How much fuel is in the tank when the last bar blinks?

the reason the bladder can't breath fast enough to prevent the burp is because the rate that the carbon canister accepts vapour is less that the output of the gas station pump. It takes time to move the contaminated vapour thru the activate charcoal to trap the hydocarbons. After owning 3 Prius we've come to accept the limitation of the bladder/fuel tank. Blink, fill, move on.

 

Seems like every car is different here.

I have just run out of gas on purpose in my 2005. I stopped immediatly, after driving maybe 15 feet to see the motor was working fine.
Temperature was 7 degrees F. Results were:

456.2 miles on the tank as it went dry.

46.7 miles at real empty from flashing empty signal.

around 40.8 mpg during the flashing empty period, mostly at 7 to 15 degrees F. and two warmups from cold engine

So I estimate my reserve at flashing empty is 1.1 gal

Filled up first on the spot with my 1 gal emergency can. Some warnings went out but the 2 major ones stayed on. Car started right up though.

2 miles to gas station then and filled up with 10.2 gallons, so total tank fill up = 11.2 gallons

This leaves about 0.7 gallons that is either unusable fuel or unfillable fuel.
After fill up my guage did not go to full. Last box was not lit, so I am guessing 0.2 unusable and 0.5 unfillable maybe.

Filling tank my experience has been very different from others. I fill as much into the tank as I can. I just keep going.

Fill very slowly. Stopped one time when I heard gurgling. This time in the cold there was no gurgle but I got down to thimble-fulls between pump cutoffs, so got to a point I gave up trying more. Takes around 2 gallons more post the first cut off.

Glad to find out what my reserve was and that it was half what I expected. Also glad to see at 7 degrees F I didn't lose over a gallon of capacity like the manual talks about. Losing 0.7 seems reasonable to put up with.

Now if only the flashing to empty reserve is consistent. For now I will assume it is and maybe feel like testing again when warmer weather arrives. For now I will just head to a gas station soon as I see the flashing E.

 

There is one problem with manually calculating DTE. That is, there is no guarantee your last miles are going to get the MPG shown on the display, thus using more fuel than expected, thus getting less miles to empty than expected.

For example, for the last 500 miles, you have been getting 50MPG. By this, you estimate you have 1.9 gallons left, so your DTE is 95 miles, or even 50 miles if you drop the .9 for safety.

So, you are driving up the mountain on an interstate, and your actual MPG is now 40 or less. You now have only 40-76 DTE. Your MFD however may only drop 1-2 MPGs during this time. I just calculated no lower than 48.4 on the MFD in this scenario.
Only instantaneous or near-instantaneous DTE would work.

 

i suggest to get the full amount in the car, you should fill up your tank then drive around the block making sure yo u hit several bumps to insure proper packing of the bladder, then stop and refill again.

im sure all this trouble will be worth the extra gallon or two.

 

i think its a great idea that may need work. i for one dont really have an issue with it.

IF i want to, i believe that i can get 10 gallons in the tank without pushing the limits of the car. i do not choose to find out. AFAIC, pushing ANY car farther than that is foolish or desperation.

there seems to be a fair amount of people on both sides of this issue so i feel that this might be part of the "break in" for some. now i dont mean stretching the bladder, i sincerely doubt that that is possible. its just that filling the Prius does take a small learning curve. initially, it did try my very limited amount of patience at first.

now realize, i already had the gas gauge fix on the car and i wonder if that is the reason i dont have issues with the car. i always fill to the nearest dollar after the first cutoff. I KNOW that i can put more in there and i choose not to. (i did fill to the brim when i first got the car, but feel that the gains are not worth the possible consequences)

but anyway, i wonder how much of an advantage i have since my car had the fuel fix at the factory and many of you here had to gamble with whoever was local to your location...

now there is also a few with newer cars having complaints, but i dont see that being as prevalent. nothing is perfect, so some issues are expected, the bags will not be the same size though close im sure, and there is still the different method required to fill the car.

 

When I ran out of gas, I pumped in 12.04 gallons. Didn't do any squeezing in as much as possible, just my normal top off to the next $0.25. I normally only get 7-8 gallons in after the low fuel warning comes on.

 

I ran out of gas on 12/8/04 after only 33 miles of flashing last bar. When I filled up the pump first cutoff at 10.747 gallons and I ended up putting 11.03 gallons in the tank. It seems I don't have much gas to spare once the last bar starts flashing.

 

I've driven my Prius out of fuel twice to test the tank capacity. Both times I travelled around 120 miles on the last bar. My opinion is about 3 gals on the last bar, 2 gals on blinking bar. How far you can go depends on your mpg.

 

Ran out today on my very first tank!!

Not having read any of these threads, I had read the manual and assumed I had 11.9 gals. So when the blinking started after 400 miles I thought "just another ridiculously early warning" -- figuring I had until at least 550 miles, averaging 48.5.

Ran out on the San Mateo Bridge! Thank god for battery power to get me to a gas station. Filled it to 10.2 gals and was perplexed why I could only put 10.2 gals into a 11.9 tank, given that I had certaintly used everything in there... now I know why! or maybe I should say I don't know why but at least I'm not alone.

Looks like I got ~ 40m on the blink.

Exciting first fill up, though.

 

I think part of it has to do with the terrain you are driving in too. I drive over a small mountain every day. If I'm in the 1-2 bar range, it'll usually become a blinking bar by the time I get to the top. 7-20 downhill miles later, I usually end up putting in 8.5 gallons... I've been averaging 43 mpg and have never gotten over 370 miles on a tank in the past 3 weeks (and 3 fillups).

Glenn

 

I just don't see the point of eeking the last mile before running out. I fill up when I get one bar (non-blinking). This is about the same as I would do in a regular car--it's indicating 90% gone and I just fill up at the next opportunity. There are a lot of hills in my area so I've nver been able to trust gauges anyway. I've learned I can safely get 450 miles on a full tank and that's when I fill up, regardless of the gauge. Life's too short to worry about an extra few miles on a tank. I'm gonna drive them anyway, so does it matter whether I do so with fumes or a full tank of gas?

 

In my saturn I would fill the tank at 1/4. I ran out of gas 3 times before (even with it's accurate fuel gauge) and didn't need that stress in my life anymore. I fill the Prius often as well, especially since the cheaper gas stations aren't close.

Now I can find new things to stress about!

 

I've been told that the overfill recovery feature of California fuel pumps will drink quite a bit of our $2.67/gal unleaded. So you guys who have been squeezing more in after auto shutoff may have been enriching Exxon, unless your state doesn't require the dual-hose recovery systems. I allow for differences in the auto shutoff level, or fill rate, in calculating my fuel consumption manually, since it varies from the dash display rate. After the blinking one-bar indication and beep I fill to auto shutoff with about 9.5 to 10.5 gallons.

 

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Most states do have this - which is why when I'm filling that last gallon or so, I make sure the holes in the end of the pump tip (which are for the recovery system) don't touch the liquid gas as I'm filling.

-m.

 

I have a 2005 that I have filled up twice now. The last fill up I drove 5 miles into the blinking bar and put in 6.8 gallons. That was a ckick after the auto shutoff. MFD average was 50mpg. I drove 336 miles on that tank. So my bar started blinking at 331 miles into the tank. So my strategy is to stretch it a little longer each tank. This tank I will try to go to 400 miles and see how much can be added. I think you will have to develope 2 comfort zones, summer and winter.

 

We have had our 05 Tideland for 1 week. I filled today for the 1st time with 451 miles. When I went to the station, the last bar was blinking. I could hardly get it to take any fuel without kicking off.It wouldn't allow me to lock it in the slowest notch and had to nurse the entire fill. It took 11.3 gallons. I suspect that I filled it fuller than the salesman did at delivery last week. The computer said 46.6 mpg. It was 45 F. Is the EXTREMELY slow fill rate normal? If so, what will it be at -10 degrees? My wife really likes the car and is ready to sell our 02 Chrysler T&C Limited.

Doug

 

My 2006 says the tank holds 11.9 gallons. Today I was driving at 70mph and the blinking began. We went about 25 miles to fill-up. We added 10.25 gallons, simply letting the pump shut off normally.

Total was 481 miles on that tank, which was the first for the car.

 

Today, about miles after blinking started, I put in 10.1 gallons