Out of gas with 2 bars displayed

Likely that he ran BOTH the gas tank and the hybrid battery low.
OR the hybrid system wanted the ICE to run and it wouldn't.

 

I have used MMO for decades, poured the whole larger volume in the tank, it has cleared out my injectors, helped the lifters some.
Can't speak for anyone else.
And I've always used TWICE the recommended amount of gas treatment and/or carb cleaner and never had a problem with any of my vehicles. It has been successful in removing any water
from the tank. But, if there is a LOT of water in the tank, you first find the reason, then
remove the tank, clean it out, or replace it.
I only have about a million miles total from several vehicles. So my experience is limited.
Again, I can always speak of MY experience. Others results may very.

 

It may be nothing useful for you, but it's useful enough for me. 100 miles is almost half a tank for my Subaru. I accept and like the need to do some simple math and watch the odometer and daily trip mileages to know exactly how much is left in the tank, while leaving a safe margin, when I'm around town.

I only posted because I discovered that going up a steep hill can cause fuel starvation with 2 gallons left in the tank. I'm not aware that that has been observed or shared here before, so it was worth mentioning. Once I learned that, I've made adjustments on when I fuel up if I'm going to be going up steep hills. I'm not risking my fuel pump because it's not going to happen again - I learn from experience. bwilson4web deliberately ran his Gen 3 out of gas at least 3 times to no apparent harm. I'm not worried about my one time. I have a ton of experience with small pumps. One that shuts down the second it goes dry is doing a great job protecting itself. I'm not even sure it really is sucking air, or if the sending unit shuts it off.

[WARNING] Running out of gas (Gen III) | Page 18 | PriusChat

 

I think it is a delusion to think that is somehow really useful.

Nothing in you post really explained WHY you think it is useful.

 

My first Subaru had just as much useful range below 'E', as it had above the 1/2 tank mark. And using some of that was necessary to bypass the overpriced fuel stops along my main route and get the reasonably priced fuel.

My current Subaru has much more accurate gauging, on top of better range. Now just need to train the spouse that its miles-to-empty display has no built-in safety margin whatsoever, so quit blowing past the three prior low fuel warnings.

That isn't the only reason. Add in corners, customer expectation management, highly variable fuel consumption according to different conditions that many drivers won't figure out until too late, etc.

Between various tests and experiments on 2 Prii, he intentionally ran out more than 50 times, with no apparent harm. Though he went prepared, and didn't attempt restarts before adding sufficient fuel, whereas some folks who did report troubles had tried multiple restarts until the car locked out any more tries.

To quote another poster here, he doesn't owe anyone an explanation.

 

It's a low level fun, cheap entertainment, to see how far I can go on any particular tank of gas. No less fun than a game of Solitaire on the computer. Why did Bob Wilson do it? To see how far he could go on a tank and geek out on the technical details. Similar for me, though I'm not geeking out as much about it. I do it when it's practical (around town, near gas stations), and don't do it when it's not practical (road trips, unknown distance to next gas station).

 

Low level fun member here. 78 miles to empty left in my tank for my daily work commute tomorrow w/97.87 mi. 15 minutes of the commute will not have cellular phone service, country side driving and gas stations are at the beginning and end drive. Here's go nothing...

 

When DTE = 78, that is low level fun. Would be much higher level if DTE had just rolled to 0.

Unless your location is an IATA airport code. If so, then I'd think it already a higher fun level.

 

Go big or go home, but not in this situation 90% of the commute lack shoulders to pull aside if I need to stop for a while w/o cellular reception. Choose this route because of the 60 mpg both ways.

 

Miles Per Hour? Just curious.

 

Mpg .

He drives like a grandma.

 

With that avatar?

 

The art of deception .

 

OK so it's called "tempting fate"......and likely will eventually bite you in the butt.
Hopefully you will just have to walk for gas and not stall in the middle of the road and get rear-ended.

Why do I seem to care about this so much ??
Because I might be the car behind you on the road when you run out.

 

Back on topic ........It very possible its just a bad sending unit .
The Gen 3 uses a standard style fuel level sending unit like most other cars , nothing fancy .
Its fairly easy to get to and check . Also cheap to replace just the sending unit .
Its in the fuel tank , along with the fuel pump and access is very easy under the back seat on the drivers side.

Worth a check ..........

 

Likelihood of getting rear-ended depends a lot on the local driving culture. How aggressive and hostile and tail-gate prone is it? Drivers using proper defensive driving practice won't hit you, though many have given this the one finger salute, and some localities are far worse than others.

The danger here is no worse than the danger from sudden mechanical death of the propulsion system, e.g. broken timing belt, engine stall, thrown rod, snapped U-joint or drive shaft, failed fuel pump, engine stall, tire blowout, etc. These still happen, our cars are not even close to the reliability levels of commercial aircraft. I learned to drive in a couple stall-prone cars. Sis and I each suffered snapped timing belts (not on the maintenance schedules), spouse suffered cracked fuse to fuel pump, all in heavy I-5 traffic. None of us had any problem pulling aside without getting hit.

Yes, these events are not without some added risk, and this risk ought to be avoided. But unless you live in an area with worse-than-average or combat-style drivers, don't let the scaremongers overly scare you.

 

Avatar updated to reflect my real life driving habit.

 

I guess I should have said grandpa.

 

My low level fun trip to push the DTE = 78 this morning turned to high level fun; hit a deer while concentrating on MPGs too much. Video included on link below.

Prius G3 Misfires/Head Gasket issues same as in Lexus Ct200h? | Page 2 | PriusChat