Just sitting here fuel starved
 

Same story, righthander 3dots, blows. Nissan you suck at fuel system design!
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/31/u5e6y4ud.jpg

Where is the nearest gas station?

17min walk. Im at a Menards parking lot. Its starting to fireyup and dieing. I even took the jack out and jacked the drivers side up in hopes of getting fuel to the right of the tank :)

Doesn't matter if it's across the street the gauge reads 3 dots

It's a total BRAVO SIERRA system :shakes head:

I dont think its gonna happen.
Wierd, I would think if it has 3 dots it should recover. Wtf

The saddle on the tank is pretty high. You would have to flip the car up almost vertical to do it. One thing I have noticed and I am sure others already know this. But the fuel gauge on our tanks has 2 sending units, one per side. And it appears that the total volume that it says is in the tank is an average of two of these readings.

So the fact that it is showing a quarter tank leads me to believe one side of the saddle is damn near half and the other is empty.

Sucks :/.

As I just bought my roadster a month ago - and had thought I did my research and knew almost everything...this topic is fairly new to me.

So I guess just never let it get below 1/4 tank? I just read all the posts/stories - seems like it's hit or miss.

Sorry you're stuck...

If you do watch those right hand turns. I have never had an issue with this yet, but I do try and keep it over half a tank because of this.

I fill at five... never had an issue


Nissan is one of many companies with fuel starve issue.


That's why I fill at 5 or in other cars, one-third.

Can you keep one of these in the trunk for precautionary measures?
http://images.lowes.com/product/conv...4549800332.jpg

There is really no way around it. They straddle the drive shaft so they can center the weight on the car and move it in front of the rear wheels for weight distribution. Its a good location but they need to put something between the saddles overtop of where the drive-shaft fits. They could use some special foam to limit the speed at which the fuel can go from the right side of the tank to the left, then on top of that throw in a transfer pump to continuously pump fuel to the right side of the tank.

Or they could somehow add a transfer line at the bottom of the tank and go underneath the driveshaft (maybe around the diff somewheres) to equalize the pressure between the two sides of the tank. Although this could lead to fuel starving itself, to get around it you could use a check valve in the line to keep the fluid from moving back to the left side of the tank on a turn.

There is away around it. And it works! :tup:

http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...p-install.html

And this is not the first time this has come up.

http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...-who-else.html

Bit the bullet, bought a petrol can and made the jurney to the station, nice 20min walk, weather was awesome, was enjoying the walk because I knew walking back with 4gal of fuel will suck.

Crossed the street walking back, cars were stopped at the light, asked a dude if he could give me a lift just up the road, he said jump in ;) faith in humanity restored

Filled up with 4gal and she fired right up.

Suck it the Nissan engineering team the designed the fuel system. If i told my manager that there is no way to design something so that consumers will not get stranded if the tank is down to 1/4 while taking a hard right in a frikin sports car I'd get fired! I would expect this on a family sadan or an old american car.

^^ nice fix. now keep it at least half full. :tup:

That sucks OP. I see you're also in the Chicago burbs- maybe we'll run into each other at a meet one of these days.

I've always filled my cars around the 1/4 tank mark, but will especially keep an eye on the Z.

I cant stay mad at her for long when she looks this good :p

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/01/a5y3anab.jpg

Very strange that some people have this problem and some do not.

people's definition of "hard cornering" might vary ;)

Push it hard enough, it WILL! :shakes head:

i've run my car completely dry of fuel (i had no dots) and i still limped it to a gas station. weird.

I've run mine to O miles to go on many occasions & never had an issue. I know I shouldn't but I'll blame it on my being accustomed to my Ridgeline - when the low fuel warning comes on, I can still go about 120 miles.

Ding ding ding!

Sorry to hear of this happening and hope it gets sorted out.

I've personally on occasions run my tank lower than the 3 dots, And have still have not had such a thing happen to me.

I've been pretty lucky I guess. I have not one problem with my 09 and Im coming up on 25k :ugh2:

The difinition of low fuel definitely varies here. Lots wait for 2 dots to fill. :ugh2:

I went down to 1 dot with 0 miles to go on my way to ZdayZ in the mountains and I was in panic mode. The leader of the caravan didn't want to stop trying to find a cheap gas station. :shakes head:

What I did in the beginning when I needed gas I noticed how many lights are on the fuel gauge then fill up ,note the amount of gallons pumped vs how much the tank holds subtract the two and it gave me a good idea how deep I can run this car dry before I need gas.:tup:

Moi, aussi. So have a few others. The hard cornering doesn't make sense compared to running extremely low on fuel, running on vapour as they say, but people report these happenings. I don't see a car not starting showing three dots on the gauge unless its way off and requires calibration. I've gone to zero dots, fuel range reads "---" and still made it to a gas station. Took 69 liters to fill up.

:shakes head:

Any place under $4.89 for 93 is cheap.

Holy crap dude I'm paying $3.90 for 93 :tup:

Pretty much this exactly.

I've run my car pretty dry with 2 dots and less and here on Oahu we have some pretty long right handers as most the highway exits are loops that go back underneith. Trust me, i corner hard lol. No issues yet though.

I thing im gona have to run the tank down to 3 dots then turn on the REC button and proceed to take a Right hander in a spirited fashion :D

Eh, anyone that doesn't believe you will either never run into it or has it coming. :icon17:

All the cars have the same gas tank design, and the same risk present powering out of a right hander. You don't even have to experience it to see the risk

i must be one of those people that has it coming then lol I've definitely lived on the edge and have ran my tank all the way to dotted lines for distance remaining haha and all my exits on my drives home are right hand corners onto/off the parkways lol *fingers crossed*

I agree that the way the gauge is set up, if you're not aware of it, you can run short. What I don't understand is why, knowing this, owners continue to "run dry", and then complain about it. I've owned the car for a month, and can tell after filling it up that it's one of those fuel system designs (specifically how the gauge reads), that it takes about 75-100 miles before the first dot or two go out. What this then tells me is (get ready for the no-brainer) the gauge isn't an accurate reading of what's in my tank. I've figured when the gauge shows a half tank, I actually have around 1/3 (slightly more). I think it just gets exponentially worse from there.

That said, I make it a point to fill it up sooner than some other cars I've owned. We're getting the mileage out of a tank of fuel we should be getting at @ 19-25mpg w/ an 18 gallon tank. Stop believing that you have enough fuel to make extended tight right hand turns if you've got 2-3 dots......

Yea, the tank saddle may be a poor baffle design, but math is your friend here...

If anybody cares. Here are some pictures from inside the tank. I took these when I installed "phunk's" road race fuel pump. I know how the inside of the tank is set up. There is NO baffle between the left and right sides. ONLY front to rear, closer to the front. The driver's side could have 3 gallons over there, and the right side could be empty. And that's the side with the fuel pump. So you're pumping air. Our Z has 2 fuel sending units in the tank. Left side and right side. If you got fuel in the left side and empty on the right side. It will still read that you have fuel in the tank.

The 1st picture is from the left side looking right.
The 2nd picture is from the right side looking left.
The 3rd and 4th pictures are looking at the baffle from the right side. I had to bend it out of the way for clearance when i installed "phunk's" fuel pump.

I have been down to 1 dot and no dots like 30 times an never had an issue.

Ummm, how does the fuel pump ever use the remainder of the gas that is in the left portion? It doesn't, design is broken. Pump should have 2 pickups, each on either side of the tank!

There is a siphon tube that goes from the left side to the pump housing.

Means that the pump design is flawed, if it sees air in one section of the tank it will suck air and not the fuel that is remaining in the other section.