Does anyone know if the 2011 Prius lll has a fuel bladder? My sister has a 2006..loves it...no probs...reports the fuel bladder contraction prevents her from utilizing the entire capacity of the fuel tank in the winter...cutting down on range at a time when mpg is already down due to winter conditions. Any restriction to fuel capacity in the winer w/ new Gen? Thank you. MC
There is no bladder. Reminder, using the entire capacity isn't wise for any vehicle in the winter. You don't want to get stuck somewhere in heavy/slow traffic running on fumes. I refill at 9 gallons, right when the blink begins. That's usually about 400 miles of driving in the winter. .
+1 No more bladder! I normally fill with two bars left, I guess I'm less daring! It normally takes about 8 gals to top her off...
Yup... The Aichi Iron Works did a bladderectomy for the G3. IIRC there is about 1.8 gallons remaining in the tank when the dizzy-whizz MDF starts beeping on the final bar....or 'pip' as it's sometimes called. I usually pump about 9.something gallons some 10-20 miles after the warning chime. The tank size is 11.9 gallons IIFC---so that means that you do not have to have a lot of testicular fortitude to drive until you reach the last bar. There's plenty of fuel in reserve...depending on the gas station density in your area. Toyota probably did this knowing that some of the more extreme hypermilers that drive this product will try to get 700+ miles out of a tank of fuel----
You can tell there is no fuel bladder in 3rd gen: Back the car out and listen to gas sloshing around in tank. I can hear it in my Accord also, so don't feel bad.
I'm more careful about refueling in Chicago winters and will fill up when the indicator reads about 20-30 remaining since I don't trust the car's calculation when I'm only getting 300 miles to the tank. In the summer I'll let the remaining pip unhappily beep and blink until it reads about 0 and then fill about 9.7 US gallons. I've put a max of 10 gals. in there only once in 27 fills. That was after a 444 mile previous tank.
ditto everyone on the no bladder. I fill up at about 1/2 to 1/4 tank. There's no way I'm getting caught with an empty tank. Is this the Prius' achilles heel?
Funny. I too fill up at just below 1/2 tank. But the AntiPrius (FJ Cruiser), now THAT'S a fuel consumer! I fill up at 1/2 tank after just over 200 km! That's 35-40 litres! Yup, he uses three times as much fuel as Pearl! Achilles heel in a Prius?
David, what I mean is that if the Prius gas tank goes empty, the car risks being towed to a dealer because of the "no gas" in the tank issue. I'm under the impression a driver can't just add a 1/2 gal or so to get to a station. As far as FJ goes, he's a real thristy gulper! Not like Pearl and Ruby Sue
Don't know if this is off-topic,But is it ok to fill to the cap or top off? I find myself doing this!:focus: Had a GENII somtimes filling was a pain!
How funny. I'm hear because I'm looking into a "fuel bladder" issue with my 2011 Prius III. According to all I see here there is no fuel bladder. I took my car in Friday for it's first service appointment and mentioned that I could only get 10 gal into my 11.9 gal tank when the miles-to-go display said I was down to 10 miles. I was told that it was because I had a fuel bladder and the capacity depended on the temperature. This is in So. Cal. in June where the morning temp was in the high 60's when I did my fill-up. Apparently the service rep was thinking of older models. So, what gives with the discrepancy? I'm extremely happy with the mileage I get but topping out at 80% of the tank capacity seems ridiculous for any car. I've never experienced anything remotely like this in other cars.
Your tank still has about 2 gallons left in it when your display says 10 miles to empty. If you want to put 11.9 gallons in your tank, you have to actually run it dry. We may have a computer display that read miles to empty, but it still relies on a crude variable resistor attached to a float in the gas tank, just like a 1940 Chevy did.
PriusChat has plenty of threads about this. It is a safety margin built in cover unpredictable fuel consumption and inevitable user errors. You haven't experienced this on other cars? I'm very surprised, because all of my household's previous cars (except a used car previously in an accident) of four different brands, have behaved similarly. One even has a substantially larger fraction of its fuel tank squirreled away beneath 'empty'. For some actual numbers, read the first post of [WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III).
It's not good to run the car out of fuel. You run the risk of damaging the fuel pump. You also trigger some recordings in the computers. It takes about two gallons to get the car restarted once you run out. I recall seeing this in the owners manual as well. I -still- do not understand why people must use all the fuel in the tank before filling up. I -also- do not understand why so many people reportedly let their tanks run very low when fuel prices are spiking. Very strange. I fill up at just below 1/2 tank whenever possible. I get nervous at 1/4 tank. I panic at two pips or less! Too many instances in the past of pulling into a gas station with no fuel on board, only to find the station closed I guess! With motorcycles and older vehicles with poor fuel gauges. I once put 65 litres in a "60 litre capacity" tank (Subaru) on a Sunday, heading north from Yellowstone in Great Falls. All the stations to the south were closed. Exciting!
I'm glad I found this thread, I just read something about the Japanese Prius having a 15.9 gallon tank with out a bladder in it. Hence the records for 1700 -1800 mile tanks. This all had to be on Gen II Prius. For some clarity, most if not all current gas tanks are built with baffles along the bottom of the tank to stop fuel from "sloshing." It does occur without a doubt, but it's not just a can of fuel under the vehicle being shaken up as you drive.
The Gen II Canadian Prius does have a bladder. Pearl has one. The Gen III does not. I doubt very much the Japanese Prius has a tank any different than the one in North America, but I'm sure Ken will clear that up shortly.
