A Stupid Car Question

[tishaLA]

I'm currently dog/house sitting for a friend and I'm using her Prius. It's never given me a problem before, but the other day I put gas in it and it still registers "E." What's up with that? Is it going to be safe for me to drive it?

I thought about calling the dealer about it, but I don't know whether it's worth the hassle or whether I should just wait until my friend gets home next week.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Had a problem like that in South Louisiana

a couple of months ago. Gas with too much sulphur was messing up the gas gages. I believe most of the gas came from Shell Stations. They had to fix a lot of cars. You may want to check with the station you got gas. They may have similar complaints.

And its not a stupid question..

[tishaLA]

3. Actually I put gas in at one station

it was sorta in a shady area, and it didn't register on the gas-o-meter. I thought maybe the station was just pretending to have gas and charging me for nothing! LOL. So I went to another station and put $5 more gas in it--not a lot here in CA--and still nothing.

So I'm stymied.

[ltfranklin]

2. Have you noticed...

...anybody in the neighborhood with REALLY BAD gasoline breath?

Gauge is probably stuck. Did you reset the trip-meter? You can usually be guarenteed at least 200 miles on a tank in just about any car, but I'd just refill it everytime the trip-meter hits around 150 and you should be fine.

[tishaLA]

5. Do you think it'll be OK if I fill it up?

like it might unstick the guage?

[ltfranklin]

6. It might...

...but so might driving over some really big speed bumps (I'm NOT recommending that, btw), but you might want to wait until the owner gets back, or at least until you can contact them. No, I suggested that you refill every 150 miles so you can always be sure that you've got sufficient gas. Every car I've ever known has been able to make at LEAST 200 miles on a tank, so refilling at 100 or 150 ensures you won't run out of gas. And isn't that the only reason you have a gauge?

[SCDem]

8. Hybrids get at least 500 miles on a tank

[ltfranklin]

11. And your point is?

Perhaps they do, but do you want (or need) to try to make it all the way to 500 before you add gas? The only way to make sure you ALWAYS have enough gas with a bad gas gauge is to fill it up, and refill WELL before the limits of the capacity of the tank.

[uppityperson]

4. Gas float thingy might be broken or stuck.

I had a car with a broken gas floater or gauge. I had to keep track of the mileage. If you put enough gas into it to make it read (if it worked), don't worry about it. Unless there was a big puddle under the car after you put gas in it.

[flvegan]

7. If it was really low, and you only put $5.00 in, it might not be enough

to register off the E. Most cars sold in America read E for longer than they need to (they usually still have a couple gallons). So, if it was buried deep on E, then a couple gallons ($5.00 today) might not be enough to budge it.

[tishaLA]

10. I put $5 in the second time

I put in $10 the first time. It should be about 3/4 full on that. The Prius has a small gas tank.

[BOSSHOG]

9. CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE

It may give you a little more information about your problem:

http://forums.autoweek.com/thread.jspa?forumID=32&threadID=7612&tstart=105

I hope this helps.