... oh, did I say that already? Well, let me repeat myself: Arrrgghhh! This mess with my Toyota has been so frustrating. Yes, I do know it is a mess of my own making - which is the worst kind, knowing you cannot blame anyone else for the sticky situation. Sooooo aggravating, and since I was the one who pulled the trigger when shooting myself in the foot, I will try to be patient in the process of resolution, but it is trying...
After two trips across town, and a payment of nearly two hundred bucks, I was (sadly misplaced) optimistic the problem had been resolved. When I went to the curb store to fill the tank, I could only pump about four gallons. Convinced it should take more, as the gauge on the dash was showing the fuel level in the tank was less than half, I was baffled. But stopped when the nozzle on the pump quit, indicating that the tank was as full as it could get. There is a little button on the steering wheel that will reset all the numbers on the dash to go back to zero for miles driven, let you know what amazing mileage you are getting in a Prius, and also provide info about how many more miles you can travel before needing to stop for more fuel. It also resets the fuel level indicator, to show that you did guy gas, added more to move the level from low to full. Therein lies the problem. That little fuel indicator device will not reset.
This is akin to driving a car with the indicator missing, so you have no idea how much gas you have. You could be safe to drive three hundred miles in the efficient little Prius, or you could not even get through the intersection to coast into the nearest gas pump. No way to know where you actually are between the full line and the running on fumes mark on the dash.
Upon calling my new BFF James who has tried to help me through this vehicular crisis, I asked him what he would have done if his own personal wife had come to him with a ridiculous, foolish, stupid, dumb, half-crazy problem like the one I started with. Brought on by my own ignorance. His response was he would have likely done nothing! Nothing? Nothing! Just let that gunk in the system work it's way out - it was a petroleum product, and would probably do no harm. Which means all my efforts to resolve have only compounded.
I took it to the dealership this morning, and left it, with the service guy agreeing he would pray over it before turning it over to the mechanics. I expect to pay about two hundred more bucks just to have the diagnostics run. A best case scenario is having nothing more than a computer glitch, and the fuel gauge easily reset by the guys when they connect it to the computer. Worst case is pulling the gas tank again, and replacing a defective part that is probably the size of your thumbnail, a wee bitty computer chip that provide the info. for indicating the level of fuel in the tank. Without which just driving around the block is risky business. Arggghhhh.
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