer. One of its outputs was miles to empty. It was handy, but obviously suffered from the same inaccuracies as the fuel gauge.

Tom

 

Yes, which is why I asked how knowing how many gallons left is any more useful than knowing the remaining miles. It's a car, not a plane, so absolute certainty isn't really necessary. Approximate is good enough to get you to a gas station without running out, especially compared to the old days where you had no way of knowing.

 

You can -never- know how many "miles are left in the tank". It's totally dependent on how you will drive, and that calls for predicting the future, something that is rather difficult (read impossible). Knowing how many litres or gallons are left is much more useful, and basing this on how many you put in vs how many you have taken out is the -only- accurate way to predict what you have left. That's why it's used with aircraft. It's not fun to run out of fuel in an aircraft!

 

That you for expanding on this. Obviously I have lost my gift for explaining a relatively simple concept.

Tom

 

As many others have stated, no.

However, based on my entirely non-scientific assumption (read: Guess), I see that when I fill up, there are 10 'pips' showing. Most of my fillups have been approximately 10 gallons or so. As such, I tend to look at the 'pips' and translate that to gallons.

Once they run out [start to flash], I assume that I need to fillup again, as I have 2 gallons or less to go (which, based on my 58 mpg long tern average), means I have between 80-120 miles to go.

 

What I didn't like was filling up with only 47 miles remaining only to find that I had 2.8 gallons left in the tank. My pilot brain says that I had 2.8 gallons times 50 miles to the gallon or 140 miles to empty. My DIC (Drivers Information Center) said I had 47 when in fact I had 140 to empty. I want to know where empty is. I thought I was 47 miles to empty when I filled up with gas, which was incorrect. I want accuracy when it comes to fuel. Bob Wilson, bless his heart, wants to know precicely how far he has to go before he runs out of gas. I don't blame him for we all should know where empty is. I would like to get a little closer to empty before I fill up. Right now at 47 miles to fill up means I have 23.52% of a full tank 2.8 divided by 11.9. I'm not happy with that. Wouldn't it be better to have a fuel gage that says you have 2.8 gallons left to empty? It is real easy to multiply 50 times 2.8 to get miles remaining of 140. If airplanes can know how many gallons remain in the tanks, cars should be able to tell drivers how many gallons are left in the tank. The other question is how many of the 11.9 are usable. Is it all 11.9 or does the car run out of gas at 11.5?

 

I believe that a Scangauge would do just that. I don't have one but I read the manual on line. You program the size of the tank and it tells you how many gallons left. I would set the tank size at 11, so you would have 0.9 for error. It would count down to the end of the 11 gallon capacity. You have to set it in whole gallon increments, so you couldn't set it at 11.9