Oh no not another fuel gauge issue!

MikeUCFL

So I know there are few issues with the fuel gauge, but I haven't read anything similar to what has been going on with mine. I've had the car for about 17 months now, and maybe 3-4 months ago I started to notice that my car was reporting it was empty way too early. After monitoring my fuel gauge, once I hit ~230 miles on a tank (averaging 18mpg) I would be at 1/4 of a tank. Within 5-10 miles of driving my fuel gauge would drop to zero and say ---- miles left to go. Then when I would fill up, I'd only fill 13-14 gallons.. so I knew there was fuel still left in the tank. I have even driven ~60 miles with it saying empty with no issues (other than it yelling at me that it's empty).

So last weekend I took my car to Nissan and had them look at it, and they ordered me two fuel sending units. They arrived in a few days, and took my car last night to be dropped off so they could work on it early this morning. I left the engine running while I was getting things out of my car, and there it was again! Went from 1/4 tank to empty while parked! Anyways, I left the car with them and got a call a few hours ago saying my car was ready. When I got in my car I noticed the fuel gauge read ---- with 0 dots on the meter, but I figured I probably had to fill up to full to have it reset (based on what I've read with fuel starvation). Went to the nearest gas station, filled up to full which was 14 gallons... and... crap... still reading ---- with 0 dots on the meter. I called them up and they're having me drop my car off again on Tuesday.

Not really mad at the dealership, they're trying to figure it out, but I'm curious if anyone has ran into this.. or knows what the issue might be?

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2004YZFR1

It seems like all of the new Nissan cars fuel gauges aren't accurate. My 09 370 and my wife's 10 Altima set coupe do the same thing.

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SouthArk370Z

Assuming the new sensors are good, sounds like high resistance between the sending units and the ECM (or wherever the analog signal goes). Could be a bad ground, dirty connection, frayed wire, &c.

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MikeUCFL

Hopefully it's not a bad ground or frayed wire! Flammable liquid and electricity, doesn't seem like a good combination.

I'm going to try to keep it parked as much as possible until Tuesday.

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Magnetic Black Touring/Sport/Navi/6MT < Stillen G3 | ZSpeed Stage 1 Clutch/Flywheel/CMAK | RJM Rev 3.2 Pedal with Tilton Master

SouthArk370Z

Unless the bad wiring (assuming that's what it actually is) is inside the tank (all that's in there is the sensor/pump and you have a new one) or you have a hole in the tank (you'd probably smell it if so), the chance of explosion and/or gasoline fire should not be not any greater than normal. There could be a greater chance of a wiring-initiated fire (eg, under the carpet), but the fuse should blow before things get too hot. But, yeah, since gasoline could be involved, it would probably be a good idea to limit how much your drive until you find out what the problem is, just to be safe.

Good luck finding/fixing the problem and let us know what you find out.

Edit: Keep in mind that I'm just making a (educated) guess about the problem being a high-resistance circuit and the risk of fire/explosion may be much greater or much less than I portray above. It's probably not a safety issue, but better safe than sorry.

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chii370

only issue I have with my guage is the last bubble doesnt show up. but then I put some injector cleaner, or octane boost in it and for whatever reason that fixes it for like 5-6 fill ups. Dont ask why, I have NO IDEA why it works, but it does consistently. renewable temporary fix lol. my 09 did the SAME thing.

kenchan

no issue with mine.

PapoZalsa

I have a 2009 and never had an issue with fuel starvation or the gauge. Going to ZdayZ this year I didn't had any dots lefts with like 5 -10 miles left. I tough I was done. The gauge reach 0 miles and the car continue until we found a gas station even that I was screaming out of my lungs on the 2 way radio that I was out fuel before getting to that point.

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OldGuy

To get most out of my Fuel Perks gas discount, I don't refill until no dot---several miles after miles are down to 0 left. In 4 years, I've not had a problem doing this, with fuel starvation or anything. When I refill the tank, the quantity of gas pumped confirms it was within a fraction of a gallon remaining. I take that as a reasonably accurately responding gas guage.

cossie1600

The meter is as accurate as the guess o meter on the leaf. You are beat to fill up at 200 miles anyway, else you will risk fuel starve.

Dave N

You should be mad at the dealership for not verifying that the problem was corrected before handing the car back over to you. At the very least, they should have called and asked if you would be willing to pay for 3 ~ 4 gallons of gas so they could confirm the new sending unit fixed the problem before releasing the car to you.

$0.02

Dave

MikeUCFL

Thanks for the info guys. My Z is at Nissan right now getting looked at, got a Versa loaner (woo!). I'll inform you guys what the outcome is.

Also a side note, I was annoyed that my car was not tested properly after they said it was fixed, but I let it slide (don't want to mention there is a gas station next door). The service writer is a pretty cool guy, everyone else there seems really nice, so I figured I'd give them a second chance. Now.. I'm not too sure about the guy working on my car. Yesterday I realized that one of the interior panels that they pulled off has a nice outward dent in it. I'm assuming they pushed too hard when a clip was off center. Also I had an issue with my passenger door lock making a really annoying screeching noise when unlocking. They said they fixed it, but nope! Still does it. Just seems all around that the guy working on my car wasn't very respectful.

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Magnetic Black Touring/Sport/Navi/6MT < Stillen G3 | ZSpeed Stage 1 Clutch/Flywheel/CMAK | RJM Rev 3.2 Pedal with Tilton Master

MikeUCFL

Got my car back. They said the floater was tangled up somehow. Also ordered me a new door lock (again, they just replaced it) to fix the screeching noise, and a new panel (which the tech said he didn't remove). Hopefully I can run this tank of gas down without it going empty early!

Thanks for all the info everyone.

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Magnetic Black Touring/Sport/Navi/6MT < Stillen G3 | ZSpeed Stage 1 Clutch/Flywheel/CMAK | RJM Rev 3.2 Pedal with Tilton Master