"Gas bladder, this isn't normal"

Best wishes for a speedy & complete recovery for your GF. Hope she had the best of care. Presby has taken good care of me. On the bright side you'll never run out of gas filling up at 2 pips.

 

If the average American motorist does 15,000 miles a year and you get 320 miles from a tank and you fill up once a week this is a massive non issue.

15,000 miles/52 weeks = 288.46 miles a week.

Fill up each week and smile at all the other people filling their conventional cars, trucks n (Nothing to do with sport)UVs!!
Make a show of paying with a $20 note and ask for your change loudly. Say something like, "hey I need change from that 20, I only drove a week in my Prius!" Ask the attendant to open the mike so everyone on the forecourt can hear you say it, now that is sport!!

 

I picked up my new '09 and drove 400 miles. After driving a short while with the last bar I went to the gas station. The pump stopped after 5.3 gallons. I new something was wrong as this has NEVER happened with ANY other car I've previously owned. I figured I should be able to add a few more gallons at least to get to around 9 before being full. Well, I kept pumping the gas and "forced" it to a total of 6.9 gallons before calling it quits. I then called the service advisor to ask what's up with this $%@#%$#@%$#@%#@ tank/bladder. She actually tells me (I'm wondering at this point if she's thinking that I'm thinking that this is absolutely crap) that the car should never have less than 1/3 of gas left in the tank. If it falls below 1/3 you could have trouble filling the tank completely. Again, I'm thinking this is a MAJOR design flaw at best. First, I can't top it off. Second, If by any chance I use more than 2/3s of a tank I might not be able fill the tank completely and lastly I might not be able to get the benefit of a full tank of gas for the next 3-5 refills!!!!! Wow, bad design for a car with a miniscule tank to start with.

 

jjohur, it has a miniscule tank by 6 cylinder car standards yes. I'm lucky enough not to have a bladder in my tank but I'm not alone in that I always get over 500 miles from a tank of petrol and I always fill at 2 bars. You would struggle to get that from a normal size tank in a 6 or V8 car. The bladder needs a little breaking in is all, it will get better and the love affair will grow between you and your Prius.

Look at the bright side, at least it isn't a GM product!

 

I think everyone missed the issue: you may need to recalibrate the inclination sensors -
From Toyota: "There are two inclination sensor located in the meter ECU to detect vehicle longitudinal and latitudinal inclinations and to correct the fuel level calculation. Corrections are made by the signals from the inclination sensors and the ambient temperature sensor located in the fuel tank. The inclinometer must be reset if the customer complains that they can only pump a few gallons of gas into their tank or that they run out of gas with three or four bars left on the fuel meter."

It goes on to say to refer to the Prius Repair Manual for calibration. I don't have that manual but your dealer should. Perhaps you should look into this.

 

To reset the inclination sensors:

As for the Inclination Sensors,there are 2 located in the Combination Meter. They measure side to side and front to back angle of the Prius.Taking those readings and from the gauge in the tank,the meter knows how many bars to show the driver of fuel in the tank.Who knows why but sometimes the sensors need reset.The procedure is not hard but not done right can make the reading off more.It sometimes takes a couple of tries to get it going in the right pattern of pushes(see below).So here goes;

1. Park on a very level surface, Ready Mode, make sure Odometer reading is showing,then power off.
2. Hold down the Odo/Trip button while going to IGN ON ( foot off brake,not in Ready Mode!).
3. Release/press the Odo/Trip button 3 times in 5 secs. Should be holding the button in at this point.
4. 1st gen: You will see a set of numbers at this point within 5 secs. Release then press Odo/Trip again till you see a "1" which is Reset has begun.When finished,the Odometer will return to normal and you can release the button and power down.
2nd gen: You will also see numbers,but 6 in a row.Release and press again and you will see a set of 5 numbers.After the 3rd digit shows "1", release the button and Odometer should be back to normal.Power down.

For those with TSB acsess, the 1st gen is TSB EL008-03 and for the 2nd gen it is with the fuel tube upate. TSB EL010-04,see page 6.
This may not fix what some are experiencing, but could be, .
__________________
Rick Angles
Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician
Toyota Hybrid Technician
Germain Toyota
Columbus, Ohio

 

The thing that irks me is that when I put gas in but don't fill it up, the pip bars don't move. At 2 pips, I put in 8 bucks worth (all I had today) because gas was at 3.17 per gallon (they would like us to think this is a good deal.) After firing the car back up, I still only showed 2 pips. I know the gas is in there, but I would at least like to see one pip move up..... jf

 

It takes about 2.5 gallons before the addition registers. Either gas needs to get a little less expensive, or you need to carry more cash.

Tom

 

johnford,

in another thread on running out of gas, it was noted that the the car wouldn't
restart unless 5 gallons or more of gas was put in the tank/bladder. It may be
possible that this same minimum amount of gas is needed to trigger a "reset"
of the guess gauge no matter where you are on the gauge.

That seems weird to me, -- like if you have to walk to get gas, somebody at
Toyota thinks its easy to tote a 5 gallon container, or five, 1 gallon containers!
Or better yet, it was wholly outside the experience or anticipation of the
design team that someone would add gas, but not top off.

Perhaps more experienced posters can confrm/deny this 5 gal. guess gauge
reset threshold.

 

As I said in the post above yours, it takes just a bit less than 3 gallons to register.

Tom

 

DANGER DANGER!!

Don't top off the tank-- You might damage the EVAP system, and that is going to be a non-warranty costly repair!

My Prius also only takes 6 gallons in the depths of winter, when the bladder is stiff and resists expansion. Don't force it-- It ain't worth the repair costs!