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Can Someone Verify The 2017 Prius Fuel Tank Capacty. ALso The Farthest You Have Gone On A Full Tank

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Soba1, Oct 7, 2019.

  1. BAllanJ

    BAllanJ Active Member

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    Our gas price fluctuates on a weekly cycle. Filling up on Tuesday evening is key.
    The farthest I've gone is well over 800km and I was quite impressed because I'd only had the car for about a month (bought it when it came off a 2 year lease from someone who leased it while waiting for his Tesla to arrive). Coming back from a holiday in Newfoundland with the car filled with me, a tent, my hammock frame and hammock, my folding bike, my packraft (with paddle, lifejacket etc) other clothing and camp kitchen and cooler etc.
    I filled up in Edmonston, New Brunswick heading for home in Kingston, Ontario. Into the wind and slightly uphill, I guess, although mostly flat after I got past Quebec City. I prefer not filling up in Quebec due to their higher gas taxes but I wasn't driving particularly hypermiley. When getting near Montreal I realized that I might make it to Ontario without refueling so I dropped the adaptive cruise to 2 bars and got behind a truck (here they're speed limited to about 106kph). Not only did I get to Ontario but I got home and didn't fill up until the next day after doing a lot of running around putting stuff back in my storage locker and getting groceries etc. That tank got me 844 km with a consumption of 3.6 litres/100km. I've since had an 871km tank, but usually fill up earlier (usually to phase correctly with the local price cycle. I would like to see my first 1 Mm tank someday, but that will have to wait until warm weather returns.
    BTW, that trip took me up and down the west coast of Nfld and out and back for a total of 7504 km with consumption total of 4.0 l/100km. I never got close to that in my 2009 Prius, that my son now drives.
     
  2. Soba1

    Soba1 Junior Member

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    Impressive thanks it’s all in how you drive it
     
  3. mudworm

    mudworm Member

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    Just looked at my log. My farthest on a full tank was 577 miles (929km). Every gas fill takes a detour (yes, even just for turning off the road and pull up to a pump) and time, so I usually wait until the tank gets really low. There were times I rolled into a gas station with the remaining miles-to-empty in the single digit. Don't worry; It's all calculated. I push it that far on my commute route so I know I'll for sure get it filled before it goes down to 0. I am always curious though what would happen when the reading goes to 0. Does it give me ANY buffer at all?
     
    #23 mudworm, Oct 17, 2019
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019
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  4. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    Hard to know - but my suspicion is that there are still a litre or 3 in the tank. And TOYOTA, VW, SUBARU, ROLLS ROYCE - aren't going to tell us - because they don't want us to run out. One of my cars a long time back would take 55 litres regularly in a "supposedly 50 litre" tank.

    Trivia - what I did find was:

    upload_2019-10-18_16-2-40.png

    upload_2019-10-18_16-1-40.png
    upload_2019-10-18_16-2-9.png
     
  5. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Assuming Gen4 tank and gauge is identical to PRIME's, you still have ~2 gallons left when you first see the gas empty light comes on. I have driven over 100 miles after DTE reached 0 miles, but I could fill only a bit over 10 gallons into the 11.3 gal capacity tank, meaning still ~1 gal left in the tank.
     
    #25 Salamander_King, Oct 18, 2019
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019
    fuzzy1 and alanclarkeau like this.
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
    Staff Member

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    Yes there is a buffer. Your bet estimate is a Trip Odometer distance track plus mpg.
    E.g. 462 miles on Trip A and 50 mpg on Trip A. That’s approximately 9.27 gal on a 11.3 gal tank. And your fuel light would’ve just come on. You can safely do 38 more miles to 500 (and approximately 10 gals used with 1.3 gal left).

    In metric, the tank is 43 litres for the Gen 4 with the low fuel light coming on at 35 litres. There’s a 7 litre reserve.

    That’s a bit less than the Gen 2/3 Prius but that’s only because they had larger fuel tanks (45 litres with the low fuel light coming on at 35 litres with 10 litre reserved). I suspect the higher mpg of the Gen 4 means you’ll go further even with less reserve fuel.
     
  7. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Previous Prius generations have a significant buffer, disclosed in the Owner's Manual, and very many of us have repeatedly gone past DTE=0. It would be a shock to many of us if Gen4 didn't do the same. See just the first post of this long Gen3 thread: [WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III) | PriusChat

    OTOH, some other brands have different practices. E.g. my Subaru Forester has NO buffer beyond its equivalent to DTE=0. But it does have multiple stages of low fuel warnings, more prominent and colorful than in my Gen3 Prius, beginning with more than 2 gallons remaining. And its Distance Remaining display quits showing any number at all, just dashes, at about 30 miles remaining. It takes a greater degree of driver disengagement to miss than in a Prius.

    As a test, I was going to run the Forester dry, but then wussed out at the last fuel station before a long stretch, too long for the fuel can brought along for recovery. It ran out a couple seconds after I pulled up to the pump, before shutting off the ignition, as I reached for my fuel logbook. The refill amount was just a few hundredths of a gallon different than the stated tank capacity.
     
    #27 fuzzy1, Oct 18, 2019
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019