state police behind me and got towed, yay love fuel starve!

cossie1600

Last night my wife was out, I decided to take the dogs to my friend's place to hang out. As I came off a highway off-ramp (sharp right hand U turn), car suddenly cut out and I had to coast to a stop at the shoulder. Despite numerous attempts , the car refused to start backup. I had about a 1/4 in the tank and 6 LED on the fuel gauge before it happened. Of course once the fuel sloshed to the other side, my gauge was showing 2 LEDs. I must have tried to start the car at least 40 times in the next 15 minutes, yet the car just refused to do so. After sitting for about 10 minutes, I decided to call AAA to have them tow me to a gas station. When they offered to bring gas, I declined because I needed at least 10-15 gallons. Just as I got off the phone with AAA, the state police came and got behind me with his lights up. He proceeded to help me rush the tow truck driver to the scene. While we were waiting, I was explaining him the situation. He was just puzzled at how a nice looking sports car can have a design flaw this big. He was great and he waited with me until the tow truck driver came. There were at least 200-300 cars that had passed me during that time, everyone probably thought I got busted for doing something stupid. Well maybe stupid for buying a car that has a design flaw like this, but then I honestly didn't know about it when I bought the car since everyone only complained about oil temp.

Anyway, the tow truck driver came. He was able to get me to a gas station relatively quickly. Instead of just dropping the car immediately, he allowed me to fuel up while the car was still on the flatbed. 14 gallons later, car was full and it started on top of the flat bed. He proceeded to lower the vehicle and we were both on our way. The incident ate up 1.5 hours of my time, my dogs were scared $hitless as we were sitting on the side of the road. I was probably seen as that road rage maniac who got busted by the police with the police behind me flashing his light. This all happened with 5 gallons of gas in the car.

Moral of the story, don't let the car run down past 3/4 of a tank as fuel starvation can happen at any points lower. If you are lucky, car will pick right back up (which I have had happened many times in the past). Yet if you are unlucky like me, you will end up seeing your car on the back of a flatbed in front of a cop getting towed away.


Please do all Z owners a favor, report the fuel starvation issue to the NHTSA. Hopefully if enough people bitches, NHTSA will look into it and perhaps issue a recall. There is currently no fix for it right now short of replacing the gas tank or keep filling it up all the way.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

If my wife wasn't pregnant, I would be shopping for another vehicle today. I love the car, but some of these stupid problems just drive me insane

Thechidz

That sucks

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Mt Tam I am

Fuel starvation is a weird feeling. last month at the track I was low on gas (stupidly knowing this was an issue), about a quarter tank, and a sweeping right turn. I thought I'd shifted into the wrong gear, several seconds later it made a slight popping sound ( or some kind of sound), and all was well again. It happened again on the next lap and then I slowed down on all right handers.

I would think a small reservoir tank in between gas tank and combustion chamber would solve this inexpensively. I am not a mechanic or engineer so what do I know.

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Z_ealot

oddly enough on my 2011 i have never had this issue with fuel starvation even when running on 1/4 tank and making long sweeping right hand turns on an onramp going about 50-60....makes me wonder if nissan secretly addressed this issue in the 2011 and up, guess i'll have to wait for some more 2011 and up owners to chime in.

my2004Z

I dunno, I have an '09 and have regularly run the tank down below the 1/4 tank mark and have never had a problem even with spirited driving on curvey roads with and without elevation changes. I wonder if there is a problem or defect with a batch of tanks versus the overall design of the gas tank. Someone who has had the problem definitely needs to cut their tank in half and do a video for the rest of us. Any takers?

MacLean

Sorry to hear the bad news. Kind of sucks that it took 1.5hrs out of your life, but at least things are back to normal. Oh congrats on your wife being pregnant.

mhcoss

I have run my 2012 down to the dummy warnings telling me to fuel up and havent had this happen to me. I wasn't even aware this was a problem.. I am going to fuel up more often now

bloodo

Same here, I have an 09 and ran the car a couple time with one LED left on the high way off ramp/on ramp and never had a problem.

LakeShow

I have an 11' and had the Fuel lights down to one and one time it showed the dash marks meaning no more gas and didn't turn off. Idk.

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jazz-Z

If I had a car that had this issue I would be really peeved, and taking legal action. I almost hesitate to say that I have an '09, and haven't had this problem. I wonder if the guys on the forum that have the fuel starve problem could compare notes on their builds to see if there was a defective lot of fuel pumps that are causing this issue.

Frankly I think that a lot of the other complaints I hear about the Z on this forum is just a bunch of BS grousing about nothing more than individual idiosyncratic irritations, or misinformed expectaion. The fuel starve issue, however is serious and potentially life threatening.

370zproject

same iv had mine down to the 1 led light no issues...knock on wood

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kenchan

cossie -were you going 170mph and told officer you can go even faster?

USMCASA

09 here and have hit sweeping right handers at 90ish with my gas range blinking at me and 1 dot lit up and never had this issue...

USMCASA

Red__Zed

you just aren't taking turns long/hard enough. You can definitely still starve an '11 no problem.


A lot of people that have not had an issue simply aren't driving that hard. It is not terribly common on the street, unless you have unfavorable banking/slope.