just thought you all would like to know that i went 43.6 miles past "0 miles to empty" the other day. My nav said I was getting about 35.5 avg MPG at the time. I brought along a one gallon gas can just for this. I do not intend to keep carrying the can but wanted to have it in case I died more than 2 miles from a station. As reported before the msg center says "stop safely now" and the computer would only let me go about 25 mph with the petal to the floor. So just thought i would pass this on.

 

That sounds just like the 2005's!

It is estimated by myself and others that at 0 MTE you have about 1.3 gallons of gas left in a 2005-6-7. Sounds like you just confirmed this is also true in the 2008. Nice work. I did the same thing when mine was very new. Now I don't worry at all about hitting the zero mark.
-John

 

My FEH ran out of gas on I-95 and I accelerated from ~35mph to a little over 40mph when I realize the ICE wasn't starting. I got no "Stop Safely Now" or any other message. I drove 40mph to an off ramp into a parking lot and tried to restart. It ran a second real rough and died.

I went 56 miles past O MTE and calculated base on my mileage I had 1.3 gallons at O MTE. I did drain the battery past the 40%, but the manual says you cannot start the FEH under 30% SoC.

It appears that the FEH/MMH acts different depending on you speed and the mode your in. I was in EV when the computer tried to start the ICE, and that may have been the difference. Traffic at the time was slow and the reason I was in EV.

GaryG

 

Also I should note than when I ran out I was able to drive into a gas station. when i filled up it took 15.3 gallons.

 

If the car is out of gas, but the computer in control hasn't figured it out yet, you can use the whole 0-40 MPH EV range.

Once it gets registered in the computer that you are indeed out, then the car enters "limp home mode" and you get to use EV only in the 0-22 MPH range. Maybe 25 MPH if you are going downhill!

I agree it allows you to drain the battery lower than normal limits.

It is most likely you will get 0-22 MPH when you run out of gas.
Gary's case was very lucky, and not typical, but I've heard it happen a couple of times.
-John