Ever run out of gas in your Prius ?

Does anyone have range data for how far you could get on the Prius (assuming fairly level terrain) if you run out of gas? Say, at 100% SOC? at 50% SOC?

It would be nice if the Prius had a distance to empty display--it should just be another calculation as you have fuel level and avg. mpg in the computer. We don't have our Prius yet, but I haven't heard of a DTE display. Is one hidden somewhere?

(I'm highly entertained by how many random bits of information I pick up a day perusing PC. Hopefully by the time our Prius gets here I'll have all the driving techniques down and know all of the hidden compartments B) If owning the car is half as entertaining as reading about it, we'll be happy campers!)

 

No reason to run out of gas, when the fuel guage is blinking you need gas. Would you forget an oil light in a normal car?

The Prius with it's fuel bladder has a range of capacity depending on temperature. No way to figure how much farther you can go, just trust the guage when it is blinking at you. Most of us have learned to get fuel before the warning occurs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(divide @ May 31 2006, 09:56 AM) [snapback]263446[/snapback]</div>

Maybe a mile or so, but this is not good for the battery. This isn't like the EV mode. I generally fill up at two pips.

 

<_< My last GUESS GAUGE pip has only been blinking once in the 18+ months I've owned my Prius and I drove about 2 miles to the nearest station to fill up.

The potential consequences of running a Prius out of fuel are such that I never want to take the chance. It still amazes me how some Prius drivers seem to want to push the fuel supply to its maximum limit to prove some unimportant point. I fill shortly after seeing the last UN-blinking pip.

 

raises hand about a year ago - rolled ALMOST to the gas pump. too embarrased to ask for a can. hubby came to the rescue.

no problems since

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ May 31 2006, 10:22 AM) [snapback]263464[/snapback]</div>

Ditto what Charles said, except that I've yet to see a blinking pip, and I've only had my Prius for 3.5 months. I usually fuel up when I get down to 2, or when I feel confident at pushing it at 1, pip remaining. No reason to run out of gas in the Prius.

 

I usually drive 40+ miles with one pip blinking.......
At the most I've only ever pumped 10 gals (squeezing it in which I've learned to never do anymore).......therefore with 1 pip blinking.....40+ miles.....i've not been able to pump more then 9.5 gals.

Now I shared this info with a friend........he ran out of gas and I've not heard the end of it....

 

definitely don't wanna do that often. that stresses the battery and can decrease the life of it... also discharging it that far might require the HV battery charger if it's bad enough. that's not covered by warranty since it's not a manufacturing defect and they warn you about driving without gas in the tank in the owner's manual.

call this an "oops" and please be more careful so you don't stress your battery too much and end up in repair hell.

 

Search the forum for guess gauge and running out of gas. There's been plenty of threads.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Karnac @ May 31 2006, 12:13 PM) [snapback]263522[/snapback]</div>

Something to remember should you decide to install an EV switch (ie planned running by battery alone); the ICE may run longer to recharge what battery power you used.

 

I ran mine out of fuel in my Prius once, there was some water in the bottom of the tank that wouldn't have caused a problem if I hadn't ran out of gas.
After I tried putting new gas in I ended up running the HV battery dead trying to get it to start.

It cost $550 and 3 days to have the dealer charge the HV battery, flush out the fuel system and get the car running.

So DON'T run out of gas!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Karnac @ May 31 2006, 03:13 PM) [snapback]263522[/snapback]</div>

I did! Yesterday. Luckily it was at night and I assume people could not easily identify the car. I was going 80mph drafting behind a car, when suddenly the VSC and engine light lit up and the car slowed down. I didn't know what was happening until I saw on the consumption screen that i was doing 99mpg obviously on battery alone. I switched to the energy screen and saw that I had only 2 bars left, so i quickly pulled over. It was only a short time that i drove on batteries alone but i guess going so fast burned the charge down quickly. When i tried to start the car again hoping to ride the battery to the next gas station which was just about 2 miles away, the car won't even shift to D.

The blinking bar is not noticeable enough. It should be blinking AND red or yellow. And why isn't there a beep? Also it is not accurate. There were still 2 bars when i left for work (60 miles). I didn't notice it blinking when I left for home at the end of the day. But 2 bars should be = more than 120 miles. My mpg was 51.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(electricity_guzzler @ May 31 2006, 01:35 PM) [snapback]263583[/snapback]</div>

Twice I've gotten to the blinking and there was a message on the MFD saying to add fuel (once was across the street from the station and once was a mile away). Doesn't the 2006 do the same? BTW the bars do not equal 1 gallon for each bar; it's a guess gauge after all.

 

There have been so many "running out of gas" threads (I'm guilty of one of them) that I'm surprised they haven't made a stickie for it (or maybe they have - I don't know.) In every case I've read, my own included, the "guilty" party made the mistake of trusting math and the specifications stated in the manual instead of what the car was telling them (us!) The math goes something like this: 11.9 gallon fuel tank capacity * 50 mpg (use your own number here) = 595 mile range. 595 mile range - current miles driven on this tank = range left before out of gas. This would work fine in most cars, but not in the Prius. 11.9 gallons is the theoretical (in my case, very theoretical) maximum capacity. The true capacity varies with temperature and, I strongly suspect, on an individual car basis as well as the pump your getting the gas from. For instance, when I ran out of gas at 470 odd miles, the temperature was around 50 degrees F. and I was only able to put 10 gallons in the tank, which means I have "shrinkage" of nearly 2 gallons (on my car, that is.) YMMV.

 

In my 2004 Prius I would regularly drive 10 to 30 miles when the last bar was blinking and never put in more than 10.1 gallons. On my first tank of gas in my 2006 the last bar started blinking within a couple of miles after getting down to the last bar. I ran out of gas five miles later and pulled over to the side of the road. Using the Nav system determined that the nearest gas station was 5 miles away - much too far to go on battery power. I drove about 1/2 mile on battery to a very safe place to pull over and called AAA. The AAA drive was very amused at my Prius being out of gas. I wasn't. Now I fill up at about 2 bars until I get a better feel for the car.

 

Heh. Your mile to the pump was *lucky*, especially if there was a
hill in the way. However, that's a very mild taste of what you might
be able to do in a pure EV -- as darelldd points out, you don't just
conk out at one particular point, you just start running down, slower
and slower, but can still limp along for several miles. Not so with
the Prius battery but it *does* at least allow you a little bit of
grace time. But don't abuse it too much...
.
_H*

 

I ran out last Sunday. Did the math thing and figured I had 50 miles left with mileage times 12 gal. The last bar started blinking and we got the low fuel warning, then within a minute, the engine went dead. It was 100 degrees outside and the marriage was in serious danger. Fortunately, friends were able to bring us gas within a half hour. I will never expect to get any mileage past the last bar on the gauge, which I find odd since most cars will go 30 miles or so when the gauge reads empty.

 

OK, since somebody else went first, I ran out of gas, too, a couple of weeks ago. Talk about embarrassing. I had the fun experience of pouring gas into my Prius on a busy street in broad daylight. Guess I had pushed that blinking light a little too far. And by the way, when you have been running the AC, don't depend on that battery to get you very far down the road. Thought I would go further than I did, less than a mile. Now here's the problem I am having since. When I put the half gallon into the car, three bars lit up on the gauge. Then when I pulled into the gas station and filled it the rest of the way, it acted like it didn't know what to do, then finally brought up the other bars slowly, one by one. Now I have almost 300 miles on that tank and the gauge is still registering over three quarters full and the computer display is confused, has been stuck at 48.5 mpg for days now. I am going to fill it back up pretty soon, obviously, because I am not going to get in THAT situation again, and hope the computer and gas gauge go back to normal. Otherwise, well, I'm due for the 5,000 mile service pretty soon anyway, guess I will fess up to running out of gas and have them fix it.