Since we are talking about the "spill" and "over fill". When I picked up Woody - my 2007 Driftwood Prius 4 weeks ago, the specialist specifically warned us about "NOT TO OVERFILL" and "NOT TO TOP IT OFF" or it will cause troubles.

Not sure what exactly is the trouble that might follow, but we have been quite careful not to top it off when we fill the gas.

 

Hi,

The real problem are folks who try to overfill the tank and cause the gas to fill up the space around the bladder and ruin the vapor canister. Do no more than a second click and you'll be OK.

Replacing the tank is expen$ive.

Bob Wilson

 

Minerval was observant:

"I found it usually suck up the most of gas in the morning when I first back out of garage. "

Thus you use fuel backing out then fuel again going forward. How about just going forward? That means back up into garage when engine is hot. Same applies when parking--plan ahead not to back up when starting. It is little techniques like this, when repeated hundreds of times per year that can result in greater MPG.

Each start is usually the poorest efficiency for at least the first five minutes.

 

Disclaimer: I'm on the crazier side of fuel economy

Break-in is a big part of it as mentioned earlier. I'm at 6000 mi and still seeing signifigant break-in.

99% of FE is all about the route you drive. If your commute is 2 miles through 20 stop signs, you'll get about 20 mpg. If it's 100 miles on a deserted country highway, you can get about 120 mpg (Pulse & Glide). Here's my route:

_30 minutes and 14.3 miles (3.6 highway; 10.7 city).
_7 stop signs
_19 lights
_25 turns of 90 deg or tighter

Here's a write-up I did to maximize fuel economy. Problem is, it requires a tacomoter and a coolant temperature reading. Until you get a ScanGuage II (which I assume you don't have), your kinda flying blind.

Two other things that you probably don't have but can help your FE are an engine block heater (yes in the summer too) and an EV switch. I'm putting mine in this weekend, your welcome to join, but it will be a drive from Round Rock.

So when I went from driving fast to driving slow my commute FE went from 45-55. I travel between 80% and 110% of the speed limit. Standard flow of traffic rates in Houston are 120% to 150% of the speed limit, so I get passed a lot.

When I went from using the battery (yellow power flow lines) to not using the battery my commute FE went from 55-65

When I went from not knowing the RPM and coolant temp, to knowing it and keeping RPM b/t 1500 and 1800 my commute FE went from 65-75. My hopes are that the block heater and EV install will push my commute FE from 75 to 80. My FE for the last 247 miles is 73 mpg.

11011011

 

From this past weekend, we began to back Woody up to garage and see if we can have better mpg performance for next morning. So far, I only see little improvement coming into the 2nd tank with Shell gas. However, we have paid terrible price for this "back-up to garage" practice because my husband wrecked the passenger side mirror when he backed him up to the garage. Cocky is the reason.

In less than 48 hours, he also managed to wreck my Accord's mirror at the passenger side as well. From now on, he is banned to drive either car until further notice.

 

So that is 7 years of really bad luck or 14 years of ordinary bad luck?

I'd made the assumption that backing up in the evening was 'old hat' versus backing up in the morning.

Bob Wilson

 

Would having a bigger garage help?

Or have wife back up into garage when engine is "hot" and husband drive out of garage when engine is "cold"

 

Well, Woody - the Prius was damaged when my husband attempted to back him into the garage.
Ginny - the Accord was damaged when my husband was ready to back her out of the garage and took out a piece of garage door edge along the way.

Certainly, with a bigger garage definitely will help, but in my case, the thoughts of trading in, upgrading and replacing a husband is much more appealing at the moment considering the benefit and loss I am taking now.

Yeah, it will be a while before he can get on the driver seat.

 

How about this idea:
You need additional tanks with higher mpg. So have husband take you on a long trip, avoiding garages and do not park next to any vehicle that has outside rear-view mirrors.

 

New, like from the dealership to home which was about 250 miles of mixed city/rural/ interstate produced 49 mpg. The dealer correctly predicted this would improve over the first 5,000 miles. Now I get that for short trips - 10 minutes or so - around town with even better mileage on highways ... provided I either stay off the high speed interstates or drive about 60 mph. Gas mileage gets comparatively awful over 60 mph.