2010 Prius Gas Tank

Just bought one on Fri and it's now saying my next fill up is in 418 miles, and I have about 150 miles on it right now. I get between 55-60 mpgs at the moment, according to the car. Bought package 2 and am putting in my own nav and I'm really happy with it.

 

Definitely gallons. I have some clue about upcoming road and weather conditions and elevation changes that can drastically alter fuel mileage. The car is clueless.

 

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I just had my first fill up experience on my new Prius and had a very similar experience and questions. It started dinging me to fill up and said I had around 50 miles to empty, so I finally filled it up a couple days later and it was only 9.5 gallons or so. I know most cars are pretty conservative with the fill up warning but this seems a little overboard, considering in theory I had over 2 gallons (or close to 100 miles) left to empty.

So I guess I am also wondering how real the 11.9 rating is?

 

I think that some of them already arrived at their destination!!! LOL :bounce:

 

I checked the link but the numbers don't seem right. Top max is 60.8 liters, 16.1 gallons? 10 pips is 47.8 liters, 12.6 gallons? Am I missing something?

 

In my experience (only 1900 miles) the fuel "bars" on my 2010 Prius III are approximately one gallon each.
10 bars for 10 gallons after a normal auto-shutoff fill-up.

Presumably, the remaining fuel (might be approximately 1.9 gallons) is there for "emergency" use only, and is apparently not used in calculating the displayed "miles remaining" number.

Others trying to run their Prius "dry" have cautioned that getting safely off the road is a significant problen.
Also, sucking the gas tank "dregs" into your fuel system is not a good idea.
Finally, the fuel pump might need to be "submerged" to avoid damage ???

So, my best advice is fill a little early, and do NOT run dry.

 

BULLS EYE SIR! excellant response full of common sense.

 

I'm too new to the forum to be allowed to post URLs, but on March 26, 2009 there was an article in the LA Times on the subject of Prius gas tank problems, headline:

"2010 Prius to have rigid gas tank instead of fuel bladder
Toyota drops the Earth-friendly collapsible bladder because of user complaints."

I'm new to the forum but not to the Prius.

The bladder was never an issue with our 2001 (and we know that its capacity ran reasonably close to 11.9 thanks to pushing it too close to the edge a few times (DON'T DO THAT!)), but its been more than a year since the 2007 would take more than 8 gallons, no matter how long the low fuel light has been blinking or what is the temperature of the weather.

It's interesting to learn that the 2010 models dropped the bladder system, but my experience causes me to wonder whether the bladder system needed to be thrown out entirely.

I've never run out of gas over the disappearance of perhaps 25% of the tank capacity because the low fuel indicator light works fine (except for the problem with the dashboard going black, which was when my platinum extended service warranty earned a good chunk of its keep.)

Barring the apocalypse, it is a time management issue more than anything else.

 

One more thing. Peoples' brains are atrophying quickly enough, plus I've had enough issues with malfunctioning electronics not only Priuses, that anyone who relies on the car to tell him/her how many miles s/he he has left before empty is asking for trouble.

 

North American Classic Prius also had the fuel tank bladder.

 

What's with the 6.5 liter "reserve" in Luis' table?
Does that mean when the last bar goes away there's 1.7 usable gallons of fuel left to get you somewhere?

 

I believe that when the light flashes there remains about 6.5 liter or when the miles to go before refill zeroes out there remains 6.5 liter

 

Gen3 Tank 45L. Never run out of gas otherwise you will need to have a reset.
Reason for this is because Toyota want to cover themselves due to too many people abuse the system on the Gen2 and too many broken batteries they need to replace under warranty. Each one of the costs about $4,000 at that time.
So they decided to make the changes so we can't not use the Battery after we run out of gas and need a rest.
So just follow your fuel guage and if you are close to empty fill it up.

 

Yep it falshes when you still have about 6.5L left but it is not a bladder or seperate tank just the electronics safty warning mark.

 

Wow you couldn't be more wrong.

 

It is the "empty" part that we disagree on.
I am disappointed to see everytime that my prius thinks my tank is empty I can only add 35 litres/9 gallons. In a frugal vehicle with a dislike for running empty I expect just a bit more accuracy in terms of remaining fuel volume. Either it does not fill up properly to 45 litres or it freaks out yelling EMPTY!!!! when there is still 10 litres or 200 km left. Now in the outback of Australia this would be a welcome feature but in the Netherlands I am never more than 20 km away from a filling station.

Would it be that difficult to set up the fuel gauge with a red pip which would mean 10 litres left, going to blinking when there is 5 litres left? That gives me 80 km of brisk driving to find a filling station which is what I am used to from my old Volkswagens, which, by the way, feature a bright orange low fuel warning LED on the dash.

Right now I feel my only option is to have a weights and measures agency to measure the contents of my fuel tank and how far you can fill it up with an automatic filling pistol so I can make an educated guess on how many kilometres a fillup gives me.

 

Since the blader is gone in the 2010 Prius what would be the issue of topping off the gas tank Just curious

 

The last 6.5 litres of gas after the last pip started flashing is for safety purposes. If you run it really dry you'll damage the fuel pump and/or the battery. Obviously Toyota doesn't want you to use up that last drop of gas and that's why they warn you early. It's that simple.

I guess the effective gas tank size should be stated as 35 litres/9.2 Gallons that translates to approx. 600- miles range if you average about 55 mpg. Toyota's fault is that they stated the actual gas tank volume but not the effective gas tank volume.

I've seen some members in the forum boasting 700/800 miles per tank by burning almost the very last drop of gas with sweat dripping from their fearful foreheads. Please don't do that. I hate to see people hurting themselves and their equipments just to go after some silly records. Driving the Prius should not be a game or a stunt.