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How low do you let your tank go?

Discussion in 'Gen 5 Prius Main Forum' started by priusmouse, Jan 6, 2024.

  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    These are all referring to the "Distance To Empty" gauge, never use it. I keep an eye on the gas gauge, and any time it's dropped below the halfway mark, and I'm going past a self-serve Chevron, I'm gassing up, for a lot of the reasons listed by @ChapmanF in post #4. Also in consideration of what detritus might be swirling around near the bottom of the tank.

    It helps that our usage is quite low; still only need to fill up monthly at most.
     
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  2. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    That's why the EPA has regulations concerning them.

    But seeing how the main goal of the Prius was low emissions, and they didn't use the bladder in Japan, I believe Toyota used it for the US in order to get the SULEV rating required for incentives. In other words, those designing the evaporative emission controls didn't have the EPA regs in mind, and they needed a fix. Later gens were designed for the EPA, thus no bladder.
     
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  3. Preebee

    Preebee Senior Member

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    You should know that the Prius has one of the lowest depreciation rates on the planet.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    jeep? knock me over with a feather
     
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  6. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I should make several additional points --

    * The figures I listed are not what I typically do, but what I have done for intentional range and tank gauging tests. Typical fillups are much earlier.

    * Part of my desire to know true fuel tank capacity is for price arbitrage reasons. In BC and in some places in the U.S., prices are astoundingly uniform. E.g. every place in town, be it a dirty no-brand convenience store or major brand, on highway or far from highway, has the same price. (Evidence of illegal price fixing?) Costco, in towns large enough to have one (e.g. Kelowna) might be 3 cents cheaper. Adjacent towns will be priced within a couple cents. In such areas, there is no meaningful cost advantage to going longer.

    * But my typical travels have large price spreads, in excess of $1/gallon. The most common route long had a major cost savings for going 330 miles between fills, before Prius when I was still driving shorter range cars. (The first car had no chance, the next three could make it quite comfortably if I ran past the low fuel warning to use just a small portion of their 100+ mile buffers.)

    * Some people almost never watch prices on much of anything (e.g. dad, for fuel or groceries), they must be the ones I see filling up in places with high tourist trap prices. (Once, bringing a load of stuff over to me, dad "for convenience" filled up his F250 at a high priced convenience stop just out of town -- then was astounded how much cheaper I filled my own car near home.) Even on the very longest travel days, I have a basic plan in mind for the whole day's route, based on GasBuddy or GasPriceWatch or other pricing source. Plans do get adjusted as cost saving opportunities are spotted. Knowing how the fuel gauge really maps to remaining tank capacity is an essential element of this planning.

    * While most of my cars have had 100-ish miles of fuel safety margin, one current car has none (instead having more warning levels with better in-your-face visibility), and my very first (and shortest range) had negative margin -- it went dry with the needle still above E. Before Prius, all had very non-linear gauges. With all these variations, blanket general rules such as "refuel at 1/4 tank" mean vastly different things in different cars. From getting close to emergency level (my 1st car), to 3-4 hours left (4th car).

    Aircraft pilots would never ever tolerate similar degrees of fuel tank uncertainty. If they can manage fuel more closely, with tighter safety margins, then I ought to be able to also.

    Yes, my household has replaced fuel pumps on two cars, both Hondas. Both at about age 20 years (we still have one of them). All other vehicles, we have replaced the entire car before that age.
     
    #26 fuzzy1, Jan 7, 2024
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2024
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    when the last pip was blinking and the beep sound on my 2012 pip, it still had 2 gallons capacity left.

    i'm comfortable with that, as long as i'm in familiar territory, or an area with plenty of filling stations
     
  8. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol... all praise to conscientious rich people, so much better than the less conscientious ones, right? I mean who cares about poor people right?

    Just because I've been on here almost every day for a decade helping poor people keep their beat up old Pruis on the road doesn't matter anymore cause rich folk with their brand new over-priced Prius that are the antithesis of economy car buyers have important questions about what kind of floor mats to buy and when to put gas in their car, which is far more urgent and concerning. That's obvious... Can't even argue against that.
     
    #28 PriusCamper, Jan 7, 2024
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2024
  9. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol... Those are hilarious. Talking about irrelevant advice that's not based on actual automotive knowledge... I mean, I didn't even know I had a turbo in my Prius?
     
  11. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Reminds me of the archeologist on Tik-tok who is constantly being attacked by conspiracy theorists and people who make excuses for posting videos about destroying archaeological sites to get stuff for their "collection."

    Lately he's been battling them over the difference between the word provenance vs. provenience. Seems none of them know how to look up the definition of a word and they keep trying to convince him that the word provenience isn't a real word:

    Note: In archaeology Provenience, meaning the actual place or findspot of an object, while provenance refers to its modern (post-excavation) history. Provenance Research/Cultural Heritage - Art General Library Guide - Research Guides at Vanderbilt University
     
  12. Hammersmith

    Hammersmith Senior Member

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    Ahh, nice to know that your lack of reading comprehension is just as strong as your gatekeeping. Woe is you.
     
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  13. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Yea... I couldn't spend much time on the comprehension part of the rest of the article because soon as the fool who wrote this said you should never go below a 1/4 tank of gas I knew there would be nothing intelligent they could say after that.

    There is zero basis to make this claim and the only value of refilling at a 1/4 tank is the people who suggest it thinking you're too stupid to know when you're going to run out of gas below that level.

    And considering the majority of people live paycheck to paycheck and have less than $1K in emergency saving, most of us can't afford to even fill our tank above 1/4 full most of the time, especially if you drive a gas guzzler, which is usually the only thing poor people can afford.
     
  14. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Webster's Third has both words, but just treats them as interchangeable for general usage. The findspot-vs.-subsequent-history distinction seems to be an extra archæologist thang.
     
  15. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol... Google search gave me the answer simply by writing both words with a "vs" between them. And if you ever enjoy watching a charming and highly trained professional being constantly attacked by dummies, I reccomend his posts: http://www.tiktok.com/@archaeowolf

    http://www.tiktok.com/@archaeowolf/video/7240550935519333675
     
  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I still like having an actual dictionary around though. Less risk than Google search of getting wrong answers.
     
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  17. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    My usual on-line go-to, Merriam-Webster, says much the same:

    Provenience Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

    "Did you know?
    Did you suspect that "provenience" and "provenance" originate from the same source? You're right; they're parent and child. "Provenance" is the older of the two. It has been used to mean "origin" in English since at least the 1780s, and it is modeled on the French verb provenir, meaning "to come forth, originate." The French word, in turn, derives from Latin provenire, a composite of "pro-" (meaning "forth") and "venire" (meaning "come"). "Provenience" is a chip off the old block, originating as a modification of "provenance" about 100 years after its parent debuted in English texts. The source of the extra syllable in "provenience" is most likely "proveniens," a participle of "provenire" (the similar Latin participle conveniens gave us "convenience," another "venire" derivative)."

    Word History
    Etymology
    alteration of provenance

    See also (part way down page):
    Words from 'Videre': Provision, Province, and Providence | Merriam-Webster

    It is missing from the accompanying thesaurus.
     
  18. Blackat

    Blackat Member

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    You seem nice....
     
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  19. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    If this was happening, then many fuel injected motorcycles would be adversely affected since their fuel pumps can be above the fuel line after about half a tank of use. These pumps are cooled by the fuel running THROUGH them. After periods of sitting, one can hear the empty/dry pumps change tone as they prime themselves upon power up; IOW, pumping fumes/air happens.

    FWIW
     
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  20. Preebee

    Preebee Senior Member

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    Wth lol?

    If it wasn't for the "rich" folk buying brand new ECONOMY cars, the poor... oh, nevermind.
    #Economics
     
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