6 weeks old and already towed

[cecilkitten]

So my husband was driving home from work on the freeway tonight when his hybrid system warning light came on, as well as many others (he said his dashboard lit up). The car remained running long enough to get him to the side of the road but then sputtered to a stop. We bought this car six weeks ago so we were wondering is this problem common? I saw that in '05 there were software failures but it looked like that was fixed. This is a 2008 model, package 4, and we bought it 11/23/07 so this is very disappointing. We just want to know what to expect.

[cnschult]

are you sure your husband didn't run out of gas? i've run out of gas twice the 1st year of owning the prius. everyone knows the prius has an 11.9 gas tank, and when you're averaging over 50mpg that doesn't mean you can go 600 miles. the prius fuel gauge has 10 bars, I think each bar pretty much represents 1 gallon, when the last bar starts blinking you have 1.9 gallons left. However, that doesn't mean you can go another 95 miles, I would add gas as soon as possible because I think the prius is unable to access the final 1 gallon in the tank. Also, regarding the screen that displays your mpg and mileage this tank, i think the mpg calculator is wrong and you are actually using more fuel than you think.

since we're on the topic of gas, let me just give you a quick hint of what type of gas to buy. The best gas is Chevron as it will increase your mpg +2, if Chevron is not avail always buy Shell which will increase your mpg by +1. Never buy cheap no-name gas for any car unless it is a rental or lease

Lastly, don't feel bad if your mpg isn't where you expect, the only people that get over 60mpg are the people that use the pulse & glide method which is very damaging to the engine, and other methods like tailgating semis is dangerous. You will re-learn how to drive a hybrid slowly over time. I got 45mpg my 1st month and it went up 1mpg each month until I finally reached 50mpg. I'm also getting 35mpg in this frigid winter, this is because batteries have less capacitance in cold weather and the engine is never operating at its optimum temperature.

so hopefully your husband just ran out of gas, but if not, at least you're still under warranty.

[patsparks]

6 weeks it may have run out of petrol by now.
They do need petrol sometimes, it isn't a magic electric car.
Sorry my idea of a joke because a disproportionate number of Prius owners run out of petrol.

Trouble with the Prius is very rare which is why so many people love their Prius. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon and get to enjoy the years of happy Toyota driving in your future.

[Flying White Dutchman]

hope you find what the trouble is and post it here

[john1701a]

Old habits die hard.

New owners have clearly (more like overwhelmingly) been disappointed with the driving range of traditional vehicles. So they got in the habit of driving until the tank was almost bone dry. That's a bad idea for any vehicle, but even more so with an emission bladder in the tank... like Prius has.
.

[efusco]

Originally Posted by cnschult

are you sure your husband didn't run out of gas? i've run out of gas twice the 1st year of owning the prius. everyone knows the prius has an 11.9 gas tank, and when you're averaging over 50mpg that doesn't mean you can go 600 miles. the prius fuel gauge has 10 bars, I think each bar pretty much represents 1 gallon, when the last bar starts blinking you have 1.9 gallons left. However, that doesn't mean you can go another 95 miles, I would add gas as soon as possible because I think the prius is unable to access the final 1 gallon in the tank. Also, regarding the screen that displays your mpg and mileage this tank, i think the mpg calculator is wrong and you are actually using more fuel than you think.

Won't quibble with that too much, I think the MFD calculation is generally quite accurate, but it's not a good way to determine if you need gas.

since we're on the topic of gas, let me just give you a quick hint of what type of gas to buy. The best gas is Chevron as it will increase your mpg +2, if Chevron is not avail always buy Shell which will increase your mpg by +1. Never buy cheap no-name gas for any car unless it is a rental or lease

I don't really think the formula is that easy, and there's certainly no mathematical reason to think that one fuel would improve FE by any amount...Chevron best? Based upon what? I've used all sorts of gas in my Prius and over 70k miles over ridiculously careful observation of my FE under almost every imaginable condition have found the type of gas to be a complete non-factor.

Lastly, don't feel bad if your mpg isn't where you expect, the only people that get over 60mpg are the people that use the pulse & glide method which is very damaging to the engine, and other methods like tailgating semis is dangerous. You will re-learn how to drive a hybrid slowly over time. I got 45mpg my 1st month and it went up 1mpg each month until I finally reached 50mpg. I'm also getting 35mpg in this frigid winter, this is because batteries have less capacitance in cold weather and the engine is never operating at its optimum temperature.

You've been challenged on this in This Thread. It would be best to carry the discussion on there, but I'll make a couple of teaser challenges here.
1) Under ideal conditions it's possible to get over 60mpg without employing P&G...but in general I agree that it helps to do so.
2)You're absolutely, completely wrong that P&G is "very damaging to the engine"...indeed it's not damaging at all in any way and is simply a means of taking advantage of the way the car was designed to operate by controlling the timing of the normal start/stop cycles. At 67,500 miles and 7500 miles on my oil I had a UOA done which came back completely normal showing no sign of abnormal engine wear and I routine have used P&G for at least the past 50k miles.
You may be under the impression that the frequent starting is damaging to the ICE as it is in a conventional car, but it's not b/c there is no spark/ignition until the engine is up to 1000rpm and oil pressure is up.

[usbseawolf2000]

Originally Posted by cnschult

the only people that get over 60mpg are the people that use the pulse & glide method which is very damaging to the engine, and other methods like tailgating semis is dangerous.

Getting 60 MPG is easy. Pump tire pressure at 44/42 and drive at 55 MPH in warm weather.

Safely following a truck bumps the MPG to 70-80 MPG region at 50+ MPH speed. I do not consider it dangerous as the distance ahead is the same as following any other vehicle.

[lefat1]

Also, regarding the screen that displays your mpg and mileage this tank, i think the mpg calculator is wrong and you are actually using more fuel than you think.

not true, i've tested both by actual usage and the mfd reading and found them close enough

since we're on the topic of gas, let me just give you a quick hint of what type of gas to buy.

The best gas is Chevron as it will increase your mpg +2, if Chevron is not avail always buy Shell which will increase your mpg by +1.

not true either as well as chevron and shell importing most of their oil from the middle east

Lastly, don't feel bad if your mpg isn't where you expect, the only people that get over 60mpg are the people that use the pulse & glide method which is very damaging to the engine,

also total BS

[miscrms]

Originally Posted by cecilkitten

So my husband was driving home from work on the freeway tonight when his hybrid system warning light came on, as well as many others (he said his dashboard lit up). The car remained running long enough to get him to the side of the road but then sputtered to a stop. We bought this car six weeks ago so we were wondering is this problem common? I saw that in '05 there were software failures but it looked like that was fixed. This is a 2008 model, package 4, and we bought it 11/23/07 so this is very disappointing. We just want to know what to expect.

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Symptoms do sound almost exactly like what happens when you run out of gas. Its not as simple to figure out as you would think, as the errors are very non-specific and the car can keep moving on electric power. It would be nice if a big message came on and said "You're out of gas!" Please make sure and post back whether it was that or something else. Either way, he probably did the right thing. You can get into pretty serious trouble trying to drive too far after running out of gas.

Originally Posted by cnschult

since we're on the topic of gas, let me just give you a quick hint of what type of gas to buy. The best gas is Chevron as it will increase your mpg +2, if Chevron is not avail always buy Shell which will increase your mpg by +1. Never buy cheap no-name gas for any car unless it is a rental or lease

I'd like to see your data on this. My impression has always been that there is a lot more variation station to station based on the tanks in the ground than there is between brands. My WRX is very sensitive to quality of gas. When I fill up at the local Shell it runs rough and stutters, when I buy ARCO (which many claim is awful) it runs smooth and strong.

Lastly, don't feel bad if your mpg isn't where you expect, the only people that get over 60mpg are the people that use the pulse & glide method which is very damaging to the engine, and other methods like tailgating semis is dangerous.

This pretty much seems like BS on almost all counts, but I guess we'll disuss that in the other thread as it really didn't have anything to do with the original post

I don't believe anyone here has ever advocated tailgating, when people discuss drafting they mean at a safe/legal distance. People have been using P&G technique on Prius for many years (don't forget they've actually been around since 1997). I've never heard of any evidence of it doing any harm.

Rob

[Rae Vynn]

Why do people join PC, make their first post a crisis post, without crucial details, I might add, and then never seem to post again?