Customer Ran Car Out Of Gas / Light Came On

What year is the car in question?

I think the second gen's allow you to run the hybrid battery dangerously low when run out of gas. It's a "feature".

And just curious, re "customer": are you a garage, or is that unrelated?

 

I've run our 2003 Prius out of gas about 30-40 times when I was doing gasoline quality studies. When the dash lights up, I just use the traction battery to reach a safe place to park. Then I add 1 gallon from a gas can; start the car, and; drive to the gas station for the next tank.

The only known risk is if the customer tries to restart the car 3 times, it will set a flag keeping the car from trying again. The easy solution is to disconnect the 12V battery ground for ~30 seconds, reconnect, add some gas, and start her up.

Bob Wilson

 

A 2002 with only 24K miles on the odometer?

It looks like the fuel tank was refilled prior to the photo being taken. The owner can try disconnecting the 12V battery to clear the DTC logged. Then when the power is restored and the car made READY again, see if any warning lights reappear.

The meaning of the third icon appearing in red color within the MFD is that the hybrid vehicle ECU logged a DTC, most likely associated with the engine not producing power when the HV ECU expected it to.