Hello,
My new Prius already has 500 miles on it and I'm loving every minute of it! Quick fuel gauge question... when do you consider it time to fuel up? I knew my other cars fuel gauge very well (analog) and would get gas once the gas light came on, but the digital fuel gauge makes me nervous. My only time filling up so far I did with one 'bar' left and it came to 9.x gallons. Considering we have an 11.9 gallon tank I guess I had a good 100+ mile cushion. So my question is do you all drive until the gas light comes on? Thanks.

Now that I have a one gallon, spare tank in the trunk, I drive until the engine stops. But then I'm running a series of gasoline tests. The first time, I ran 130 miles at +55 MPG on the "flashing low gas" signal. The second time, just 75 miles at +55 MPG. But each time, I had my spare can.

My recommendation is switch to 'time based' refueling, say Fridays and Sundays. This will let you keep track of weekday versus weekend driving mileage.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Do you realize how dangerous that is? The fumes could ignite inside the car.

I typically go 20-30 miles with a blinking dot before filling up and have gone as far as 50 miles (and other people have reported even more). But when I ran out of gas once, I was only after only ~30 miles (driving at 65). So it doesn't seem entirely consistent. By the way, when I ran out of gas, the battery got me a little over a mile to the next exit (but there was no gas station at that exit, but then we got free gas from a Kansas road side assistance vehicle).

I have a 2004 prius with the fuel gauge TSB done. It would be best if you could get someone with a newer Prius to answer that question also. (Bob 's and my Prius may or may not behave the same as your newer model).

2004 Tideland, Package #7 (all safety options) + EV
70000 miles at 49.0 mpg avg.
Louisville, Colorado

Hmm. Don't think you'll see a light come on.
The last square on the digital gas gauge will blink. All those little squares will be gone, only that last little square. And it will blink.

Fill-up time.

Wow! A gallon of gas in your trunk? Rear ended and you and the hitter are toast!

I am Surprised at you!

Lots of different opinions regarding how far to drive on one tank. Each person decides best strategy.

My policy is to almost always fill up when two bars/pips remain.

Once I did drive until the last bar/pip started to flash so I would know that indicator worked.

Bill G in Colorado

You're right.

As I live and mostly drive in an urban area, I can go down to the flashing square. On the open hwy, I'm more conservative and will fill up around 2-3 squares.

In the past three weeks, I drove the following on "flashing low fuel":

• 130 miles
• 75 miles
• 80 miles

In all cases, the MFD displayed ~55 MPG. I'm driving a 2003, NHW11 Prius.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

From my experience and what I have read on the forums, you will never get a standard distance you can drive on the flashing pip. This is due to the bladder and what the temperatures are outside. Besides, no fuel gauge ever made has been accurate, they are not linear. This means, if you went X number of miles with the first half of tank of fuel, it doesn't mean you will go the same number of miles on the last half. Fuel gauges are just estimates and when you are low you should fill up right away. That is the nature of using liquid fuel that moves about in a moving vehicle.