No gas?
 

Hey guys, last night on my way home from work my car shut down on me as I was about to merge on the highway. I didn't lose power but my engine shut down on me. I was just above a quarter tank when this happened. Once I pulled over I turned the car off then went to restart it and the gas gauge was empty. This happen to anyone else at all? I've had the car for a year and half now with no problems. Thanks for the help.

this is the first I 've heard of this?? anyone else chime in? Either way...dealership TIME!

I know that the Z can choke and turn off on you when making a sharp right turn on a Quarter tank. This is a known issue, dunno if it applies here.

That's exactly what happened. The entrance ramp has a sharp right turn and as I went to power out it shut off on me.

have the dealer look at it. ive not read about this either, so isolated issue.

Yeah, it's been talked about greatly on the forums, search for "fuel starvation". The thing that throws me is that the gauge went from 1/4 of a tank to empty after restarting the car. I haven't heard any reports of that. How far did you drive before fill up, and how much did it take to fill the tank?

yep, here's a quick link: http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...uel+starvation

I believe there's a term for this. I remember it happing alot with 350's that where doing alot of tracking. Something to do with the pickup. The only thing they made sure of was to keep it above a quarter of a tank. Trying to recall who knows alot on this. I want to say a member named Phunk does. Maybe I'm wrong there.

Yeah, and actually in Mike's first post he mentions how it showed empty as well. I guess that makes sense since the sensor is probably near the fuel outlet. Stupid U shaped tank. :ugh2:

The gas my friend brought me put me at a quarter tank again and I drove about 13 miles before filling up. It took 15 gallons to fill up at the gas station.

I have never had fuel starvation issues but there have been a couple weird occurrences with the fuel gauge that surprised me. Twice, I have had a 1/4 tank or more indicated with the LEDs and a posed range of 70+ miles. I would then do a WOT throttle pull through a couple gears and then magically, 3 or 4 of the fuel gauge dots would instantly disappear and the low fuel warning would come on and stay that way. This is purely accelerating in a straight line.

This is a known issue but not with that much gas marking on the Fuel Gauge...:confused:

Plenty of us have seen fuel starvation at that level. Granted the only time I've seen it was on a track, but it was at 1/4 of a tank at the time.

So where does the problem actually take place. I wouldn't think it's the float in the tank. Maybe there's a relay/ sensor that goes to the actual visual gauge.

It happened to me at 1/4 tank. Right hand turn followed by hard up-hill acceleration = stalled car. On track it happens to me with 3/4 tank.

I think the gas gauge drops to zero because the sender is in the same spot as the pickup. No fuel in the pickup means the sender wont register anything either. The ECU averages out the voltages coming from the sender so it takes a couple of start attempts before you see it drop to zero. There is fuel in the tank but it can't use it.

That's exactly what happened to me. Hard right followed by a uphill straight. The gauge read empty afterwards but the info gauge said I still had 65 miles left.

Yep.

Never happened to me, but will keep it half full from now on.

the fuel level sensor is moutned on the fuel pump, And theres been 4 370's that have come into our shop because of there gauge not working, Replace the fuel pump under warrantie and sent the costumers on there way. When i looked at the fuel pump, the magnet/sensor that is on the float arm isnt contacting the sender unit. the gauge would work sometimes and not other times. best bet, bring it in to your Nissan dealer, explain to the service manager/adviser what happened, he'll know what your talking about lol. Also if your fuel gauge is reading 0, thats tellin the computer u have no gas, boom control unit shuts the car off. Safety feature.

Perhaps a proper racing fuel cell is in order for development.

That's not true. His car stalled because the fuel pump couldn't keep the required pressure - that is when the car shuts down. He had fuel in his tank but because of the tank shape none of it could reach the pickup due to being on a slight incline after all the fuel around the pickup was used up by the hard acceleration.

The fuel gauge itself doesn't do anything other than inform the driver of the current amount of fuel in the vehicle. You can disconnect it, force it zero, doesn't matter.

You can do a fuel cell, but they are expensive. Travis has a modified tank that helped him, not perfect but a big improvement.

i've had this happent to me 4 times now. all with 1/4 tank.

everytime this has happened is doing a sharp turn / launch onto an onramp. right at the top of the ramp, my engine shuts off. the first 3 times, i had to have someone bring me gas.

however, this last time, i knew what happened so i would shake the car back at forth to get the gas on the correct side of the tank. after shaking for a minute, i pulled to the side, and she started right up again.

so a tip, if this ever happens to you, shake the car around, stop, then start her up. it just might save you a headache.