what happens when you run out of gas in the Toyota Camry Hybrid?

bayebd24???

So I've always ran outta gas in my cars to see how far they go, but I have kids now and do not want to push it. Does the electric motor turn on when you run out of gas in the Toyota Camry Hyrbid?

John W

There are two electric motors in a Camry Hybrid, a torque and a counter torque motor. That's because the gas engine, and the two motors are directly connected to the same planetary gear that drives the wheels there are no gears in the traditional sense of transmissions and no shifting of gears. The proportion of which motor is delivering power to the wheels and by what gear ratio is controlled by the respective motors. That means pretty much all of them need to be working or locked (braked) into position for power to go to the wheels. Even when the gas engine is running, the electric motors have to hold their end of the planetary gear from turning or the power doesn't get to the wheels likewise the gas engine has to provide some resistance for the power to go from the electric motors to the wheels, how much the electric motors hold their end with respect to each other controls the gear ratio and the power regeneration, depending on the gear ratio, the gas engine may actually be turning one electric motor to generate electricity so that the other electric motor can run faster so that the gas engine doesn't need to run faster. It's by varying the controls on the two electric motors and the gas engine that they control the effective gear ratios of the Synergy transmission. When the car is running on electricity only, the gas engine is locked down to provide the resistance. It's really a very clever design that GM is planning on copying.































If the control system is smart enough to lock down the gas engine when it's out of gas then the two electric motors could still move the car but if not, they would be cranking the gas engine which is actually how the gas engine gets started. I would suggest that you ask Toyota what happens when you run out of gas or just make sure you have a jerry can of gas with you when you try.

R C

Simply engine will stop you will be able to crawl on battery power for a short distance. But as soon as that is depleted your pushing it.































When you fill up the fuel the car may not operate properly. All power from the gas engine might be directed re-charge the hybrid battery.

wondering

It will probably run on battery like the Prius will but only for maybe a mile. John is partially correct in how the PSD works with the correction of that MG2 (the larger of the 2 motor/generators) is hooked to the ring gear of the PSD which is hooked directly to the wheels via the final drive silent chain and gears. See: http://eahart.com/prius/psd/ He is otherwise mostly correct. MG1 does counter the torque of the ICE and the hybrid ECU does electrically control the speed difference between MG1 and MG2/the wheels which controls the speed difference between the ICE and the wheels AKA the effective gear ratio. However neither MG1 nor the ICE gets "locked down" unless you count the ICE's compression. MG2 is only locked down by the parking pawl when the car is in park.

Michael

Just a general point - it is always hard on a modern car to run it out of gas. The fuel pump takes a serious beating (older fuel pumps often die if you run the tank dry) because it is both lubricated and cooled by gasoline... it is like running an engine out of oil. Diesels should never be run out of fuel, either, because the injectors usually have to be bled by a mechanic to get it going again.































The Toyota hybrid system compounds the problem by trying to restart the engine - all it knows is the engine isn't running.