My gas gauge is kind of screwy on my "New" 2006 Prius. getting an empty tank light at about 200 miles. Not exactly 200 but about. I need to find a level surface to try to reset the gauge but have not been able to yet. What I have been doing is driving 350 miles, which should give me a comfort zone, and putting in just over 7.5 gallons. Seems to work for now. Done it twice now. I checked the distance between the gas station I went to and home and it is 11.2 miles. My distance gauge that resets itself when you refill shows 11 miles so seems pretty accurate because Google maps shows 11.2 miles. I have read that the sensor in the tank is a crazy job and really expensive if it comes down to it? Second question related. Gas gauge is showing 41.8 mpg and got up to 42.2 on a recent trip. A little low. I did a calculation and got between 44.3 to 44.4 mpg by dividing distance traveled by the amount of gas. . That seems a half decent MPG for winter and that I have been driving shorter distances with more up and down hills than before. Anything that could be throwing off the mpg reading? I have plans to clean the MAF sensor later this week
I know it has one but I know that even though the gas gauge shows empty at what would be 4 or 5 gallons burned, I can still put a couple of additional gallons of gas in the tank. So the bladder cannot have contracted to the point where there are only 5 gallons in the tank.
Where the tank is listed as something like $1500. Damn. Maybe I can just reset the gas gauge and solve the problem.
Even though the fuel pump and level sender are sealed in the tank, there are some diagnostic procedures you can do to confirm the failure of the pump or sender. mr_guy_mann has posted those details quite recently so I'd go look those up and do the tests. A lot of the problems with fuel filling on the Gen 2 are attributed to the 'bladder' but I can identify most of the same issues on Prii without bladders and I conclude the 'bladder' gets far too much credit. I think that people need to expand their horizons and look elsewhere. ChapmanF has posted about the ORVR/EVAP system a few times (and I don't think people are taking as much notice as they should (IMHO)) with a good level of detail so I'd urge a bit more research looking at that. Here is a link to one such Oct 21, 2021 post with that info. As to the "just reset the gas gauge" idea, there is no such procedure. The most talked about procedure resets the horizontal and vertical inclinometers in the CM (combination meter). The only real reason to execute that procedure is when you've removed and replaced the CM. The only other good reason I can think of is if you suspect someone else has executed the procedure when not on a flat and level surface. Finding a flat and level surface to execute the procedure would be worth doing. I urge you to do proper diagnostics and if you do find out the fuel level sender or the fuel pump is faulty then it is a new tank for you. If you can be assured that both are in working order in a secondhand fuel tank, then that is a more affordable option.
Having a 200 mile range in the winter is not unusual for me. My car has a range of between 200-450 miles, heavily dependent on air temperature and amount of fuel that I can put in my car. In winter, the car will often take only 6 gallons of fuel, and in the summer, it can take up to 9 gallons. This means that I can expect my winter range to be 200-250 miles, my summer range to be 360-420 miles, and my spring or fall range to be 300-350 miles.
The computer has a difficult job calculating fuel economy and range, when your driving keeps changing. I find that the Gen 5 does a better job of that than the Gen 3 did, for what it's worth.
I think the best for me is not to anything major and just drive 350 between fill up. The gas gauge being funny is something I can deal with.
I wanted to make a small follow up to this. The car was shaking a little bit and got the front two tires both checked for bubbles and broken belt. Both were fine although got them both balanced.again. Never got the rear tires looked at. This happened a while ago but was driving home from work and suddenly steering got really squirrely. I was really nervous but able to get the last mile or mile and a half home. When I drove real slow up my drive way, but not on the road, I got a "thump thump" of a flat tire. Looked at it and the belt was visible, and either a bubble in the tire or broken belt. Took a tire off my 2009 and had it mounted on the aluminum rims of my 2006. There was also a piece of rear trim that kept popping out and I thought it might be increasing wind resistance. Used some body panel glue so it stopped popping out. Since doing both, my MPG has gone up a fair amount and seems to be still going up. I think they were in large part what caused the problem. I don't know how much the trim mattered but I am pretty certain that the tire was much of my problem.
This page is interesting: Fuel tank & tube for Toyota Prius NHW20L - Auto parts - Amayama For me, in Canada, it shows gas tank for model year '06 as "out of stock", and for '05 there is one, for $471.77 CDN. The part no's: '05: 77001-47080 '06: 77001-47090 No clue as to the difference. US Toyota site shows street price for the 77001-47090 around $1500 USD, as you say.
The Gen2 fuel tank is a bit nutty overall, with different results depending on temperature, altitude, etc. This is often due to the rubber bladder lining the inside of the tank. I didn't register how reduced our 2006 tank capacity was until we did a road trip with a friend who had the exact same 2006 model/package, purchased 2-3 months before ours. We both filled up at the same gas station and headed out together. By the time I was very low tank and had to stop for fuel, our friend's 2006 had about 1/3 tank left. Our total weights should have been comparable. Both cars were using low AC. We drove identical routes, speeds, conditions because of staying together. On our return, I brought it to a Toyota dealer for inspection. I filled the tank at the gas station across the street and drove it directly into their service entrance. Total distance of about 1 city block. The service team emptied the tank completely and collected a smidge over 8 gallons. The spec for the Gen2 fuel tank is technically 11.9 gallons. Of course you don't get that much under normal use, but one would still expect more than 8 gallons at top-off. Bottom line, our friend's car could hold more and therefore go farther between fill ups. I say all this because perhaps you can do a tank-drain measurement after fill up when ambient conditions have been "average" and things are warmed up. Tracking the gallons added and miles driven over time might help you estimate what is actually in there. I began tracking fuel stop details (temp, major conditions, miles since last fuel, tank reading). I could sometimes force-feed the tank based on current conditions and if there was a need to go longer distances before stopping. At times this might add another half-gallon in after waiting a bit from fuel pump shutoff. In very warm conditions I occasionally could do about 1 gallon. (PLEASE NOTE: I do NOT recommend this to most people. You need to understand your tank and conditions and it still may not work. It is easy to spill fuel if you are not careful or when using gas pumps that are not well calibrated or have the vapor stop). How many gallons of gas does Prius hold? | PriusChat
Yes, unfortunately. I give Toyota credit for the attempt, though. Interestingly, the Toyota service agents I spoke with at the time kept thinking I was talking about mileage, probably because that was one of the greatest selling points of the Prius back then. I had to keep emphasizing the issue was actual tank capacity at fill-up.
