Not All Blips are Created Equal

It's a Algorithum.....in the summer in Colorado my record was 120 miles before I lost 1 pip....
Then in the winter I went 32 miles and would loose 1 pip. go figure. The bladder in our Prii..(like my own) varies on what it can hold when depending on the ambient air temperature. you can recalibrate it with the button under the dashboard. IIRC. a quick search will tell you. I usually do this once a year in June when it is hot.

 

Purely editorial, driving me nuts: I think "pips" would be more appropriate in the title. "Blips" are aberations, exceptions, hiccups, that sort of thing. The title may still be editable by OP.

 

Like "Janky" which was recently added.

 

The important thing is that the blips are all given equal opportunity.

The only 'recalibration' I know of for the gauge system is one for the inclinometers in the combination meter that it uses to adjust the fuel reading for any tilt of the car. You can press some buttons to tell it what 'no tilt' is. Which you preferably do when parked on a surface that really has no tilt, or you've just made things more interesting.

From some of what I read, there may be people going through that procedure more often than it really needs.

 

The fuel bladder in the Gen2 is a somewhat rectangular box made of a "flexible" material (not rubber) with pleats around the sides. As it fills up, the pleats expand (like an accordion) and the box gets taller. As it empties, the pleats fold in and the box gets shorter.

The thing is, the folds don't usually let the bladder rise or fall evenly. One corner or side can get "stuck". The fuel level sensor is in a small sub-tank with the pump, fed by a hose from the bladder- the level between the two is equal.

So the level sensor "reads" the highest point in the bladder at any given moment. On yours, part of the bladder has "deflated" by 3 gallons since fillup, but one corner is still high enough that the level in the subtank is unchanged.

This is why we call it the "guess gauge". The details can be different for most any (US spec) Gen2. In summer, I can drive about 100 miles with 2 pips showing constantly on the gauge.

But it's fairly consistent that on older Gen2's the bladder gets less flexible- esp in cold weather. That limits the total tank capacity you can use.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yeah if you look up "pips" there's nothing relevant to gauges, progress bars. I think it's become popular here though. Toyota just skirts it, maybe calls them "segments" somewhere??

 

Almost in step #7 Release and press the ODO\TRIP button 3 times, keep pressing the button when finished.

 

hmmm. Maybe try repeating the cycle a few times? suble differencences I'm digging for my notes on this one.

 

ah ok. Good. hopefully that helps. I have seen a complete fuel tank swap for when he fuel pump goes. Not to hard but $1,100 for the tank assembly. It is not as probable as the ABS device but I have heard of it going out.

 

Annnd, once again, that's a procedure for resetting the "not tilted" reading for the inclinometers built into the combination meter in the dash.

If the combination meter or the inclinometers have been removed from the dash and reinstalled, or there is some other reason to suspect the learned "not tilted" value has become incorrect, then this is exactly the procedure you're looking for.

(And of course it's very important to park as in step 1 in a place with no tilt front to back or side to side, because what the rest of the procedure is doing is telling the combination meter "see what the inclinometers are reading right now? that's the reading for no tilt front to back or side to side.")