Help My Prius ran out of gas with no warning

Re: Help My Prius ran out of gas with no warning (light blink)

heyzeus, my spreadsheet is "official". I don't care what's on the MFD (well, yeah, I do). I divide the miles by the exhausted pips to get a rough check on the displayed FE. Sometimes I'm optimistic, sometimes pessimistic but at the end of the tank it is usually within a couple percent of my calculations but has been off by as much as 20%. I drive either 30 or 70 miles per day so I'll burn through a pip or two. Sometimes I lose one overnight sitting in the driveway. Three can go to one pretty fast but, so far, the last pip has always flashed and I've seen the "Add Fuel" message a couple of times.

Did they have a Prius Tech look at your car or the Lot Boy? IMO it sounds like they didn't want the bother of checking out the car. I'll buy that maybe you didn't notice the beep but I don't know how you could ignore the flashing pip for at least 15 miles. If I went from 1 pip to NO GAS I'd be pi$$ed and I'd want an answer.

Now for my practical advice. On the day that the tank goes from 2 pips to 1 put 3 or 4 gallons of gas on the deck and someone with a video camera in the back seat. Focus on the instrument panel recording the odometer & time at the start then focus on the gas gauge. Drive & tape until the car beeps & the pip flashes. If this happens then things are back to normal. If you can document that it doesn't beep & the pip doesn't flash when you run out of gas I'd go right back to the dealer because IMO something's wrong. It will probably be a bugger to find and Toyota won't pay well for the job so there is no incentive for the dealer to attempt to fix it. Good luck chasing this gremlin.

Since we're sharing spreadsheets...

 

It is definitely a statistical anomaly... perhaps, maybe even a bias...

Many threads on this issue. I've died on the highway with 2 pips showing on the display. Bob is right that the Prius could and should be better on this front. We have all learned to deal with it. From what Bob and others have reported here the 2010's gauge seems to be better about accurately reporting a low fuel condition. I hope so.

 

Actually, not to be overly critical or whatever, you did get a warning. There was one pip on the fuel gauge. That's a hint to get fuel! Hopefully you have now learned to fuel at 3 pips.

 

I just ran out of gas yesterday evening. I had plenty of warnings from the blinking 1 bar on the dash board to the beep warning but tried to push my luck. I was actually on my way to get gas when it ran out. My guess was it switched to electric because I could not go any faster than 40mph or so and then it just stopped after a mile or so. Still had electricity in the car but it will not go any further. I went to get one of those small container of gas and put it in. Still would not start up so I call Geico tow service and they came 40 minutes later with 2 more gallons of gas. Still would not start up. Every time I try to put it into gear, the green light on the start button would go amber. I had my foot on the brakes so that wasn't the problem. After trying a few times and couldn't get the engine to start, I was going to have the tow truck tow me to the local dealer. Then the tow guy asked to see if he can try and see if he can start the car so I gave him the fob and he was pushing the start buttons and still would not start. Then he either pressed the start button harder or faster and the engine kicked on. He wasn't sure what he did. I signed the paperwork and drove straight home. I felt really stupid and hopefully learned my lesson. Wasted 2 hours because I was trying to push my luck. Would have wasted more time if I had towed the car to the dealer. Went and filled up first thing this morning.

 

Yeah it does that if you drive it until it stops. You didn't take the warning of the flashing pip but you should at least have taken the warning of the "electric only + 40MPH max" to know you were out of fuel and pull over.

Anyway I think it does that to prevent the motor trying over and over to start the engine once you're out of gas. It resets itself after a certain number of manual start attempts (though I cant recall how many). Basically if you're are patient enough and just keep on trying (after adding fuel of course) then it will eventually start.

 

I never fill up until the gauge says three or less bars. That way when you do fill up the car will register the true full amount, and the bars are then more or less calibrated. If you fill it again with 7 or more bars, sometimes the vehicle does not recognize the added fuel, thus the bars are no longer calibrated. Always fill at three or less so the system can calibrate.

 

So, for the benefit of the rest of us, how far did you get after the blinking light or warning beep or DTE=0?

We already know how far Bob went, but I'd like to hear from a larger sample.

 

My guess is that I went about 40-50 miles from the first time the bar started blinking until it finally could not go anymore. When it stopped, the trip meter was around 460 or so and it started blinking around 410 or even before that because I kind of thought to myself this was a low number for it to started blinking.