2009 only 260 miles per tank!?!?!?!

What happens if you run it down to 2 or 1 pip? I almost never fill when down to 3. (Get gas immediately if you hit 1 pip.)

I've never put in more than 9.975 gallons in my Prius that I've had since January 06. I think I was down to 1 pip, but don't recall if it was flashing.

The inclinometer might be out of calibration, but I'd suggest not mucking w/that, for now.

 

YUP normal. My 2010 gets 400+ miles to a tank. My wife's 2008 gets between 250 and 350 max.

 

It all depends on your mpg and how low you want to run the tank down. At 45mpg you could run it down to 3 pips and still go another 150 miles or more before the low fuel light comes on. IE you can get 350 miles on a tank at 45mpg or so. I used to always fill up at 2 PIPs which gave me about 350 miles on that tank. This summer I put my 15" tires back on and practiced mild hypermiling at was getting over 500 miles to a tank at 55mpg-57mpg. I could get 9.5-10 gallons in the tank if I ran with the low fuel light blinking for awhile. I don't recommend that though.

Moral of the story? Drive more efficiently and wait until you get down to one or two PIPs before hitting a gas station. 350-400 mile tanks will become normal.

 

I'm so glad the Gen IIIs don't use bladder. I've driven 50-70 miles on blinking pip all the time before filling up. 600 miles to the tank and 10.5-11.5 gals on the fill up.

 

Agreed. It depends a lot on how efficiently one drives.

Looking at my records, when I was living in WA and had very short drives, coupled w/very cold weather in some months, I'd be lucky to get >41 mpg on a "tank" and my "tank" be good for 250-330 or so miles, depending on my FE and how low I ran it (usually down to 2 or 3 pips).

 

my 2008 is on 2 pips left on its first tank and Ive 800km on it at 4.1 lt/100km
57.37 US mpg

Ive only had the car a fortnight and have no idea what Im doing !

 

Not sure if the Australian version has the bladder. The JDM Gen 2 doesn't have the bladder and thus has a significantly higher tank capacity (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...enge-over-50km-l-117mpg-tank.html#post1151806).

 

Im told its a solid fuel tank,
the Australia specific manual says its 45 ltr

 

Yeah there's no bladder in your tank so it's pretty safe to drive it until the last pip blinks. Mine is very repeatable, I usually go somewhere about 950 to 980 km per tank. My all time record is 1042 km.

 

I chickened out at 852 when I noticed only the last pip was alight.

 

at 60 MPG or thereabouts my Gen II gets about 350 to 400 miles on a tank when I fill up at 2 pips.

I wouldn't worry about running it down to one pip, no need to push it and deal with bladder inaccuracy. Just fill it up at 2. I don't even pay attention to how much gas goes in, I just watch my MPG and refill the tank as needed.

If you are worried about range put more air in your tires. See this info from another PC member

I try to air up as close to 70 degrees as I can after the car has been sitting several hours and let the PSI float higher/lower as outside temps dictate.

The PSI I choose from is:

50/47 high (short trips or warm winters)
48/45 med (long trips or summer use)
45/42 low (winter below freezing)

But I have 51 PSI sidewall max tires. If I had 44 PSI I'd probably make that

45/42 high
42/40 med
40/38 low

 

Interesting... I wonder if ken1784 was in error then about the JDM Gen 2.

Ahh yes, regarding the tilting, you're probably referring to the special fueling technique at (from http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...lenge-japanese-hybrid-drivers.html#post868854).


But it's a Gen 3 in the pic...

 

ah excellent, thanks ...
so much to learn with this car