My 2006 Prius has 2 light left for the first tank, I 'm wondering to know how many miles it still can run if the last gas indicator light begin to flash?
thanks for help.....

 

The general consensus is to start heading for a gas station once the last pip starts blinking. Personally, I've never seen the blinking pip.

 

It depends on how many MPG you are getting. What you can do is see how much gas you put in at a certain point then in the future you know you have x gallons left at that point. Multiply x gallons by your current mpg and that should give you an idea of how many miles you can go.

In my car (HCH I) no bars lit equals about 1 gallon so I know I'm good for about 52 miles (52 is pretty much my average mpg).

 

As spastic as the gas gauges are in the Prius II you are rolling the dice if you let it get to the point of flashing. I've read anywhere from dozens of miles to running out almost instantly after the flashing begins. It appears each car is calibrated slightly differently. Also, tbaleno's idea sounds great and on a normal car it would be fine but with the fuel tank bladder you really never know how full you got the tank if or even if you got if full so again it is all guess work. If you really have to know, put a can with a couple of gallons in the back and drive around until empty but I wouldn't recommend it. Best course of action is to fuel up with one or two pips left, before the flashing starts.

 

Not that I have far between gas station here in Houston, but I sometimes go another 50 miles after the blinking starts and I still have not been able to put 11 gallons in.

 

There was an earlier thread that discussed the need to keep at least a quarter of a tank of gas in order to distribute the heat from the fuel pump. Without the quarter tank, the pump may overheat and need early replacement, which is a pain, since it's inside the tank.

As soon as my indicator gets to 3 bars, I fill up.

 

I ran mine out of gas once. Went 66.5 miles from when the low fuel warning went off.

 

A friend ran his '06 out of gas, and continued on electric to another friend's house
(I would have stopped and gotten someone to bring me some gas!).
Dash lights started to drop, then the MFD image disappeared 1/3 at a time, from the top down!!!
(I would have REALLY REALLY stopped before this!)
Just made it into the driveway when the car stopped. Went to get gas, put it in about 15 to 20 minutes later. The car started right up, then stopped after about 50'. He attributed this to not letting the gas have any time to settle in the tank. They pushed it on the down hill and it restarted, been fine ever since, no sign of damage.

I'm guessing the 12V recovered a little while they went for gas, enough to bring up the computer. Since the car started without any intervention, I'm also guessing that the software shuts down the electric motor before the SOC of the big battery gets TOO low (even though it is showing no bars on the MFD) to protect it. We do know that the range shown to us is NOT 0 to 100%.

So, while I do not recommend running out of gas, nor driving until the MFD goes blank and the car stops if you DO run out of gas, it appears not to be quite the 'damage will occur' catastrophy we have been led to beileve.

 

We averaged around 45 mpg on a recent trip to Canada from SoCal and back.

Returning, we have to climb over something called, "The Grapevine".

My wife was driving (Ms Take No Prisoners), at the bottom, we were at 3 pips, as we got into the climb (peddle to the metal), she tolled, " 2". and we passed a gas station.

"Hmm. Ok, we'll make it over (remember, averaging 45 mpg. The climb, at most is 10 miles). Oops. Wrong. Down to 1. Than, her voice controlled, she said - "it's flashing!"

"Get into the slow vehicle lane, and close in on a truck" (I'm thinking, drafting).

Well, we made the station and took 10.??? gal.

What happened to the 45 mpg? Forget that in a long climb because mpg drops to 15 or so.

centrider

 

The grapvevine is pretty steep and no, you should not expect to get anywhere near 45 on the way UP. But pity the poor people who would be HAPPY to get 15 going up

I take it you are not old enough to remember the grapevine when it was a long set of switchbacks. Now it is a major interstate and almost straight. Apparently they whacked a lot off the top to eliminate the switchbacks. I remember it as a child more like this description: There is reference to a '49-'51 alignment which is what I would have seen (born in '56) so it might have been even better by the time I remember it. The original roads bears this description:Now THAT must have been something to see (and live through)

http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/US9..._contents.html

The other road I vividly remember is Carbon Canyon Road going to Chino. It still has its double switchback