Gas Gage and Area 51

[bigal]

Had trouble with the Prius about 60 miles north of Las Vegas, on 95. We just had passed the only gas station in miles (and in NV I mean miles), the station had a sign pointing to area 51 and suddenly the car stops running. The engine acts like its out of gas but I had two squares lit up on the indicator. I did a quick u-turn and attempted to use the battery to get back to the gas station which was about 2 miles away, mostly down hill. After some coaxing, just made it; the Prius battery was almost gone. Filled up with 10.2 gals. and then couldn't get the car started. Well I kept turning the power on and off and finally all came back to normal. We made the rest of the trip ok.
Now the gas gage is really not working, Next day after filling up we drove 380 miles before the gas gage came off full. Now after hitting a speed bump, the gage jumped down to 3 squares on. I took the car into to Toyota. Last word from Toyota is they can't find anything wrong. I did just get the gas gage and fuel tank upgrade about a month ago.
Wonder if the source of the problem was those aliens at area 51.

[seeh2o]

I don't think Area 51 has anything to do with it, I've been through the same place on 95 four times in the past year (to Beatty & to Death Valley) in my 2004 Prius and never even had to fill up. I'd filled up in Vegas and had enough for the roundtrip and then some. Also, Area 51 is 202+ miles east of the 95 on 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway. The scary thing you were close to was the Nevada Test Range (nuclear testing) "in" Mercury, NV. :mrgreen:

[KTPhil]

It's been a while since I've driven that stretch, but one idea is that although the desert is FLAT, it isn't very LEVEL. If you were sloped one way, registering a certain amount in the tank, then flipped a 180, you might see a drop (or increase) in the gauge not related to fuel volume change. Maybe you didn't really have "2 bars" of gas when you thought you did.

Then again, those ray guns they found at Roswell might be stored there; I suppose they ge tthem out overy once in a while to make sure they still work...

[hdrygas]

Area 51 has been purged. George sent all those aliens and their hideous advanced technology home. It was a stray neutrino that hit just the right place in the system!

[tag]

George sent all those aliens and their hideous advanced technology home.

He did indeed... :P

[jayman]

Tag, you the man!

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

If you happened to see an airplane that looked like this . . .



. . . maybe you can blame your problems on the “Wizards” of Navy Electronic Attack Squadron 133 just having some fun (at your expense) while in preparation for Red Flag 05-3.1 (02/26/2005 - 03/12/2005)
Red Flag, Nellis Air Force Base, is the Air Force’s version of the Navy’s Top Gun.

Notice the gold colored canopies . . . it’s real gold . . . there to prevent the crew from being microwaved into oblivion.

I’m thinking maybe neither the EA-6B’s computers or the crew knew what a Prius’ electronic signature looked like and decided to give you a little test zap . . . just in case you were one of those pesky aliens. If they really wanted, they could have fried your Prius without your knowledge of their presence.