Low Fuel Warning
 

I bought my 370z Roadster in July, 2010. I get a low fuel warning that usually starts by saying that I have a 40 mile range left. After about a mile it drops to 25 miles left. By the time I hit the next mile, it "----" out as if I have no fuel left. Because of this, I have no real Idea when I will really run out of fuel. While I don't mind stopping and getting fuel once it says 40 miles left, I would hope it never happens when I am on the freeway with 5 or 10 miles to the next gas station.

Anyone else have this issue?

I never have the issue because I never allow the tank go below 1/4.

Its a problem for all Z's keep it above 50 and you'll do ok.

Don't go below a 1/4 tank if you can help it or you risk stalling mid corner due to fuel starvation thanks to the crappy pickup and tank baffle design.

That thing does basic math as well as a 2nd grader does calculus.

I've had it go to --- and filled up, only to have it take just under 18 gallons.

Ours did it last Friday. 25 miles it said we had left then went to ---- a few miiles later. Still had 2 dots (lights) off gas. Someone said it was a problem. Does anyone know what Nissan says? I like to run low once in a while to get water out.

Asian 2nd Grader or American 2nd Grader?

I keep mine above 1/4 of a tank.

Mine has done this a couple of times but you will be fine. I have driven on mine when it said '----' for 20 miles with no issue.

Mine came on Sunday night and said I had 35 miles left. I cleared the warning and there were two dots left on the meter. I drove probably about 25 miles after that and was still at one dot when I got to a gas station. Car took almost 19 gallons to fill!

Same issue with mine. I look for fuel once level drops to a quarter tank. I really dislike the cheesy gas gauge.

Close enough.
Mine went something like 42 mile range. 35 a minute later, then 29 to --. 12 miles later I needed 17.4 gallons. This is the only time I let the tank get low. I learned my lesson. :tup: I did have 42 miles of range.

I usually don't pay much attention to the "remaining miles" but to the actual number of remaining lighted dots on the meter... I would think that is more accurate than an ECU estimate of how many miles you can still go...

Our fuel gauges are awful..just all around poor execution by Nissan. Most of the time when my gauge reads completely empty, no dots and no miles left...I gas up and turns out I still had 6 gallons in the tank...its really frustrating.

:bowrofl:

lol. :D i too usually just pump gas when i pass the 1/4 tank mark.

ive had driven it down to when it does the countdown but i dont trust it much. plus i keep staring at it and so it's a distraction while driving. ;)

Your "remaining" range depends on how you drive the car over a long distance. It is calculated from an average and is not valid for only a short distance that is not necessarily representative of the average. Imagine if you are averaging 25miles/gallon on a long highway trip, then exit for the last 25 miles of your trip, with 25 miles on your "remaining" range you then have 1 gallon left. But now off the highway your mileage is only 12mpg, so you run out when the range still shows about 12 miles. I suspect Nissan doesn't want to be blamed if you run out when it still says 5 miles to go, so they blank it out, probably when you have something like 2 gallons left.

I know from personal experience that you can drive at 55 mph for 20 miles after your car tells you you have --- miles left. I think I had 1/2 gal. left at fill-up. I wouldn't rec. doing this, but I had no other options at the time.

:werd:

When that alert comes on the ugly yellow screen you'd think the car had blown its engine, or the country was under attack, or there was a sale at Harbor Freight!

Mexican actually

i agree gas gage is terrible in the 370. its beyond ugly i hate that yellow sign that pops up.. anyway at two dots mine says 50 miles left which drops fast
after that.. once without a choice i did drive about 30 miles with it at -----
but thats not a good idea!

That actually sounds about right. When you car tells you you're out of gas, you probably have a gallon and a half left. All cars are designed that way to prevent people from running out of gas all the time. One of the reasons I never fill up until the warning comes on.

The best running out of gas story ever was in college my friend and I were driving my '87 Integra to Lake Havasu. When you cross over from Colorado into Utah on I-70, you see a sign which literally reads "next services 110 miles". For some reason, I assumed that I had enough gas to make it. Finally ran out of gas 20 miles from the nearest town, up in the mountains. As luck would have it, I ran out right at the highest elevation. We pushed the car for about 50 feet, jumped in and coasted the car for 12 miles down the mountain. Then we had to hitch a ride the rest of the way.

Found out today that most of the new Nissan do the same in all modles.

You can say that again !
 

You are so right about the fuel starvation. The first time it happened, I didnt put two and two together. I had it towed to the dealer and on the way off the truck it started right up. So tonight on the way home from work I really lay into a long right handed on-ramp and half way through, there goes the power. So I'm sitting there on the side of the road like WTF, I take off the negative cable thinking a computer reset would fix it, but it didnt. So then a hgihway assistance truck pulls up and a dude jumps out and we talk about the problem and he asks, are you out of gas? I told him no way, I know for a fact that there's a 1/4 tank in it. So he puts a gallon in anyway, and the car starts right up.

Now, I can understand that maybe they put the pickup on the far right side of the tank and hard right turns starve the pump but, how come after the car was flat again it didnt prime itself? It needed 1 gallon of gas to reset? It just doesnt make sense... Could the baffles be keeping the fuel away from the pickup once it happens?

Anyway, I wont be letting her get below 1/2 tank again.

I'm just glad that I found someone else who has seen this.

:icon18: It freaks me out every time

happened to me too. i posted the same question sometime ago.

even when it flashes "---", there's still about 2 gallons left so good for another 30-40 miles.

i always drive until no dots left. I like to live on the adventure side.

i always wait for the "---" mark lol. I know its risky but It turned into a habbit

I have an Xterra that gets spazzed out over getting low on fuel. The Frontier I traded in had a trip computer that was actually pretty good with the math of "miles left to empty", but the guage itself would drop like a Japanese dive bomber once it went past 1/2 full heading towards empty. It seemed to take forever getting to half full, though. I think Nissan lets the dropouts do the engineering on fuel quantity on community outreach?

Yep that Commerce Cares van bailed my *** out too. It was an older guy wearing a Corvette jacket who was pretty friendly. Make sure you mail in that comment card so that they can keep the program running.

I've been reading a lot of posts on this, and i never have the same problems with my fuel gauge as anyone. I recently went on a trip to Florida and my fuel gauge came on saying I had around 40 miles till empty and it accurately went down each mile I drove. When it said ---, I pulled off on an exit and filled up with 18 gallons or so, which is about right. Assuming --- means you have about 1 gallon left. Only problem I've ever had with the fuel gauge is when I fill up sometimes the last dot doesnt light up, but a quick off, on reset fixes that. That would make me mad not knowing how many miles I have left.

Last Friday I went to go eat at a place that was about 25 miles away from home with a range of 78 miles left, at about the 64 mile range I got a warning light and decided to slow down from 80 to 70 on cruise control. Since practically the whole trip was on cruise control the range started going up and the light went away. I even got a couple of light bars back. When I was almost back home I had a range of 75 miles left.(Free trip!) Also when I filled up it had an estimated range of about 430 miles. I thought I was hot **** when my range read 370 the week before.

well get this one. once when I took a long trip I filled
up,every stupid orange dot was there. so I'm 200 miles
into my trip and not one dot has moved. So I'm thinking
great fuel Gage busted. so I pull over to take a leak
and when I start the car back up I'm down to less than a
half a tank. it's never happened again. Go figure

IIRC there's this one time when the --- came up right when I turned into a gas station. I filled up 68 Liters. So 18 gallons seems to confirm.

:tup: Serious question tho, what level of math does 2nd Graders in America learn?

Sticker shock. I normally refill at half a tank. Two weeks ago I got down low until it read 12 mile range. Only 17 gallons needed but a $73 price.

$4.29 a gallon there where you live near Mt Tamalpais?

I think you are right, but this still annoys me. If all cars ran out of gas exactly when you hit E, then people would just adapt and learn to fill up before that point. Plus, we would actually know how much f'ing gas is in there.

That was two weeks ago. I need to get some more today and will let you know if it still that cheap.

Stupid gas gauge!

A local friend just drove 30 miles beyond the --- and filled up with 18.964 gallons. How's that for cutting it close?

$4.42 today. but only 10.4 gal.