450 Mile Club

And the OP won't know how full he actually got the tank when the pump shut itself off.

 

Agreed. It's just one of the quirks of the North American GenII. At least this quirk helps reduce emissions. Getting 400+ miles to a tank is still nice. My GMC 4x4 had a 26 gallon tank and I usually never got 400 miles out of it. I do envy the VW diesel crowd who get 700-800 miles to a tank. Bastards!

 

I can think of two ways the OP can really tell how much "reserve" is left.

1) Install a fuel metering device (like Consumer Reports does), start counting when he's down to his blinking pip or whatever and then drive until the car stops.
OR
2) At blinking pip drain ALL the fuel out of the system and measure how much is there.

 

I follow a rather simple method. I fill up the tank and will only base my range on 10 gallons of fuel. In a sense, if the car is returning an average of 51 miles per gallons; I consider my range to be 510 miles. I then just look at the distance traveled on that tank to determine when I need to refuel. Since the Gen II Prius uses a fuel bladder, the tank suffers from variable capacity due to outside temperature.

A good example is the fact that I drove this weekend from Keller, TX to San Marcos, TX and back, in one tank of gas. The fuel light came on 88 miles from my house, I was in Waco,TX at that point. I continued to drive the car until I got home and refueled the car the next morning. The car only took 10.159 gallons of fuel (capacity is published as 11.9 gallons). The reason I felt comfortable driving the 88 miles with the fuel light blinking was simple. I determined that since I was getting 52.6 miles per gallons, my fuel range should be 526 miles if I use 10 gallons of fuel. I knew the total distance for the trip was going to be 492 miles, giving me plenty of room to spare. Sure enough, when I refueled the car, it took just over 10 gallons to refill it. Since the temperature when I got back home was 20 degrees warmer than when I left, I was able to put more gas on the car when I refueled the next morning than when I fueled the car when I started the trip.

 

I regularly go 600 mi on a tank during spring/summer/fall. I put 12 gal in and know I can easily get 50 mpg = 600 mi. It takes time to fill up to 12gal and need to have a slow filling pump.

 

As F8L stated, you don't get it. You have more suppositions than facts. We have no clue how much reserve you really had left, if any. A significant number of Gen2 owners have run out of fuel, and out of vapor too, at shorter distances on the blinking pip than you ran.

I had a Gen2 only two weeks, as a rental, and starting learning about the vagaries of the bladder on the very first fill-up attempt. That attempt was only partially successful, and was the reason I discovered PriusChat in the first place.

 

I don't even remember the last time I put 8 gallons in the tank (with 2 pips left). I get nervous when I have 2 pips left, so I will never intentionally try blinking pip. That's just too much pressure on my heart muscles.

 

Sigh... you have a 3rd gen and it doesn't have variable capacity bladder tank. Your findings are irrelevant to this thread.

If a 2nd gen driver assumes 600 miles on a tank on a regular basis (esp. if at the edge/near 50 mpg indicated on the MFD) or assumes there are 12 usable gallons of gas in the variable capacity bladder tank, then he will run out of gas.

 

This is wrong in my case, I have a 2 gallon variance summer to winter in usable tank size.

 

With 7 billion people, there is bound to be one to agree with you.

But no you are wrong on this one. It is not a tank, stop thinking conventionally.

 

I beg to differ. I have never gotten more than 8.75 gallons into my "11.9" gallon tank with a bladder. So what accounts for the other 3.15 gallons? The contraction of the bladder within the tank. And driving more than 5 miles on a blinking pip is asking for trouble. That being said, my best mileage was 520 miles on a 60 mpg tank in the summer. No blinking pips for me thanks. Just my two cents.

 

Wow, you really are still green behind the gills, and haven't read enough PriusChat posts from drivers who have run out of fuel.

 

I still do not get it - who the heck cares. I buy gas when it is convenient and cheep - here in Eastern PA there is about a $.40 swing depending on just where you are - even more if you happen to cross over into NJ which is just across the river from Philly.

Far more than anything - life is stressful enough - why add to it?

 

Also (since the OP is new to Priuschat), besides running out of gas, I can foresee people being tempted to force more gas into the tank, which can be a bad thing.

See http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...56-fuel-tank-top-off-bad-im-now-believer.html and http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-technical-discussion/30593-gas-bladder-exposed.html.

 

yep - that became evident when the OP didn't post mileage in the mileage threads - where if he had gone, he'd have found untold numbers of folks regularly doing over 500 ... 600 ... and even 700 miles per tank full. Not to mention the wacked out folks who've gone over 800 on a tank.


.

 

Although I usually do not get more than 9 gals in a fill up I do not suggest running the gauge down to the minimum.

My "gas scare" was a TOTAL surprise. I was driving from NC to NY and going through Trenton , NJ (and getting 50+MPG). I had what I thought was plenty of gas. There was a heavy rainstorm that lasted for a couple of hours and flooded the local streets and apparently the freeway I was on. (I-295).

I was stuck in traffic that barely moved 100' in an hour. Meanwhile, due to the stop and go driving, running the lights, defroster and wipers, the car engine ran almost constantly, even thought I was barely moving. Soon the "get gas" light came on and it was impossible to even get to an exit due to traffic being in gridlock.

Fortunately, the traffic in the opposite direction was moving freely and NJ has a "break" in the center divider every so often-- and although it is illegal to make that turn, I did-- and thanks to my Prius navigation (since I was in a totally unfamiliar area I had NO idea where a gas station would be) I found a gas station BEFORE my Prius ran dry (10.5 gals) and eventually it led me back to the NJ Turnpike which I would not have found very quickly on my own.

Let this story be a lesson: you never know when you might need an extra gallon or 2 so don't wait and tempt fate. It can happen in summer as this incident did or even worse in winter. There is no reason to be stupid, just keep a little gas in the tank.

 

I have run out of gas with two blips on the gauge. Thank God I was less that 2 blocks from a gas station.

 

The first fill of my 2007 UK Spec ( no bladder ) took 44L - I think I ran it a little low ;-)

I've also just had 560 miles out of the last tank, and to re-fill took 40L, so I got about 61mpg ( UK Gallon = 4.54 L )

 

My bladder limits me to how far I drive before stopping.