Does MFD display Miles To Empty?

Unfortunately there isn't. My guess is due to the gas tank bladder which causes a varying amount of fuel when added. In other words, each time you fill up, you won't have the same amount of gas in the tank at each fill. Since there is no way for the system to know how much goes in, it can't compute remaining miles reliably enough.

Just know that as soon as the last bar of the fuel gauge starts to flash, fill it IMEDIATELY. To be on thesafe side, fill it up before you get to one bar.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 2 2006, 10:27 PM) [snapback]264985[/snapback]</div>

No.

Given the uncertainty in how much gas is in the tank thanks to the bladder (in USA models at least), it would be difficult to do this with anything but SWAG accuracy. I had this feature in my Audi A6 and liked it, but it didn't have the nice bar graph display of 5 minute mpg segments. Win some, lose some.

- Tom

 

After awhile you will get a feel for it, however. For a given set of circumstances like temperature, type of travel, drives you do alot of and how low you like to get the gas guage down.....you will get a sense how many more miles you will have before having to visit the pump again. I like to refill with about 3 bars left showing on the gas guage. I usually see that at about 375 miles from the last fill. I get more miles during warmer weather and less during colder.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

 

No. And for good reason... variable driving conditions and big swings in fuel economy.

If you've been getting 55 to 60 mpg with a tailwind going downhill, then you start going uphill into a headwind - you're getting more like 35 to 40. that is a big swing and impossible for the car to predict.

Miles to empty only works well on vehicles that don't have big swings in mpg. It works great on my pick-up - 11 mpg no matter how I drive. Except uphill in the mountains with the camper on the back, but again, 9 - 10 ain't too different than 11.

It's not too hard to do a mental estimate if you figure 10 gallons in a tank. at 50 mpg - you're looking at 500 miles to the tank. If you have 1/4 left, figure 125 miles to go, gas up before then.

In town, fill up soon after the gauge starts blinking - no more than 20 miles or so. On the interstate, I don't let it get past 30 miles into the final solid bar.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 3 2006, 12:41 AM) [snapback]265039[/snapback]</div>

The US Prius doesn't hold the gas in a rigid tank, but in a flexible bladder. Toyota did this in order to seal it to better control emissions, as evaporating fuel is an emission. In warm weather it's more flexible and expanded and holds more, cold weather sees it stiffen and shrink, holding less fuel.

Do as you all wish as far as when to fill up. We fillup anywhere below 50% at those times when it's convenient. I've posted this before and so have others.... The Prius runs on gasoline and doesn't run worth a hoot w/o gas in the tank. It's much faster and much less of a hassle to keep the tank in a "plenty of fuel" condition than it is to run out and have to tow it, walk, etc.. Frankly, I can't understand someone waiting for the bottom of the bladder before filling. Heck, in some sections of the country running out of fuel can be life threatening and some sections of the country you can't get fuel after a certain hour. What do you do then if you're bladder is low and you absolutely MUST use the car?

 

A lot of folks are hung up on bragging about how many miles they get per tankfull. Some will over-fill the tank, and then push the limits on running out, just to try to get to X miles on a tankfull.

CAN-View shows the percentage of full of the tank, but just gets that off the CAN bus, so I don't know how accurate that is. And it's not available for the 2006. (Toyota changed the parameters on the CAN bus for 2006.) I'm intending to note what the percentage is when the last bar blinks, but like the previous poster, I often fill sooner, so have not seen the blinking bar since installing CAN-View.