Run out of gas.

I was under the impression that one or more of the dash lights would go on in this case - are you saying that nothing went on after you ran out of gas?

 

Have you ever tried using a spell-checker and maybe a little better diction? It just might make your posts more understandable. Up to now, you sound like a 6-year old with a speech impediment.

 

i think it's charming, that's how we talk in boston. mary xmas.

 

FWIW, from http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ing-running-out-gas-gen-iii-3.html#post886928 Bob Wilson mentions

along with everything else that happens when out of gas at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/64211-warning-running-out-gas-gen-iii.html.

Since I have no Gen 3, I'll take his word for it. Gen 2 doesn't have any sort of distance to empty display.

 

Man, talk about a bunch of fear-mongers.

First, the car is pretty new, so I doubt you could actually damage the HV battery (we call it the "traction battery"). The car WILL protect it. When the car is over 5 years old it may not tolerate running on the battery when the fuel is empty - in other words you -could- damage the battery, but not when it's pretty new.

Second, we have learned in the past that adding 2gallons to an empty tank will often not be enough to start the engine. Now you know as well. It takes at least 3 gallons.

Third, you DID ignore all the warnings (there are plenty of them) that you needed to add fuel.
So saying there are none is just wrong. Perhaps you needed a nerf mallet to bop you on the head?

And finally, don't feel alone. There are plenty of people on this forum who have "pushed it" too far and run out of fuel. I still don't understand why they do it, but they do. Welcome to the club. I guess it's a big one.

-I- fill up at 1/2 a tank when possible. An empty tank is an invitation to water to enter.

 

I am sure this is true in my Gen 2, but I could not find this in a Gen 3 manual. It may still be true, but I could not document it.

I find the OP's writing style painful, and the fault obvious, so I have not posted, but I did try to find the 3 gallon warning in the 2010 manual and failed.

 

I've never run a gas tank dry before and I have no intention of starting now. My interest is in miles per gallon not miles per tank.

 

Dude, watch the fuel gauge! Don't let it go empty again or you could do some expensive damage. At $220 you got off easy.

 

i would appreciate a continuous beep every minute or so when the tank is down to the flashing pip instead of one quick beep and then nothing. sometimes it beeps when you're a long way from a gas station. after awhile, you can forget about it and the flashing pip is not that noticeable.

 

I have a Scan Gauge 2 that I use the trip computer on to keep track of miles to empty, but even that isn't always going to be reliable. The trouble is that it tells you how many miles you have left to go based on your tank average, but who's to say that just because you've managed to get 60 MPG for the first 9-10 gallons that you won't find yourself in a situation where that last gallon only nets you 35-40 or less? It's a bit dangerous sometimes to play the "stretch the tank as far as you can" game. In my case, 3 gallons should've gotten me about 120-150 miles, but not in the section of road I had ahead of me where my instantaneous mileage was around 15 MPG-- suddenly my ~150 mile range became a ~45 mile range.

I came close to running my Gen 2 out on a road trip over Vail Pass in Colorado during a winter storm because I was following the miles to empty and figured "well I've got almost 150 miles left on this tank and I'm pretty sure there'll be a gas station well before then." But I forgot just how much the mileage drops when you're climbing many miles at 8% grades. I went from 3 pips to a flashing pip in a disturbingly brief distance and found myself trying to milk every last drop of gas as gently as possible climbing that pass at 3 in the morning at well below freezing with no other traffic trying to get to the down hill side where I could glide on regen and HV charge to a gas station to fill up. I will never make that mistake again!

When I did make it to a gas station, it turned out I could've gotten another 30-80 miles or so since I'd made it over the pass-- I didn't quite run it out-- but that was a scary way to learn my lesson. Thinking about how I would survive until someone happened by and was willing to stop and help me out when I would've had no heater for more than a few minutes and no HV charge to keep me warm or run the flashers etc. made me realize how stupid it could be to see how far you can go on a tank-- especially on long trips in sparsely populated, unfamiliar areas where it's not a sure bet you'll find a gas station where you need one. Or a cell phone signal to call for help when there's no one around and you could easily freeze to death trying to hike your way to help.

So even when you don't run out of gas you can still find out you were stupid. I've come close to where you were. I won't do it again either. I'm glad you got by with only a $220 expense, I've heard it can be much higher.

 

Nothing against better warnings of impending fuel starvation.

But, in over 35 years of driving, I've never run out of fuel. And 10 of those years were spent driving a car with a broken fuel gauge.

As pointed out, above, there are lots of good reasons to avoid running the tank nearly to empty. Unforeseen traffic, increased gas consumption, perhaps a power outage in the area where you planned on getting gas...why push it?

It's not that difficult to keep the bottom of the tank wet, people!

 

And as I said, nothing wrong with more warnings that the car has run out of gas.

Still a bit surprised that you didn't realize there was a problem until the car stopped moving.

Easy with the all caps, buddy.

 

You must be thinking of the older generation Prii.

OP has the 'New! Improved!' Gen3 which does only #1, along with a single chime when the blinking starts. Bob Wilson's test (see link in cwerdna's post #25) found no additional warnings for #2 and #3, so the dashboard didn't light up until the traction battery was too low to move. While there are a couple more clues, they are not 'in your face' warnings to grab the attention of the unwary.

 

I don't think that anyone was insulting you and you are the one that called yourself ignorant.

However to think that Toyota should put a special warning in the car to signal when you have run out of gas and are on the way to depleting the traction battery is amazing - where is the personal responsibility? You are driving a 3,000lb + vehicle at speed - you have to be engaged in the process. Some kind of light saying "warning!!!running on battery ONLY" - come on, where is the personal responsibility?

You do know what the common term for those lights on the dash are?

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-fuel-economy/93820-gas-gauge.html

I guess you found out how far you can push it?

I did not want to be this guy because my spelling and grammar are poor also, but his point is valid. Here is a trick I use when not typing on my Mac I write my posing first in a word processor then I cut and paste it into PriusChat. That might help?

Lighten up, Francis! Going off your previous post you could say you were asking for it.


Another Jem of a post.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/96199-left-run-all-day.html

Maybe you and the Prius are not compatible?

 

So there are multiple moron moments by the OP and in both he is whining about how his car did not warn him when he failed. Come on Caug1 - get your head out of your --- and pay attention. When you do mess up take some responsibility.

 

Caug, we all do boneheaded things occasionally. Learn to laugh at yourself so we don't feel compelled to do it for you.

 

OP has a Gen 3, which doesn't use the bladder. But yes, he's really pushing it and making assumptions that the tank is actually completely full, ALL of the fuel in the tank and lines is usable and that the trip computer/MID has no error. It's been established that the Gen 3's trip computer/MID is optimistic (some revs more so than others?).

http://priuschat.com/forums/other-cars/94001-gas-gauge-says-full-but-thats-not-quite-true-npr.html might be insightful even though it's a Ford engineer speaking.

I think it's silly to run so close to empty. Seems pointless to me.

I can't speak to the Gen 3's guess gauge behavior but on Gen 2 my thoughts are these:
3 pips = think about getting gas soon
2 pips = get gas soon
1 pip = get gas really soon
flashing pip = drop everything, get gas at the closest gas station, regardless of price

I normally get gas at 2 or 3 pips and almost never run it down to 1.