I have seen this problem also.

It tends to occur only at a couple gas stations, so I avoid them. I guess that the flow rate is too high and triggers the auto-off, but am not really sure. On two occasions I was nursing the flow slow slowly that I thought I could hear bubbling in the hose. The thought of filling up with air made me non too happy, but I did not see poor tank mpg to confirm it happened.

So far it is but an occasional annoyance. If every fill-up becomes a grind no matter what station I go to, I'll take the car to the dealer.

 

I had this happen once, at a Sam's Club. Nursing along at a very low flow rate apparently allowed much more gas in than it should have, since my mileage for that fillup was down in the 40s. Just filled up today at a Sunoco station, and all went well -- normal flow, normal cutoff.

 

I have a 2005 Toyota Prius, four months old, and have just started seeing this exact same behavior the last two times that I have gone to the gas station. Mind you, after noticing this, I only fill the gas tank to what I assume is maybe three-fourths the way so it doesn't erupt gasoline from the nozzle.

Still kinda weird. Called a Toyota service rep in the evening, and he had heard of this happening, but had no idea what was causing it. He recommended calling back during normal work hours to catch up with one of the more knowledgable people in-house to see what they thought. I guess I'll be doing that and seeing what happens.

Otherwise, the spaceship is so much fun.

 

I have had the problem with the gas eruption once on my first new 2005 early on after I purchased in Jan 05. Have another one purchased in Aug 05, but have not gotten gas yet, only 230 miles, but will have something to compare it with now.

 

I have a 2005 Prius purchased in late Dec. 2004. I have had no problem with filling the gas tank and it has been driven from MA to FL and back, plus all the driving at home. I do not try and top off the gas.
LL

 

I must admit that I do try to get as much in as I can. Unless you can get the fuel in consisitantly the same, the MPG is basically a crap shoot since you really don't know the amounts from fill up to fill up. I never had a problem with the 2002 I had.

 

Slightly off-topic, well -- a whole lot off-topic-- but I'm wondering how you went from your 2002 to the 2005. Did you trade at a dealer, sell the 2002 privately, etc., and irregardless of the process, what were the economics of the deal? I've got a new 2005, seriously considering moving up to a 2006 for wholly unjustifiable reasons.

 

I purchased my first Prius in Fayetteville NC and after reading about Prius II decided to request the newer technologies that it offered. Started in Aug 2004 with my request and in early Jan 2005 was called with one that was in my ball park of options that I wanted. Traded the 2002 with I think around 45,000 miles. In August 2005, my wife and I had talked about trading our 2000 Ford Windstar in on another Prius. Made the required inquiries of dealers and then on a whim stopped by the dealer in New Bern NC where we live. Low and behold they had three on the lot and so we haggled a bit and the deal was done on my wife's Prius.
We had done some homework on the 2002 and the range throughout the US was from 15,000 to 23,000. We had set a figure of the tradein we would accept, which we got. It was not the top figure of 23,000 for one in CA, but was what we thought was agreeable to us. On the new one the tradein of the Windstar was ugly in our extimation, but the van was 5+ years old and we did not want to miss the chance. The tradein was 5,000 and someone got a good vehicle with 40,000 miles on it. You do not have much wiggle with a older non Toyota vehicle and we didn't want to try and sell it ourselves, we are not sales folk. Hope this gives you some insight on how we did.
Joe

 

I own a 2004 Prius, which I purchased in Feb 2004. I have experienced problems filling my tank and with the accuracy of the fuel gauge. I think it got really bad on the day I drove around Denver and it was 102F. I went to fill up before I headed home (60 highway miles and 3000ft elevation gain to get home) that day and I could only get 1 gal in before the filler stopped even though the gauge read 1/2 a tank. I then drove about 150 miles or less and the gauge read empty. Before I made another trip to Denver, I added about 3 gallons to the tank. I drove another 150 miles to and around Denver. After which, the gauge only read 1/3 full. I attempted to top off the car again and could only get in 1 gal. The gauge then read 2/3 full. I drove home 70 miles and then the gauge read 1/3 full again. Oh, and my car started hesitating during slow speed acceleration. Now, I never add more gas after the filler stops and my car usually gets 50 mpg in the Summer and 40/45 mpg in winter, based on miles between fillups/gallons added at fillup. The trip home never uses more than one bar on the fuel gauge. Clearly there was a problem!

I contacted my Toyota dealership and they scheduled an appt. After checking out the car, they replaced the filler nozzle and a computer for the fuel gauge. They also performed some other "recall" type repairs. These included an update to the engine control program and replacing a switch for the brake lights. I'm not sure I completely inderstand all of their repair codes. If anyone wants to see the report, I'd be happy to share it. Be prepared that you will have to give up your car for a few days. It took 3 days to get the parts and 3 hours to complete the repair. But, if it's warranty work, Toyota keeps your car until they finish the job. They did give me a rental at their expense.

Sorry my first post is so long, but this is definitely an issue that you should make sure Toyota fixes.

Lisa

 

I have an '04 Prius - bought "new" as the dealer demo with 1300 miles on it about 3 months ago. I have had the same problem filling up the tank to full ever since I got the car. Although I have not gone to the dealer yet (and I will now that some of you posted that this is a fixable problem) I have managed to work around it. When the tank gets within about 2+- gallons of being full the gas pump automatically shuts off. When I fill up the rest at the lowest fill rate possible I listen for a slight whine from where the nozzle is inserted and this tells me that I have just reached full (as I learned from hearing this before and then over flowing). Hope this helps if you have not had the dealer handle this problem already.