11.9 gallons

[jwads]

Does the 3rd Gen Prius use all 11.9 gallons of gas or does it shut off before it bingos fuel? I know there are eight bars of fuel on the indicator, and if the prius uses all 11.9 gallons that would be 1.5 gallons per bar. Is this accurate, or am I missing something. I have driven 252 miles and used four bars, so my MPG is something like 41.6 MPG. I wanted to get 50!

Any clarification on the max bingo fuel would be appreciated

[Tideland Prius]

A typical Toyota fuel tank will have the Low Fuel light come on when there's 10 litres left in the tank (~2.5 US gal). It's rare that any fuel gauge is linear. On our '05 with the bladder in the summer, I'll get ~50km per pip for the first half of the tank (After the 1st pip goes) and ~80km per pip for the second half of the tank.

[qbee42]

The Prius fuel gauge, like the gauge on almost all cars, is not linear. The Gen III Prius can use most of the 11.9 gallons, but don't expect it to work out to a nice even number per pip.

Tom

[Salsawonder]

Don't get tied up in trying to know exactly how much as is in your tank, it will drive you crazy, you will be wrong and you might run out of gas.
Go with the computer and average each fill up against miles driven. If you live in the central area of LA and use the freeways 50mpg should be achievable. If you are in the Hollywood Hills or anywhere hilly you probably will not achieve 50 mpg.

[Pizza_Daddy]

Does the 2010 still have the "bladder" type like the gen II?

[Spee1113]

Originally Posted by Pizza_Daddy

Does the 2010 still have the "bladder" type like the gen II?

No, the 2010 doesn't have the "bladder." I've noticed that once the empty light starts flashing you still have another 50 miles or so left, I drove about 520 miles on a tank and filled up with about 10.2 gallons, so I probably could have hit 550, but as with any car it is not good to run it dry or that low. I use a combo of my avg mpg's for that tank (Trip A on my Prius) and the Miles to Empty reading. I figure once the MTE says "0" I have about 50 miles to find a gas station. Thoughts?

[fuzzy1]

Originally Posted by jwads

Does the 3rd Gen Prius use all 11.9 gallons of gas or does it shut off before it bingos fuel? I know there are eight bars of fuel on the indicator, and if the prius uses all 11.9 gallons that would be 1.5 gallons per bar. Is this accurate, or am I missing something. I have driven 252 miles and used four bars, so my MPG is something like 41.6 MPG. I wanted to get 50!

It appears that you haven't filled up yet. Until you have refilled a couple times, use the Trip MPG display and subtract 10 to 15% to get your approximate MPG.

The fuel gauge has 10 bars, not 8. There appears to be some consensus that the bars represent about 1 gallon each, on average, with about 2 gallons left after the "Miles to Empty" display reads 0. But don't expect good consistency from bar to bar, or car to car. Doing so may leave you stuck by the side of the road with an empty tank.

Until you have filled your own tank multiple times, you can't have a reasonable idea how your particular fuel gauge reads. The variation among my pre-hybrids was huge, and Toyota has done little to improve on fuel gauging precision.

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by jwads

Does the 3rd Gen Prius use all 11.9 gallons of gas or does it shut off before it bingos fuel? . . .

You may want to read this thread on running out of gas.

Bob Wilson

[dogllama]

[QUOTE= I have driven 252 miles and used four bars, so my MPG is something like 41.6 MPG. I wanted to get 50! [/QUOTE]

I am in the same boat. Los Angeles is tough on MPG, especially between the hours of 8am-8pm Highway or not, there is so much stop and go traffic. I am averaging about 46 mpg now driving a little conservative, but still keeping up with traffic for the most part.

[Philosophe]

A quick related question:

How does the tank estimated remaining distance gets calculated?

Am I correct thinking it is based on the last tank travel distance? Is it an average of the last few tanks?

(I went on a long trip (the car was new) with bikes on the roof (with 3-4 tanks). Since I came back home, I get a goofy estimated distance remaining as my MPG is a lot higher now that the bikes are off the roof.)