PriusOnline.com

Please let me know the best way to "top off" the fuel tank without doing damage to the Bladder.

I usually give the nozzle one or two squeezes after the first auto shutoff. That will not overfill or stress the bladder.

Don't top off. In addition to the owner's manual telling you not to, there are some actual stories that back this up--gallons of gas spewing back OUT the filler neck onto the driver, someone ruining an entire gas tank by having gas go between the bladder and the outside shell, etc.

Don't top off. When the handle clicks off, let it go. Just let it go.

Since the car is warranted for three years I would guess that there is nothing anyone could do with a filler hose that could cause any damage to the tank. They don't build things "that way."

Yes, they do. I think Toyota screwed up with this bladder system, big time.

See the references on priuschat about the gas tank teardown as a result of overfilling, and the guy whose bladder burped up half a tank of gas right onto him as a result of his overfilling.

Here is one of the many PC threads that Adam references:

http://priuschat.com/forums/care-mainte ... amage.html

This comes from a Prius tech (posted by his wife).

Looks as though there are some folks who attempt to do things with these cars that they have never thought of doing with their previous automobiles.
Fortunately the number is very low, as the car has held on to it's top reliable rating in each years edition of Consumer reports.
I',m sure if Toyota believed it to be any problem they would now be slipping the European tank in every car made.

The bladder is in there to allow all of us to breath more air and less gas fumes. I like that more than a gas gauge that accurately reports when I reach 0.0001 gallon left.

I wonder if the bladder is used in Japanese models and if Toyota gives a damn about the air breathed in the US or just a point to sell more cars. They haven't used a bladder in anything else with four wheels that they manufacture.
I believe they were after the California car market and since the first years models there were bringing in as much as $5,000 over MSRP, they probably were right.
It seems to me, over 50% of the posters here complain about the bladder and would "pass" on it, if given the chance.

I wonder if the bladder is used in Japanese models and if Toyota gives a damn about the air breathed in the US or just a point to sell more cars. They haven't used a bladder in anything else with four wheels that they manufacture.
I believe they were after the California car market and since the first years models there were bringing in as much as $5,000 over MSRP, they probably were right.
It seems to me, over 50% of the posters here complain about the bladder and would "pass" on it, if given the chance.

hyperion, I believe the bladder is only for US spec Prius only. The bladder was inserted with in the metal tank so the emmission ( Evaporative vapor esacaping) through the filler tube.
Once the gas filler nozzle is removed from tank filling tube ,the baldder neck will tighten up and shut out the vapor escaping into the atmosphere. This bladder application earned Toyota the SULEV rating in the Gen I Prius and then AT=PZEV in Gen II. So I have been told...Now if you look at the CH or the Camry Hybrid has the same rating in 08 without the bladder. New technology fuel tank does not require the bladder anymore. So the next Gen Prius won't have the bladder tank anymore..

You can do that without a full bladder.

There's another explanation for the bladder.

Once the nozzel is removed from every tank of every car biuilt a door in the filler tube closes and the charcoal cannister does it's job for the envireament just as Rickey has described for the 08 Camry'
And Rick, from your post do you mean to say the 07 CH has a fuel cell in it's tank? (I haden't heard of that.)

hyperion, no Toyota uses the bladder just on the Prius marketed for USA only.
07 HH, 07 CH, has the regular gas tank construction.

No Japanese Prius model nor European model or for the rest of the world uses the Bladder ? USA has more stringent vapor emmision regulation for its AT-PZEV status and that is where the Bladder comes in.

Interesting how little we know about the cars we purchase. I bought my Prius because I wanted to find out just how the hybrids work.
Are you telling me that the Honda Civic Hybrid does not meet the same AT-PVEV standards as the Prius. I thought they were similar because of the HOV lane stickers granted in California to both.
I know the Civic hybrid has neither the bladder tank nor the coolant recirculating system.