Fill up at 3 bars? I do mean the gas tank

Be careful about filling up at those bars before getting behing the wheel. There is a tow hook, that attaches to the front or back bumper, in the toolkit by the spare tire and the owners manual shows hard points for placement of a floor jack.

 

Jen,

What are you asking, exactly about the fuel tank gauge?
Is it that it isn't accurate?
Are you referring to the "fuel bladder" issue that the Gen II has?
Are you referring to the DTE (drive to empty) display?
Are you referring to the fact that when the last PIP starts blinking that the car still has 2 gallons of gasoline in the tank?

I'd love to help with your question, but I don't know what the question is

 

I did not understand the gas tank question so I am going to give my best advice:
Get gas at three pips if your mother in law is in the car, why risk having to abandon her by the roadside, you will never hear the last of it.
Get gas at two pips if you wife is in the car, it will be a long time living that down, too.
Get gas at one pip if you are driving solo, no one need ever know you ran out of gas.
Get gas NOW, if the pip begins to Blink, trust me.

Flatbed towing is best.

 

Get gas at 427 miles.

 

You are not supposed to tow the car any real distance unless the front wheels are off the ground. You can't leave it in "N" as that requires it to be in "ready". Yes, there are ways around that, but that's what's in the owners manual. You HAVE read the owners manual, right?

 

I routinely go to one bar when alone. (But I am not afraid of any neighborhood near me, in big cities I would be more cautious in some neighborhoods) Three bars is always at least 50 miles of gas, sometimes much more, so that is overkill. My 'commute' is mostly 56 miles each way with no gas stations in between, so I do not leave town with one pip, and prefer not to start with two pips.

Your commute may have more stations and not be as much a planning issue as mine. In any case, running out of gas HAS to be more work than getting gas 'too early'. (As I age, my range between restrooms is getting to be less than the car's range between gas pumps, anyway)

 

That is just dealer misinformation, FUD. The GenIIs (2004-2009) had an issue with the fuel bladder and 'guess gauge', but the GenIII fuel tank and gauge went back to behaving like any traditional car. I frequently let my 2010 go down to the blinking bar, without problems.

Bob Wilson intentionally ran cars out of gas for fun and sport. His thread [WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III) is the best repository for such detail in a 2010.

Based on what your dad taught you, I'd trust you to jump start my Prius before I'd trust any of those sales guys or some of the road service hacks. It is more risky than a traditional car (very expen$$$$ive if done incorrectly), but it can be done, and my sales guy did show me how.

Jimbo has previously pointed to some 'smart' jumper cables that should eliminate the risk of a reverse connection.

 

I only have my 2012 prius for few months (3500mi) and I take it to the limit every time. just to know what it can do. I have free toyota road side assistance for 3 years, why not push it a bit
I wait till light start blinking and fill up and next fill up I let it go little more.
So this is what I got so far.
once lite start blinking you are half way down the last 10th gallon. after 10 gallons according to the manual you have another gallon and half of reserve ( 50-75 miles of driving depending on your MPG)
So, my last fill up I did 50 miles after light started blinking and I put it 10.5 gallons in, that means I had one more left in it.
My average fuel economy around 48mi/g

 

Just remember that the fuel pump is in the tank and cooled by gas in the tank. So it's good to leave a couple of gal's of gas to cool the pump!

 

??? No offense intended but I don't think that is a really valid reason. Leave extra fuel in tank because you want to, not because you want to keep the fuel pump cool.

Those of you who have been following my rants on the low remaining fuel know that I am a firm believer in the engineering design of the Prius. If a couple of gallons of fuel were actually needed to keep to pump cool then Toyota would have put much stronger warnings about the significance of that flashing pip AND there would be some sort of a safety override to prevent the pump from becoming "un cooled".


iPad ?

 

Do you ever travel to or through places without cell phone service?

In my region, the service maps have plenty of white space.

 

That's something worthy of consideration. I only push the limits of "normal" for me around town. When I go out of town then I usually pay much more attention to filling up after the pip starts flashing because I don't know where the next refueling opportunity will be.

 

I've also pushed limits only in areas with readily available fuel. And after seeing Bob Wilson's results, it became apparent that I didn't get anywhere close to actually pushing it.

But some places I travel, waiting for the pip to start flashing could mean pushing very hard against the limits, unless one was willing to turn around and backtrack to refuel.

 

I really don't understand why you would want to do push it to the last few drops of gas?
The Mpg all comes out the same anyway over time.

I like to go to Costco for gas, so I fill up when I'm over there, regardless of how much is in the tank.

 

The OP's posts give me a headache trying to read them.

 

In the end I have been using the gage to let me know when I have to fill up. Single bip or flashing bip is about 9.5 gallons or so in my experience. IMO when it starts to blink you fill-up....

 

There should not be an issue in running the gas tank below 3 PIP's if you are driving a 2010 or later car. The 2009 and earlier had a fuel bladder that prevented one from knowing precisely the amount of fuel in the tank. The fuel does cover/cool the fuel pump, but we don't know how much gas is necessary to cover it (do we?).

You have to be VERY careful when jumping a Prius. A woman named Ginny had an issue where a tow guy jumped her car, and likely reversed the polarity of the cables. It blew out her inverter and cost her a couple of thousands of dollars to fix (search the phrase "So I blew the inverter", I think that was the thread topic).

That's not to say you couldn't jump your car, but it is risky. And the battery is small, so jumping someone else's car may not be a good idea either.

 

Fuel is pumped through the pump right through the motor. As long as it''s pumping fuel, the pump motor is being cooled.