Cheech

Fuel pump replaced under warranty.....

This is my experience of the dreaded fuel starvation design flaw and describe the symptoms.

I never experienced the fuel starvation problem until after my Z was taken into a Nissan dealership for routine maintenance. So my suspicions say they did something to the car, but that's just me being paranoid. Seriously doubt the two are related.

Recently when the fuel gauge dropped to the 4th dot, a rumble could be heard from the rear of the car. Best way to describe it, is it sounded like a jet engine off in the distance. This was sitting still, car idling. Did not matter whether the a/c was on or off, clutch in or out, etc. Also experienced the fuel starvation intermittently when accelerating on a straight stretch.

The tech at the Nissan dealership thought it sounded like the fuel pump was sucking air.

The sound would go away when fuel tank was filled.

The dealership took the car for a couple days to replace the fuel pump. It was brought in with 4 dots left so the problem was present for the techs to diagnose. When the car was returned, the fuel gauge was at 1 dot. The sound was no longer present after changing the fuel pump. A quick stop at the gas station to fill up, saw 17.67gallons go in.

What's interesting is with 4 dots left on the gauge, the distance to empty calculation was displaying 75miles which seems pretty low for nearly a 1/4 of a tank.

I believe the calibration of the (old) fuel gauge somehow got out of whack. Does it have the intelligence to re-calculate a DTE based on the trip meter and amount of gas added? Is it possible to re-calibrate it?

On one road trip, I had taken the fuel gauge all the way down to having no dots left and still able to go 30miles (extremely lucky).

The only sub-note to this story is I have to take her back in Monday morning to have the interior cleaned. During the removal of the fuel pump, they spilled gas on the carpet behind the seats nice eh? ...... not!


Cheech