Flashing Gas Light = 3 more gallons?

HA HA HA Good one!

 

Blinkinf is like hovering on E. There could be .25 to 2 gallons left, depending on your particular car and ocnditions. Always assume it means .25.

 

Having seen through some of these posts and by way of the "What do you do for work" thread, I know that Prius owners are pretty much a smart group but the whole thing of "how low can you go" is just out of character!!!

The car wants gas!! It doesn't eat much.....how much do feed your dog, kids, husband or wife???

Poor starving Prii......

 

OK do a search on gas gage and gas tank etc. The tank has a bladder in it and that effects fill ups. I can not say what happened I would guess your tank was not full. Had that happen to me once a number of years ago. I ran out of gas with in 2 blocks of the dealer. The service people snoozed. You will find that you need to take care with the gas gage. Some people find it to be a contest, and should I ever pass 600mi on a tank I may be tempted otherwise fill up when it gets low. Oh yes never trust the sales staff at a dealer.

 

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Everyone take a deep breath.

I think the point that should be made here is that the amount of gas that the Prius takes on any given fill-up varies WIDELY. It's very possible that your dealer "filled up" the car, but didn't actually get the tank totally full. . .not through any deviousness, just because it can be hard to get the "full" 11.9 gallons in the tank/ I sortta wonder if anyone ever has actually gotten 11.9 gallons in there. So, you may have had much less than 3 gallons. However, there are two seperate issues:

1. Gas gauge is HIGHLY non-linear.
2. It's hard to fully fill up the tank due to the expansion/contraction of the rubber bladder.

Salsawonder was simply reacting to the fact that this is a much-bemoaned and much-discussed "feature" on this board. So, I think everyone should just chill out.

 

the flashing bar means GET GAS, no matter what anyone says. the car will beep at you and you'll get a little message on the MFD saying something like "add fuel."

listen to the car. it knows when it needs gas. the bladder makes it impossible for anyone BUT the car to know what's going on. fill ups will always be variable. don't count on ever hitting that 11.9 gallons and *don't* tell yourself there has to be gas left because you only have xxx miles on the tank. you're going to be wrong, and you're going to get pissed. avoid being pissed. fill up when the car says so

99% of prius techs are not prius drivers. they know the wiring diagrams, they know the electrical systems, the know the engine. they DO NOT know the small quirks of the car. toyota doesn't teach these things in tech classes. don't count on your service department for knowledge that only a daily driver will know. count on your service department to take care of you if your car needs to be fixed.

 

of the 70,000+ posts here probably 3000 of them deal with the gas tank capacity and the "bladder effect". Some of us "old timers" just roll our eyes when we see this in the "latest topic replys" colum. Sorry but it's been beaten to death. I'd suggest a "search" on Guess Guage, Gas Tank, Bladder and read a bit. From someone who's had to deal with 3 Prius gas tanks now, when it blinks, I gas.

 

you don't have a baseline understanding of how much gas you can fit into your bladder yet. i personally have never seen more than a 10 gallon fill, and even that took a long time to top off. (and on an unrelated note i don't top off anymore and usually see 7-9 gallons per fill up now)

dealerships don't fight and fight and fight to put gas in the car. it clicks, they're done.

give it time, you'll understand what the bladder is about. until then... it takes trial and error. you're not going to get anywhere with the 11.9 gallon statistic because it's not real.

 

one more thing.

i'll re-post this, because it's important.

 

Every play Monopoly? Flashing indicates go directly to your nearest gas station, do not pass Go, do not try to get Home. There is no "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.

I always fill up as soon as I get down to one bar.

 

You said...

"According to them the flashing indicates that there are another 3 gallons left still.

Anyone here care to chime in?"

Now that didn't seem to be a question about why you only got 312 miles on a tank. It seemed to be about some idiot at your dealer telling you that you had 3 gallons left when the last bar was flashing.

Get it?????????????????????????????????????????????