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Can Someone Verify The 2017 Prius Fuel Tank Capacty. ALso The Farthest You Have Gone On A Full Tank

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Soba1, Oct 7, 2019.

  1. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    1. Doing a Google search it states the fuel tanks capacity on a 2017 is 11.3 gals.

    2. Please tell me the farthest you have driven on a full tank of gas.

    Thanks
     
  2. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    No idea of the capacity - don't depend on it, as 1) they're generally impossible to completely fill; and 2) if you run out - there could be some still in it but inaccessible.

    It says 43 litres on the 2016 brochure - but I've put more than that in on quite a few occasions. TOYOTA Australia still quotes 43 litres.

    The key is to never run out - it can be very costly.

    2. about 1000 km.
     
  3. krmcg

    krmcg Lowered Blizzard Pearl Beauty

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    I am a hypermiler. I had 3 consecutive tanks of over 800 miles on my 2016 Prius. Had to go well past "0" on the distance to empty warning. Yes, I think the 11.3 gallons is real.

    qty gas___miles___MFD____Calc.____miles after "0"
    11.15_____801____77.1____71.9______75
    11.08_____804____76.2____72.6______49
    11.11_____801____75.2____72.1______64
     
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  4. RRxing

    RRxing Senior Member

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    According the owner's manual...
    Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 8.30.13 PM.png

    I'm not interested in how many miles per tank, only mpg (or gal per mile).
    Of course, YMMV, as well as your opinion. To each his/her own...
     
  5. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    Thanks

    Thanks I was warned about running out of gas by a Toyota service rep when I brought my Cam Hy in for service. I was told if you run out of gas you would have to bring it in to Toyota
     
    #5 Soba1, Oct 7, 2019
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  6. krmcg

    krmcg Lowered Blizzard Pearl Beauty

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    Not true.
     
  7. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the verification. All the same I won’t chance it.
     
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  8. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Bob Wilson is one of our resident engineers and geeks. He ran his earlier Gen1 and Gen3 Prii out of fuel many times for fun/sport/curiousity/many engineering tests. And reported lots of interesting data back to us.

    Here are his Gen4-Prime threads, sift through them for useful nuggets (ignore some Prime-specific items) relating to your question:
    [WARNING] Running out of gas | PriusChat
    How to run out of gas | PriusChat
    Bob ran his three Prii (Gen1, Gen3, and Prime) out of gas 60-ish times among them, though no more than a tenth of those were in the Prime. I don't recall that he ever had to take any of them to a shop as a result of these tests.

    But there are some caveats, known on Gen3 and likely carried over to Gen4:

    (*) If you run out, don't add just one gallon. The car may lock out any start attempts until it sees fuel added, which may require several gallons;
    (*) If you run out, don't make repeated restart attempts before adding fuel, as the car may hit a preprogrammed limit (3??) and lock out all further attempts, regardless of fuel added. The first few Gen3 owners to experience this, had to have their cars towed to a $hop for a re$et. Later, other owners discovered that disconnecting the 12V battery long enough to clear the computer memories (a minute??) would do the same thing.
     
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  9. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    It depends on the circumstances and the car - but it's worth not trying. I ran out in my old Corolla ('69) and '70s VWs and '80 NISSAN. Just put fuel in and it works.

    Then a friend with a mid '80s NISSAN - the Fuel Injection just said - NOPE, so towed to the dealer where they bled it all and, with the tow-truck, gave him a big enough bill to counter a dozen or more full tanks of petrol.

    Then I had an '80 VOLVO - 22 yrs old, daughter ran out of fuel in it. It sucked up gunk from the bottom of the tank, I replaced the fuel filter, but then it sucked the gunk out of the fuel line and ... 2nd fuel filter. Something had got past the filters at some stage - carburettor overhaul. Many $$$.

    I don't doubt that you might get away with it in a PRIUS - but a Tilt Tray truck isn't cheap - and there is the risk that you have water or other gunk in the bottom of the tank which normally would just sit there - but get a gulp of it and it's costly. The newer the car, the less risky, I guess.
     
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  10. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the pearls of knowledge....
    Also the lowest I would run it would be to a 1/4 of a tank then refuel.
    Rarely would I run it until the fuel light came on.
     
  11. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    If I'm in an area with plenty of petrol outlets, I wait till the light comes on, but not much longer - trying to get fuel at the cheapest.

    Here, our fuel price fluctuates on an ongoing cycle of 3-4 weeks - the name of the game is to try to fill when it's at the cheapest. You never quite know when it's at the cheapest - and how much it will go up by. The bombings in the MiddleEast gave them an excuse to bump the High price and not drop the low as much last month. With a PRIUS, I have the opportunity to generally fill when it's about the bottom of the cycle - and if it's still down a few days later, I'll top it again. The jump up is actually a vertical line - except this is the "average" price in my nearby city - some individual service stations move upwards a bit quicker than others, but you can find a cluster in a couple of suburbs stayed down for an extra day or 3:
    upload_2019-10-8_23-13-25.png
     
  12. Lovec1990

    Lovec1990 Junior Member

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    If you run out of gas and stop the car you could just add fuel and go, but issue is if you continue on battery and if you discharge both then your car needs too be towed
     
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  13. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    That was an issue on older generations, I think Gen2. It was fixed by the time I joined the hybrid community at Gen3, and appears to remain fixed on Gen4 in BobW's tests linked above.

    His tests did reveal a lack of specific warning when the gasoline tank runs dry, and cryptic warnings about a power steering problem when the battery gets low and the car becomes an inertial glider. But it still retains enough traction battery charge to restart later.
     
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  14. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the clarification, I remember test driving the car with the gas light and the salesman said not to worry because it will
    run on the battery I thought he was wrong but you verified(y)

    Looks like ya'll are worse than Cali with the price fluctuations
     
    #14 Soba1, Oct 8, 2019
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  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    A non-plugin is limited to something under a mile on the remaining electric, varying sharply by initial battery charge. And it will be sluggish. There is no way a salescritter who wants to sell a non-plugin Prius, will allow it to get drained to electric only. It would make for a terrible test drive.

    But a Prius has significant margin built into the low gas warnings, so if he knows the light just turned on, then he knows it is still fine for a few regular test drives.
     
    #15 fuzzy1, Oct 8, 2019
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2019
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  16. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    They're sometimes their worst enemies. I well remember driving a MAZDA 323 (Familia) back in 1995 - as we were driving off, he said "this one's only been here a few days and hasn't been checked over, and the tyres will probably be very high pressure. Yep, drove like a Shermann Tank. We looped round the block, into "Service" and in less than 2 mins had the tyre pressures right - WHY oh WHY didn't they spend 2 mins. We did end up buying one.

    Same place about 3 yrs later, sent me letter suggesting "come test-drive the new model". OK - and because I was a known customer, they handed me the keys. Then he ran up and tapped on the window "it's only been here a few days, it'll need some fuel" - and pointed to the fuel outlet along the road - said to put it on their account!! AND - the tyres were at 55psi. AGAIN.

    Queensland isn't too bad - you see one service station has put the price up, there is a website or 2 you can go and check which ones haven't yet, and usually find one which is still low. Not like PERTH - where they all go up the same moment:
    upload_2019-10-9_9-38-48.png
     
    #16 alanclarkeau, Oct 8, 2019
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  17. CooCooCaChoo

    CooCooCaChoo Active Member

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    Yeah with the oil refineries being bombed in the Middle East and with the winter blend being phased in this month, I, too, would expect gas prices to remain high in California. Thankfully, I bought gas at $3.50/gallon a week ago and can probably go another 2 weeks before having to refuel.

    Regardless, I wouldn't ever recommend trying to find the hard limit because it can and will be an expensive lesson.
     
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  18. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    You are lucky, in L.A. Ca. 3.99
     
  19. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    While my region doesn't have that sort of periodic pattern, another feature does stand out as very familiar: rising prices have a much faster slew rate than falling prices.
     
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  20. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    I think we are all in agreement......