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Interesting gas tank situation, here...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by ArtsNfartsncrafts, Jun 10, 2011.

  1. ArtsNfartsncrafts

    ArtsNfartsncrafts New Member

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    Hey guys,

    Proud new owner of an 08 Prius (certified, pre-owned), here. First off, I'm LOVING the car. It's comfortable, roomy, has better speakers than my old civic (hail damage and the insurance company put that to bed...enter the prius).

    Furthermore, I was ecstatic when my first full tank of gas carried me for 506 miles before the last PIP started blinking. I didn't want to press my luck, so I filled up when that happened.

    So I pull into the gas station, and the sign for regular unleaded reads "3.42". I begrudgedly pulled in to fill up.

    I notice that the backlit LED readout above the pump lists the price of regular unleaded as "2.42." However, the larger backlit readout that calculates the total price and the total volume, reads "3.42," as it showed on the big marquee. Thinking that perhaps it's my lucky day, I swipe the card, and begin to fill up. This is what happens:

    I begin to fill the tank, and it automatically cuts off at a readout of around 6.5 gallons, for a total price in the ballpark of $23. I know some pumps are fidgety with the cut off, so I give it another squeeze, and again...it cuts off as if it were topped off.

    So I'm sitting here, scratching my head...wondering why this thing is acting as though it's filled up, when I've only paid just over 20 dollars for gas (something I haven't done since highschool, haha).

    So I hang up the pump and start my car to see what the gas meter says. Sure enough, the PIPs start to fill up, to show that the tank is full.

    So I'm wondering. Is this something bizarre going on with my gas tank? Or, on the flip side, did I just truly pay $2.42 a gallon, even though the price and volume readout on the pump was calculating it as $3.42 a gallon?

    If it's the latter, then :rockon:.

    If it's something else, then...:confused:
     
    #1 ArtsNfartsncrafts, Jun 10, 2011
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    2012 Prius v wagon
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    :welcome: to PriusChat! I hope you enjoy your Prius as much as I like mine!

    The North American Gen 2 Prius has a 'flexible bladder' inside a 11.9 gallon tank, designed to reduce evaporative vapors over the gasoline.

    If it was infinitely flexible you should get 11.9 gallons in it.

    In winter it is so rigid some folks fill up in 6 gallons, in summer I sometimes get 10.5 gallons. I seems largely dependent on the temperature on the day I refill it.

    In some small number of cases, air has gotten in between the metal tanks and the bladder and those owners get less gallons in their fill ups. It sometimes helps to open the cap first, do all the monetary transaction, then begin pumping.

    When I am alone, I get gas at one pip.
    When I am with my wife, I get gas at two pips.
    When I am driving my mother in law, I get gas at three pips.
    You just have to judge how long it would take to live down running out of gas.
     
    #2 JimboPalmer, Jun 10, 2011
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    there is no way to know from tank to tank. as jim said, the bladder rules. all you can do is keep a long term log of your mileage and gas pumped. but i would keep going back to that pump if i were you. after all, you never know!
     
    #3 bisco, Jun 10, 2011
  4. ursle

    ursle Gas miser

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    72 degrees seems to be the magic number, below it(diaphragm) seems to collapse and above it seems to stay expanded, strange, dynamic, but I love my 50+ year round mpg's
     
    #4 ursle, Jun 10, 2011
  5. brick

    brick Active Member

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    Is that the theory these days? I hadn't heard the air theory before. (I have yet to get more than 7 gallons in mine since spring arrived.)
     
    #5 brick, Jun 10, 2011
  6. ArtsNfartsncrafts

    ArtsNfartsncrafts New Member

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    It was in the mid 90s when I filled up...I can tell, though, that I've gotten significantly less mileage out of this tank...Kind of confused..
     
    #6 ArtsNfartsncrafts, Jun 13, 2011
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