I have been a happy 2009 Prius owner for 2 weeks now but am a bit concerned with the fuel capacity I have been experiencing. The first tank I went to fill-up when there were three blips left on the fuel guage and the tank only took 5.7 gallons. I wrote this off as I did not know how much gas was in the tank when purchased (the guage was on full). The mileage was around 250 miles. Today I had to stop again for gas. There were 3 blips left on the guage and the tank again only took 5.4 gallons. I am not concerned about the MPG, but with the tank only taking around 5 gallons. Could there still be that much gas left in the tank with only 3 blips left on the guage? I have read many posts about the bladder tank and not being able to fill to the 11.9 gallon capacity, but I expected to get close to 400-450 miles per tank. Should I be concerned with this?
What happens if you run it down to 2 or 1 pip? I almost never fill when down to 3. (Get gas immediately if you hit 1 pip.) I've never put in more than 9.975 gallons in my Prius that I've had since January 06. I think I was down to 1 pip, but don't recall if it was flashing. The inclinometer might be out of calibration, but I'd suggest not mucking w/that, for now.
The only time I can get 500 miles to a tank on a 2nd Gen is if I run it down to 1 pip (after 1 pip, it will blink. That's the equivalent of a low fuel light). If I take it down to the blinking light and drove around for a while, then yeah it'll be closer to 900km (~560 miles). At 3 pips, you may be able to squeeze closer to 300 miles during the summer. It sounds about right if your mpg is below 50mpg (around the high 40s). Just a heads-up, it will get worse during the winter. The gas gauge is also not linear. I found that it drops slower in the first half and faster in the second half so half tank isn't necessarily 5 pips.
It all depends on your mpg and how low you want to run the tank down. At 45mpg you could run it down to 3 pips and still go another 150 miles or more before the low fuel light comes on. IE you can get 350 miles on a tank at 45mpg or so. I used to always fill up at 2 PIPs which gave me about 350 miles on that tank. This summer I put my 15" tires back on and practiced mild hypermiling at was getting over 500 miles to a tank at 55mpg-57mpg. I could get 9.5-10 gallons in the tank if I ran with the low fuel light blinking for awhile. I don't recommend that though. Moral of the story? Drive more efficiently and wait until you get down to one or two PIPs before hitting a gas station. 350-400 mile tanks will become normal.
I'm so glad the Gen IIIs don't use bladder. I've driven 50-70 miles on blinking pip all the time before filling up. 600 miles to the tank and 10.5-11.5 gals on the fill up.
Agreed. It depends a lot on how efficiently one drives. Looking at my records, when I was living in WA and had very short drives, coupled w/very cold weather in some months, I'd be lucky to get >41 mpg on a "tank" and my "tank" be good for 250-330 or so miles, depending on my FE and how low I ran it (usually down to 2 or 3 pips).
my 2008 is on 2 pips left on its first tank and Ive 800km on it at 4.1 lt/100km 57.37 US mpg Ive only had the car a fortnight and have no idea what Im doing !
Not sure if the Australian version has the bladder. The JDM Gen 2 doesn't have the bladder and thus has a significantly higher tank capacity (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...enge-over-50km-l-117mpg-tank.html#post1151806).
Yeah there's no bladder in your tank so it's pretty safe to drive it until the last pip blinks. Mine is very repeatable, I usually go somewhere about 950 to 980 km per tank. My all time record is 1042 km.
at 60 MPG or thereabouts my Gen II gets about 350 to 400 miles on a tank when I fill up at 2 pips. I wouldn't worry about running it down to one pip, no need to push it and deal with bladder inaccuracy. Just fill it up at 2. I don't even pay attention to how much gas goes in, I just watch my MPG and refill the tank as needed. If you are worried about range put more air in your tires. See this info from another PC member I try to air up as close to 70 degrees as I can after the car has been sitting several hours and let the PSI float higher/lower as outside temps dictate. The PSI I choose from is: 50/47 high (short trips or warm winters) 48/45 med (long trips or summer use) 45/42 low (winter below freezing) But I have 51 PSI sidewall max tires. If I had 44 PSI I'd probably make that 45/42 high 42/40 med 40/38 low
Umm, I believe it's still 45 litres regardless of where you are. The ability to pump 60 litres if I recall was if you tilted the car towards the passenger-front side and fill to the brim. Mate, as long as the last pip isn't blinking, you're good. The blinking pip is the equivalent of the low fuel light and with Toyotas, that's typically 10 litres to go. At 4.1L/100km, you can easily go another 100km with 5 litres to spare (being pessimisstic with 5L/100km obviously).
Interesting... I wonder if ken1784 was in error then about the JDM Gen 2. Ahh yes, regarding the tilting, you're probably referring to the special fueling technique at (from http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...lenge-japanese-hybrid-drivers.html#post868854). But it's a Gen 3 in the pic...
I don't know. I remember that discussion on PC but the specs say 45 litres unless they modified the tank. I will say that 15 litres is a lot of extra fuel in the pipes!
