Tank Assembly problems of the 2005 Toyota Prius

Over the past several I've noticed at least twice that after filling up my car with gasoline that the gauge reflecting gasoline status does not reset correctly, e. G. , it tank was half full, filling up does not cause it to reset to "full". I suspect that this is due to some type of electronics error. In over 50 years of driving I've never had a car that didn't correctly reset to "full" upon "filling up". Last incident date was in February 2010. Prior occasion was approximately 5-6 months earlier.

I was driving to work and with 3 bars of fuel showing on the fuel gauge, the gas engine stopped and I continued to a safe street to park with the electric motor (which has about a 1 mile range). I had the vehicle towed to the nearest Toyota dealer. There inspection revealed multiple failure codes but that it basically ran out of gas. They reset/recalibrated the ecms and I picked up the car 2 days later. I contacted Toyota about this issue and they denied any responsibility and advised that I should not run below 25% of the tanks capacity. The 2010 Prius uses a rigid gas tank versus the flexible gas tank in my vehicle (I believe they know it is a problem but are doing nothing but advise people to not go below 25% fuel capacity. Since the tank may be from 10 to 11. 9 gallons this is not that clear). The Toyota case number is 0910135219 which is already closed (denied).

: the manufacturer was consulted and determined the fuel tank was operating properly. Updated 6/27/2006 - the fuel tank in the consumer's vehicle is flexible. Each time the consumer fills the vehicle, the tank accepts 2-4 gallons less than designed. If the consumer slow the fuel pump to allow the additional gallons in the stop mechanism does not activate causing the fuel tank to overflow. The consumer receives 100-150 miles less per gallon.

Monitored the fuel gauge on the dashboard of 2005, Toyota Prius in order to know when was running low on fuel. Has been keeping a log of fuel consumption, mpg and miles driven. Typically, ihe filled up the tank when the display showed only 2 or 3 bars remaining out of 10 bars when full. Based on the cars 11. 9 gallon capacity each bar should indicate approximately 1. 19 gallons of fuel. In the past it has taken 7-8 gallons to fill up the tank when the display got down to 2 or 3 bars. However, there have been several occasions where it has only taken 4. 5 gallons to fill it up. Also there were 4 instances when attempting to fill tank up after the display showed 2 bars remaining, and it only allowed me to pump 3 gallons of fuel before the pump shut off. As much as I tried could not get any more fuel to go into the tank. When I started the car it only showed 6 bars on the display. I drove around the block and pulled into the service station again and attempted to put in more fuel. It only took about . 2 of a gallon, but this time the display showed 10 bars. It seemed obvious that something was wrong with the fuel tank sensor system. A fuel gauge should provide an accurate indication of the number of gallons of fuel remaining.

The vehicle's gas needle indicated that the tank was half full. When the consumer attempted to refuel the vehicle, the pump shut off after only depositing 1. 1 gallons of fuel into the tank. The consumer stopped a second time to try to fill the fuel tank and inserted the pump into the tank. After the attempt to fill the tank, the consumer removed the pump from the tank and fuel shot out of the tank all over the consumer. The fuel gauge still showed half of a tank. The consumer was told that the part needed would be a couple weeks and was forced to drive the vehicle. After driving the vehicle the consumer noticed that fuel gauge still in the same place. The dealer fixed the problem stating that water somehow got into the fuel cut off valve and caused the vehicle not to accept fuel. In driving home the consumer stopped again to get fuel and the same problem occurred.