No change with the 2008 ... same bladder problem ... even in warm weather! I live on the other side of the river ... sure is taking Toyota a long time to work on this safety issue! I stopped and spoke with a Toyota tech who noted that they have no fixes for this issue, there are no parts to correct the bladder challenge. They also noted in the Pacific Northwest in the winder they get about an owner a day with this issue ...

I highly encourage other owners to write to the BBB, your state Attorney general, NHTSA, Toyota corporate, local news investagtors and consumer reports!

 

I have never had a problem over 17 tanks, I've had my 08 since September.

I'm in Michigan, so I've filled in hot and cold weather, always at 2 or 3 pips remaining. I usually just go up to the nearest dollar and quit filling. (at gas prices lately, that's not much more gas!)

I just want people to know that there are people who don't have any problems.

 

Good point!

GreenHybrid has the ability to run a poll, a way to quantify some question. A proper poll should ask a positive question (i.e., do not use a negative: )

My fill-ups have been:This is just an example but you can start a poll when you start a new thread.

Bob Wilson

 

I have found that when my indicator get to one bar, pumping gas on automatic will pump about 8 gallons. While on a trip to south Florida, I drove to the one bar before stopping to refill. it took 8.1 gallons before the automatic feature on the pump shut off. I decided to top off the tank (filling it to the upper limit). To my surprise, I put an additional 1.95 gallons of fuel in the 2004 Prius. That tank allowed me to drive 528 miles before the gas indicator got to the one bar indication. Now, when I fillup, I let the pump run on automatic, then put another gallon and a half in. So, now, I drive about 500 miles between fillups. don't know if it will work for you but it does for me.

 

Hi all,

I normally get gas within about 15 miles after the beep and the fuel guage's one bar left starts to blink. I almost always put in 10 gallons, regardless of outside temperature, etc. I've got a 2006 model, and I average 44mpg.

Paula

 

For the 2nd time, my wife ran out of gas again yesterday while driving on the Interstate. As soon as the beep went off to indicate low gas, she made it exactly 7 miles before it was completely out. She ran on battery power to the next exit and got gas. I know I've read on here where people say they can go 50-75 miles after the beep. I don't know how the heck they can do that, when ours beeps, it's pretty much flat empty at that point.

After 2 experiences of running out of gas, my wife has sworn she is going to fill up when it the bars hit half a tank.

 

In my case, I'm not on "the Interstate" but driving around town at speeds under 40 miles per hour or in the 45-55 miles per hour range. Also, if I'm planning to run out of gas, I put a 1 gallon, spare can in the car. But then I'm planning to run out of gas.

You might consider talking with your wife about the importance of stretching the remaining gas if the alarm goes off and you don't have a spare can of gas. This means:

• slowest safe speed and changing routes to go slow -- the maximum range speed is 18-20 miles per hour
• minimize all vehicle loads -- turn off AC in the summer and use windows if the weather is dry.
• anticipate future stops (aka., lights) and see if you can time your arrival to be when it turns green

If you run out of gas, follow these rules to extend the range of the battery although this is not recommended. You can overly discharge the battery by trying too many times to restart the engine. Too many failed restart attempts without gas can result in having the car towed, a bad thing. Having a roadside service like AAA bring some gas is a much better and cheaper solution.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

Thanks for your reponse, but why in the world would you "plan" to run out of gas? I don't understand that at all. We are trying to avoid running out. She was on the Interstate and could not slow down to extremely slow speeds to stretch the gas, she would have caused an accident probably.

I love the Prius, but this is my only complaint about it. When you get the equivalent of a "low fuel warning light" coming on like in most cars, you should be able to go more than 7 miles before you're out. Just like in her case, you are not always around the corner from a gas station when the warning beep happens.

I think she has learned from this, she is going to fill up long before it gets anywhere close to that last bar.

 

There were two reasons:

• to eliminate fear - there was a lot of anxiety around about running out of gas in a Prius with a lot of FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) postings. Having run out of gas over 30 times, it has become no big deal, just another thing to deal with in life.
• burn the last of the gas - I've done some gasoline energy studies and I needed to empty the tank as much as possible. I would have the next brand of gas to test in the 1 gal. can and when I ran out, add the gas and drive to the station to pickup 5 more gallons. I would then repeat my 'hill climb' test to identify the gasoline with the most energy per unit. In Huntsville AL, those are: Shell followed by Exxon and Chevron. The rest are significantly lower in energy.

Understand that I fully appreciate that folks have different levels of risks they are willing to assume. I'm not out to encourage anyone to follow my path but rather to share my lesson's learned. Running out of gas is avoidable but should it happen, it helps to know how to deal with it.

BTW, there is some data suggesting that running out of gas may make the tank and readings a little more accurate. However, the data is very sparse and hard to reproduce. Once you've run out of gas, it is hard to repeat the experiment showing the gauge is now "less guess" and more accurate. I would not recommend running out of gas just to try and get a more accurate "guess" gauge.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob,

Wouldn't you need to run 2 tanks through and discard the results of the first tank to make any conclusions about the gas?

It was my understanding (and possibly mis-understanding) that the computer 'tunes' the ignition system as it burns the gas, and that it can tank about a tank or so before the computer has 'optimized' the tuning for that particular blend of gas. Thus at tank #2 the car would be 'tuned' to the gas and show (theoretically anyway) the 'best' results possible for that particular gas. Switching gas suddenly means the computer *was* tuned for the previous blend and is now fiddling to re-optimize.

And then there's my follow-up: How do you know the brand you're putting in your tank is *really* the brand you *think* you're putting in the tank?

I have long known that gasoline boycotts (e.g. "don't buy gas from brand X because they are the most profitable and need to be forced to lower their prices" -- I'm sure you've seen the chain-emails on those) don't really work because people make the mistake that if it says brand X on the sign then it must be brand X gas in the tanks.

Unfortunately gas is traded on the commodities market. Drilling, refining, and retail are all often completely different and unrelated business. So while you buy from brand Y to avoid brand X, you may, in fact, be putting brand X in your tank and not know it.

Two weeks ago I was driving past a Shell Oil refinery and saw fuel trucks from 3 different non-shell brands lined up to pickup fuel. <shrug>

I think a fuel study is interesting and would love to know the results... but it seems like it'd be hard to be certain of it's accuracy.