how far do you drive after it starts blinking?

I was going to wait until it started blinking but I was down to 2 bars and has to drive to Tacoma to the Verizon store. I hate our local kiosk. Well I chickened out and refilled. First tank around town 50.3 and 450 miles. If I am around town next tank I will go for it, I think, maybe.

 

I drive 20-25 miles after the last bar starts blinking. A while back I filled the tank until it would't take any more gas and drove it exactly 500 miles before filling up again. Since the display indicated an average of 52.5 mpgs, I figured that a little less than 2 gallons remained in the tank. The bar blinked for the last 25 miles of that tank.

 

As far as the next Gas Station

 

Just filled my second tank this morning. I went about 10 miles after the blink and the tank took 9.5 gallons. My calc mileage and my display were close (55.3 and 54.7) so I think the fill up was fairly accurate. It looks like I could have gone another 50 miles over the 526 that I covered.

Data at http://enerjazz.com/prius/mileage.html

 

My last bar always starts blinking around 370 miles. I put gas in within the next 10 miles. I have never been able to put in more than 7.5 gallons. I have tried all pumping slow, topping off and other tricks to force more fuel in the tank. Is my tank smaller than others or is it my gas gauge that starts blinking sooner than others?

I don't want to experiment to see how far I can go after the bar starts blinking. Does anyone know of a safe way to tell how much gas is left in the tank?

I have had the car since December and have had tank mpg between 48 and 54.

I love the car and really don't care how much gas I can put in, I am just curious about what is happening.

 

averaging 50mpg, but the blinking light will come up at random intervals - so I've gone from 29 over to 79 miles over without ever running out of gas. I've never filled up without it blinking.

-m.

 

I fill up as soon as I can get to my usual gas station as soon as the last bar is all that are left. I dont' wait for the flashing to begin. Guess I'm too paranoid.

Someday I'll put a small gas can in the car (hopefully I'll remember to put some gas in it) and then take it beyond its normal 500 - 530 miles between fillups.

 

usually anywhere between 1 and 50 miles - but then I am in the UK with no bladder (in the car, not me LOL)

 

My only suggestion to both of you is that if you're wanting to see the fuel last longer without any experimentation, here's your best bet:

Before a long road trip, (at least a few hundred miles or so), make sure there's only 1/2 or less of a tank left. The car *seems* to recalc your gas gauge when starting up, which lends me to believe that if you were to drive the car from fillup to fillup without shutting down, it'd probably err less on the side of caution than it does now. The very first weekend I had the car, I went on a roadtrip to North Carolina OBX from DC. Oddly enough, that was the tank I got the most out of for the 14,000 miles I've owned the car - I averaged 52.4 mpg, and I think it started blinking around 520, mostly because it was being driven for long distances without shutoff - I didn't fill up until 579 miles.

Again, this is just my own experience, but take note when you shut off the car, then power it back up again of your gas gauge - more often than not, it seems that's when you'll lose bars. Again, I think the computer is just favoring the side of caution, and the engineers felt it'd be better to have the computer show "almost empty" with 2+ gallons still in the tank instead of cutting it too close. I do suggest though, when taking a road trip where you know you'll be driving for at least a few hours, purposefully don't fill up beforehand and see if that'll take you further before blinking and the "add fuel" warning.

-m.

 

Once, on a road trip, a defective pump filled my tank to over-flow. On that tank I drove 37 miles past the blink, to achieve 501 miles on the tank, and added 9 gallons to the first click, which is where I always stop.

Normally I fill up at the first convenient opportunity after it starts blinking. Hint: reset your B trip odometer as soon as the blinking starts, then you'll know just how far you've driven. Sometimes I fill up when there are still a couple of bars showing.

John1701a suggests that you probably have 1.5 gallons remaining when the blinking starts. However, an important note of caution: some people apparently have less, and one poster reported running out of gas relatively soon after the blinking started. If your tank total miles seems too high for your gas gauge reading, the gauge could be wrong. Fill up early or be prepared for the consequences.

 

Still on my first tank...

 

On my last tank I went 134 miles after the blinking bar for a total of 703 miles on the tank. Your mileage will vary.

 

Here is a link that describes how I did it.
http://www.priuschat.com/forums/viewtopic....3842&highlight=

Good luck,
Ray

 

i have one 500 mile tank and never saw the blink. i dont pay that much attention to the gas gauge anyway.

i can usually predict within a few tenths of how much gas i can refill, so unless my tank is smaller than it should be (i suspect some people's are) i could go as high as 585 miles with 20-30 miles leeway.

if you are nervous, see if you can predict how much gas you will be able to put in on your next fillup. i suggest using the same pump for this experiment as i am beginning to find out that not all gas pumps are created equally. i thought the computer's calculations were off, but i now suspect its the pumps that are screwed up. it will take at least 3 more fillups to verify this theory.

 

Holy OLD THREAD, Batman! Ok, that was lame, sorry. Dualpower, just wondering what you ever made of your "not all pumps are created equally" theory? Are there certain brands of gas that are better/more accurate?

 

I just went for the total distance on my last tank:

Distance: 509.9 (I saw the blink on the last mile)
Odometer MPG: 55.69
MFD MPG: 52.9
Gallons refueled: 9.155