Ran out of fuel AND battery!!

how is it now I can imagine someone filing a complaint to flashlight companies when their non-rechargeable batteries run out.. even though during it's last few minutes of the flashlight's battery's runtime, it was obviously dimming down and about to die?

obviously one just needs to replace the batteries with some fresh ones.... but all hell will break loose if they have halogen bulbs and they burn out.. OMG... someone call 911.

 

Come on guys, we've ribbed the op enough. Time to move on?

 

lemme pull this statement from one of my earlier posts.

the car doesn't need to have some mechanic reset it by disconnecting the EV battery... nor the 12V battery. just add enough gas.. and let the car recognize that it has gas. in some cases you may need to add at least 3 gallons as people have mentioned.. sometimes more. allow the car to realize it has gas.. start car.

but yes.. it takes some time.. thus the whole "temper tantrum" statement.

 

No! Read the manual and listen to what knowledgeable people are saying to you. You needed to disconnect the 12v battery to reset your Prius because you tried to restart it without adding at least 3 gallons of fuel so that the computer knew that the problem was resolved. This safety shutdown prevented further damage to the HV battery since repeated attempts to restart your car without fuel would discharge the HV battery too far.

JeffD

 

perhaps i should've added that yes.. you don't need a mechanic to disconnect the battery... because you can do it yourself.

there's an owner's manual. it's well written. read it.

the car is a complex machine with tons of electrical components. it does what it does.. TO PROTECT ITSELF... especially from people that don't know how to read the owner's manual to use it properly.

 

Correct, if the driver tries to restart it repeatedly when it has no gas, the car sets a code, and quits even trying to start. Even if the driver does NOT turn it on and off repeatedly when it is out of gas, it may take two restarts once it does have over 3 gallons of gas. You are absolutely correct.

 

Insufficient information about what really happened.

The PriusChat regular who intentionally runs cars out of fuel for fun, sport, and engineering curiosity (see [WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III)) didn't report the problems you report. Some others have found the same. Others who drove too far on the traction battery, or attempted to restart too many times without sufficient fuel, have run into programmed lockouts that required outside assistance. But we don't have enough information about your incident to figure out in which camp it falls.

 

Actually we have all the information we need. He said he added 1.5 gallons of gas and that didn't work. He then had it taken to a mechanic (he didn't mention here if it was a Toyota mechanic, but my guess is no) and that the mechanic didn't know how to fix the car. So right in his very first post, we see that he did at least 2 things wrong.

 

OK. I admit I learned something again here at PriusChat. Add three gallons of gas if I am foolish enough to knowingly run the car dry.

 

That was the value for the Gen 2 Prius. I am not sure if it is current for modern Prius.

 

Learning. From page 37:

 

He said the RACV, which is equivalent to the AA - ie. the formally sanctioned motoring association in that state, which does things like issue International Driving Permits and provides members with road service callouts.

In the old days these associations were the only providers of road service and most of us still get it this way (I'm a member of my state's equivalent, the NRMA), but these days there are multiple providers and resellers - indeed Toyota tried to sell me such a service, which I'd never heard of them doing previously and I'm sure is simply reselling some third-party service.

While not specialised Toyota mechanics, they really should be aware of how to handle a Prius that's out of fuel.

 

Gee, this is a fun thread!

Owning a Prius has nothing to do with being smart. Being smart does not guarantee a lack of ignorance. Ignorance can and does cause the occasional problem. Not reading the manual can result in one being ignorant of certain important information.

On page 433 of my Prius c owner's manual, it informs that when the beep sounds (manual says buzzer, so even it may occasionally transmit suspect information) and the last bar starts flashing, there remains in the fuel tank approximately 1.2 gallons. I have observed that at about this time the cruising range indicator hits zero miles.

There is no really good reason to run out of fuel. Putting aside all questions of how much fuel it takes to cover the fuel pump and whether it will be damged, etc., it IS possible to approximate how far one can drive before total fuel depletion. To err on the side of caution, let us assume at least one gallon remains in the tank. Do not drive any farther than one gallon will take the car. Obviously this will vary with terrain, temperature, wind, driving style, etc. If you know your average mpg is in the 50 range, find a fueling station within 50 miles. Adjust up or down according to the mentioned parameters and you will not run out of gas.

If you are between El Paso and Fort Stockton on Interstate 10, you may want to flag down a friendly motorist to follow you in case you can't make the next station. Turn on your emergency flashers and drive under the 80 mph limit.

If you are obtuse enough to run out of fuel now, follow the method outlined by Squall and Mendel.

 

Is that stretch equivalent to these, where a cushion of just 50 miles may demand backtracking?

 

I love the excuses of why it's ok to be an a$$ to the OP. It makes absolute sense

 

But it's ok for the OP to continually lump all Prii' owners as "smug" even though it was his fault? Let's change it to something besides cars...

Let's say the OP is the type of person who lives on the edge and perpetually feeds his dog once a week. His dog has now starved because he underfed him. It must have been the dog food companies fault because they didn't have enough nutrients, right?

I don't care what kind of car he drives or what kind of car I drive. Driving over 50 miles after the gauge said 0 miles and then complaining that the car ran out, is just ridiculous. Then he comes on complaining that he didn't know something completely (which is fine, that's why we are all here) and the car needs to be fixed. We tell him that his information was flawed and what he really should have done is add more fuel. Now we are smug... some people just don't want to learn.

 

Huh, how about that, learn something new on here all the time. Probably should know it, but they don't seem to be specialized in just Toyota, if I'm not mistaken. Shoot the dealers didn't even know anything about this car and they are supposed to know a little so that they can sell them. The Prius is the first car I have heard of that you had to add 3 gallons of gas before it registers.

 

No, but after reading these rude and negative posts I would tend to agree if he said most owners were. 4 pages of people beating up on him to make themselves feel better (smug). Points have been made, isn't it time to move to new post and bash someone else? We are past this thread being informative and helpful. For some reason that's what I thought this site was supposed to be about, silly me

 

No, the RACV patrol person would be a generalist. The vehicle type would come up on their callout, but it would just be another job for the day.

This said, their main callouts are going to be flat tyres, dead batteries (although they have a dedicated service for this), fuel starvation and keys locked in cars.

[EDIT: Ha... almost used their words... I missed "mechanical breakdown": Roadside assistance explained - RACV ]

There are enough Prii on the road that I would expect them to know how to correctly address fuel starvation, or at the very least have access to resources to fill in the blanks and know to use it.

Lets face it, as much as this thread would not have existed if the OP had not continued driving long after the car had explained it was out of fuel or referred to the manual while waiting for the RACV, it also wouldn't have existed had the RACV known to add a little more fuel and give it a bit of time.