Did bad gas kill my Prius?

Bad gas can do that and i don't know what's involved in a 2002 Prius's gas tank. I've had to replace a gas pump and drain the tank on a normal car because of bad gas. You might try putting one of those gas dryer additives (like HEET) in your tank to see if it helps, but it sounds pretty bad. I wonder if it was more than water -- maybe diesel fuel?

 

you can guess all you want, but the best solution is reading the trouble codes at a toyota dealer. if you don't trust them, get a copy and post them here for confirmation.

 

THIS is a perfect example of WHY you should BREAK that bad habit of letting the tank get too low before you fill up.
I start thinking about it at half empty and start looking for a station at 3/4.

Circumstances sure sound like bad gas.
But that should NOT trigger any HV battery warnings.
I suggest some "brand name" total fuel system cleaner......like STP or Gumout or Berrymans.
And then getting the 12 V battery and it's connections checked.
Before you go spending big bucks on something that is NOT the problem.
Sometimes coincidences will bite you in the butt.

 

There are not many stories about bad gas with the exception of diesel fuel filling accidents.
Diesel fuel is so low near zero Octane it kills your engine pretty fast. If you only had a gallon of diesel you could fill up fast with Premium to dilute it. Other than that it is hard to imagine how stale gas could kill it (although I am sure some strange things have been put in the tank). Normally I would not use stale gas but if I did I would not pour in the whole container to leave the water from E10 separation in the can.

The other thing is the Prius Gen2 needs a certain amount of gas (eg; 3 gals?) to register on the system. I forget the ramifications if you put less gas in, but worse case scenario would be you flipped over to battery power and ran the battery down...which is how a lot of Gen2 batts died. For this reason, Gen3+ do not so easily run down the HV Battery so completely on gaso outage.

 

For me that’s about a 6 month time period.

 

Rgrew, your instinct is most likely correct - bad gas. It's easy for the ethnanol-laden regular to accumulate water, and that will cause ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS with your engine. I've had all kinds of problems with lawn mower engines in the past years that all can be traced to gas that "went bad" remarkably fast.
There's another thread (recently) with a similar issue. Solution is to get rid of the bad gas (ie, drain the tank) and replace it with good fresh gas & fuel system cleaner (to get rid of any gunk that remains).
It's an ugly, labor-intensive task. Good luck.

 

Are you feeling OK today ?

Diesel fuel, if measured, would have an extremely HIGH octane because it takes a LOT of heat and compression to make it ignite.

And it is not necessarily "stale" gas but contaminated gas.......be it contaminated with water, other fuels, just VERY old or even mixed with WAY too much stabilizer or other "additives".

Having contaminated gas stop an engine from running has been around since the day AFTER the internal combustion engine went into commercial production........about a hundred years ago.

 

Even if it is 6 YEARS, it make no difference.
It is a BAD plan to wait until it really is almost EMPTY before you start looking for a station.

 

I can't speak for others but I wouldn't put any fuel in my car that came from a gas can on someone's front yard. My Prius will run for 100 miles once the low fuel light illuminates. It's early in the morning but did I read that someone here looks for a gas station once the tank is at 3/4 full?

 

Well at least he's only "kind of" shady.

 

No argument here. I top mine off when it’s still above half empty.
I even use premium because gas is cheap enough 5 gallons at a crack. Mobil says there are more engine cleaning additives than regular. See attached image.

 

NO.

 

You shouldn't believe all of the marketing hype that you hear.

There isn't a refinery within about 1000 miles of where you live.
ALL of the gas comes in through a pipeline........or a tanker on the lake.
It usually does NOT come from the company who's name is on the sign out front.

It is not a lot of money but you ARE wasting it by burning "premium" in your car.

 

No Sam your are incorrect about Octane.

Gasoline contains high octane hydrocarbons which resist auto-ignition....the high octane molecules wait for the spark of the spark plug to ignite.

Diesel is high Cetane No, low octane number, because diesel fuel is designed to auto-ignite by itself easily without a spark plug. Ideally low octane paraffins are the best for diesel fuel.

Diesel fuel and gasoline are essentially complete opposites in terms of Octane and Cetane.

 

You have most of the facts.....but don't seem to understand them.
Diesel fuel does NOT "auto-ignite easily".
Quite the opposite, in fact.

 

search this thread

2001, Engine Vibration (missing badly), Flashing CEL

page 3 has the way I preasure tested the fuel line

AND you cannot just check the fuel filter in the tank. The fuel pump is in the gas tank pre-assembled. About $350 for the whole tank assembly.