Posted by David Kelly on October 7, 2007, 4:06 am
Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>
>> A few weeks later the light started flashing and ONE MILE later the ICE
>> was dead. The gauge was taking measure of fools who trust it. Yes, the
>> light said the engine might run as long as 70 miles based on past
>> experience, but 1 mile isn't any warning at all. And 1 mile sometimes,
>> 70 miles sometimes, isn't very reliable.
>
> Why wait past 1 pip? Why wait for the flashing light at all?
>
> Why not buy gas at 2 pips? 3? What are you trying to prove?
As unbelievable as it may sound there were no other gas stations the
past 20 miles. Every one was boarded up closed. And why worry if the
light is not flashing and I have always been able to drive at least 20
miles and as much as 70 on a flashing light?
The fool gauge behaves pretty much the same as any other car. "It has a
bladder in the gas tank, its different!" say those who only want to be
different. I find the only difference is the lack of accuracy in the low
fuel warning light.
Posted by greenpjs on October 7, 2007, 1:24 pm
wrote:
>Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>>
>>> A few weeks later the light started flashing and ONE MILE later the ICE
>>> was dead. The gauge was taking measure of fools who trust it. Yes, the
>>> light said the engine might run as long as 70 miles based on past
>>> experience, but 1 mile isn't any warning at all. And 1 mile sometimes,
>>> 70 miles sometimes, isn't very reliable.
>>
>> Why wait past 1 pip? Why wait for the flashing light at all?
>>
>> Why not buy gas at 2 pips? 3? What are you trying to prove?
>As unbelievable as it may sound there were no other gas stations the
>past 20 miles. Every one was boarded up closed. And why worry if the
>light is not flashing and I have always been able to drive at least 20
>miles and as much as 70 on a flashing light?
>The fool gauge behaves pretty much the same as any other car. "It has a
>bladder in the gas tank, its different!" say those who only want to be
>different. I find the only difference is the lack of accuracy in the low
>fuel warning light.
With my 2004, I have noticed that the bladder does make difference,
but that difference shows when you fill the tank. We have vapor
recovery gas pumps here and that seems to mean the fuel flows slower
from the pump. I typically can only get 10 gallons in when nearly
empty. In a neighboring county with older pumps, the fuel flows
faster and I can get approx 1.5 gallons more into the tank before the
nozzle shuts off. One time my wife "tried" to fill the tank at a
station with extremely slow pumps. She only managed to get 7 gallons
in. I think the faster the flow, the more the bladder can be
expanded. That really messed with people using miles driven as an
estimate of fuel left. All this is from my car only. Anyone else
notice the same thing?
Posted by David Kelly on October 7, 2007, 3:17 pm
greenpjs wrote:
>
> With my 2004, I have noticed that the bladder does make difference,
> but that difference shows when you fill the tank. We have vapor
> recovery gas pumps here and that seems to mean the fuel flows slower
> from the pump. I typically can only get 10 gallons in when nearly
> empty. In a neighboring county with older pumps, the fuel flows
> faster and I can get approx 1.5 gallons more into the tank before the
> nozzle shuts off. One time my wife "tried" to fill the tank at a
> station with extremely slow pumps. She only managed to get 7 gallons
> in. I think the faster the flow, the more the bladder can be
> expanded. That really messed with people using miles driven as an
> estimate of fuel left. All this is from my car only. Anyone else
> notice the same thing?
I always fill my 2007 on the slowest setting and get reasonable fills
each time. The first bar dims between 120 and 140 miles.
Once tried to top off the tank after only 80 miles. That pump didn't
want to put any gas in the tank. Later with 300+ miles on the tank the
same pump pumped a reasonable fill.
6 months ago it wasn't unusual for me to bounce between 48 and 58 MPG as
measured at the pump. My technique has improved since. But nothing as
extreme as 7 gallons when 10 was expected.
Posted by bob on November 20, 2007, 1:48 am
> With my 2004, I have noticed that the bladder does make difference,
> but that difference shows when you fill the tank. We have vapor
> recovery gas pumps here and that seems to mean the fuel flows slower
> from the pump. I typically can only get 10 gallons in when nearly
> empty. In a neighboring county with older pumps, the fuel flows
> faster and I can get approx 1.5 gallons more into the tank before the
> nozzle shuts off. One time my wife "tried" to fill the tank at a
> station with extremely slow pumps. She only managed to get 7 gallons
> in. I think the faster the flow, the more the bladder can be
> expanded. That really messed with people using miles driven as an
> estimate of fuel left. All this is from my car only. Anyone else
> notice the same thing?
yes, i noticed somtimes i get 520mi before the last bar blinks; sometimes i
get 450mi before it blinks - both under similar driving conditions. but when
i refill, the mpg seems to be the same. seems that it doesn't totally fill
to same spot each time.
bob
Posted by Tom Ricostronza on October 4, 2007, 4:51 am
wrote:
>richard schumacher wrote:
>>
>> The gauge is not linear, and the bladder inside the tank varies in size.
>Bladder, this, bladder, that, bah humbug. I have only seen one model of
>car in my life that had anything close to an accurate fuel gauge: mid
>70's Oldsmobile Cutlass.
>> Together these mean that you cannot reliably estimate how far you
>> "ought" to be able to go after a fillup. The one thing you should rely
>> on is that when the last pip on the gauge starts to flash, you are about
>> to run out. And when you do run out, remember that you must put in at
>> least three gallons, otherwise the gas tank computer will not let the
>> car start.
>>
>> An amazing number of people have run out of gas in a Prius because they
>> *just knew* they could go 500 miles on one tank, or that there just
>> *had* to be another two gallons in there. Uh-uh. No.
>*I* ran out of gas in my 2007 because several times previously I had
>driven 30 to 70 miles on the flashing last bar. Then in spite of my best
>effort was only able to put less than 10 gallons in an 11.9 gallon tank.
>Convinced me the indicator was a guess gauge, not a gas gauge.
>So I was out driving in the middle of nowhere (Arkansas) thinking the
>idiot light should be flashing the past 50 miles. Then it finally did.
>And just over a mile later the engine was dead. Batteries got me another
>mile or two down the road where fortunately I found the first open gas
>station in the past 20 miles. Car restarted as if nothing had happened.
>This is when I realized it wasn't a guess gauge but a fool gauge as it
>made a fool of me.
>As for "the bladder issue", I don't have any problem. When I fill my
>tank the calculated MPG is 0 to 4 MPG less than the indicated cumulative
>MPG since I reset it at the previous fill. I'm filling pretty darn
>consistently.
>Oh, and when it ran out? 11.3 gallons after the nozzle kicked off and
>was repositioned several times.
>Suggest that you start paying close attention to how many miles after
>topping off the tank before the first bar dims. This seems to provide an
>accurate indication as to exactly how full the tank was filled. Mine is
>pretty consistent at 120 to 140 miles. Except the time it ran out, the
>first bar didn't fall until 230 miles. Which demonstrates what happened
>to me when I got fooled. Apparently the gauge falls very slowly, slower
>even than the Prius drinks fuel. When it takes several days to burn 2.5
>gallons it behaves one way. When driven continuously it falls slow
>enough that 4.5 gallons are gone before the first bar dims.
>I drove over 400 miles the day I ran out of gas. Couple hundred before,
>couple hundred after. Appears when driven continuously the gauge can get
>a couple of gallons behind.
Talking bladder...the first time I filled up my brand new Prius, I set
the pump auto fill hook and somehow the bladder kicked back and gas
was bubbling out of the tank AS IT WAS FILLING. So I got my first car
wash, toot sweet. Bladders.
And every car I've ever had displays full until about a quarter of a
tank is used up.
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>> A few weeks later the light started flashing and ONE MILE later the ICE
>> was dead. The gauge was taking measure of fools who trust it. Yes, the
>> light said the engine might run as long as 70 miles based on past
>> experience, but 1 mile isn't any warning at all. And 1 mile sometimes,
>> 70 miles sometimes, isn't very reliable.
>
> Why wait past 1 pip? Why wait for the flashing light at all?
>
> Why not buy gas at 2 pips? 3? What are you trying to prove?