Fuel gauge/"miles to empty" question

jbennett · 08-19-2005, 02:10 PM

I've only had my '04 Titan for about a month now (build date 11-03) and I still can't figure out the fuel gauge and "miles to empty" display. First problem was the gauge would never read "full", I'm used to my vehicles going over the "full" mark and this just didn't seem like it was getting a full tank of gas. Dealer changed the sending unit, but it still doesn't seem right. Anyone had a problem with not being able to fill up their tank. I know the new Mustangs had a problem with their tanks, they would only fill up to 3/4 full and stop, I forget what the problem was, but it required a new fuel tank. Has anyone seen this with the Titan??

Also, does the "miles to empty" display tell you how much fuel is left until your low fuel light comes on or is it referring to how far you can go until your tank is actually empty? The reason I ask is because I usually don't run below 1/4 tank, but I wanted to see how far I could go before the light came on and how much it would take to fill the tank from that point. Well, the gauge was at about an 1/8 full and the "miles to empty" said about 30 miles, I didn't want to go any farther, so I filled the tank, it took just over 19 gallons, the pump stopped and I kept putting more gas in, I got a little over a gallon in before stopping, the gauge still didn't quite read full. What's going on here? Anyone have a similar problem or can anyone tell me what the "miles to empty" light really refers to?

**P's Titan** · 08-19-2005, 02:17 PM

I don't know what the "miles to empty" thing is but I have never had a accurate fuel gauge. Mine is 1/4 off, my gauge will show 1/4 but I have a half tank in there. My fuel light will come on with 7-8 gallons left in the tank. Nissan did replace the sending unit but that still didnt fix the prob.

I have read on here people having problems with the gauge not showing full or taking a long time to show its full

KTMNealio · 08-19-2005, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbennett

I've only had my '04 Titan for about a month now (build date 12-03) and I still can't figure out the fuel gauge and "miles to empty" display. First problem was the gauge would never read "full", I'm used to my vehicles going over the "full" mark and this just didn't seem like it was getting a full tank of gas. Dealer changed the sending unit, but it still doesn't seem right. Anyone had a problem with not being able to fill up their tank.

Mine was like that and I told the dealer. They recalibrated my sending unit and its fine now.
- AKN

keiffers · 08-19-2005, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbennett

I've only had my '04 Titan for about a month now (build date 11-03) and I still can't figure out the fuel gauge and "miles to empty" display. First problem was the gauge would never read "full", I'm used to my vehicles going over the "full" mark and this just didn't seem like it was getting a full tank of gas. Dealer changed the sending unit, but it still doesn't seem right. Anyone had a problem with not being able to fill up their tank. I know the new Mustangs had a problem with their tanks, they would only fill up to 3/4 full and stop, I forget what the problem was, but it required a new fuel tank. Has anyone seen this with the Titan??

Also, does the "miles to empty" display tell you how much fuel is left until your low fuel light comes on or is it referring to how far you can go until your tank is actually empty? The reason I ask is because I usually don't run below 1/4 tank, but I wanted to see how far I could go before the light came on and how much it would take to fill the tank from that point. Well, the gauge was at about an 1/8 full and the "miles to empty" said about 30 miles, I didn't want to go any farther, so I filled the tank, it took just over 19 gallons, the pump stopped and I kept putting more gas in, I got a little over a gallon in before stopping, the gauge still didn't quite read full. What's going on here? Anyone have a similar problem or can anyone tell me what the "miles to empty" light really refers to?

I used to have an issue with my fuel gauge going all the way to "F" when I did a fill-up. It would be filled fully, just the gauge only showed it to be at 3/4 full. I showed it to my dealership and of course when they filled up the tank, it went right to "F" without a problem, so they couldn't recreate the problem. It only did this for about maybe 5 or 6 tanks and then started going to "F" everytime. My service advisor told me to watch it and if it started stopping at 1/2 tank then they would try and address it, but as I said it stopped after 5-6 tanks and all is fine now.

never heard of the miles to empty light as I have an SE and only have the normal light show up on the dash when the gauge is near "E". You must have an LE with the screen display on the middle of the dash. I would assume though that the "Miles to Empty" display would be just that - how far it is until the tank is dry, not how far until the 'light' comes on on the dash. You just need to address it with your service department then to find out if there is a problem with the fuel sending unit, and as someone mentioned if the FSU needs to be recalibrated.

baseballfanz · 08-19-2005, 03:35 PM

I don't think the Nissan have a "mile to empty" feature or maybe with the Navigation I'm not sure. I drove a Jeep Cherooke Laredo rental and it had a digital display that would tell me how many "miles to empty". Don't really trust it as the needle was on E but it shows I had 80 miles to empty. I just filled it up anyway (didn't want to get stuck in the mountain)

Vector · 08-19-2005, 03:45 PM

Mine is another candidate for recalibration. When the gas gage reads 1/4 tank, I only have to put 14 gallons in her to fill her back up. For a 28-gallon tank that is a bit of a miss on gage calibration. There should be 28 usable gallons in the Titans tank, with a 3-gallon reserve. The manufacturers never state that there is a reserve in the tank, but I have never seen a car built without one.

With the Navigation there is a miles to empty feature, mine only goes up to 228 miles on a full tank and then counts down from there. Its as inaccurate as the gage is.

jbennett · 08-19-2005, 03:47 PM

I have an LE with the entertainment system and GPS, it has a miles per gallon and miles to empty display for the trip computer. I have a hard time believing my low fuel light wouldn't come on as I only had 30 miles to empty according to the computer. I just need to figure out what is going on, I don't trust my computer or my fuel gauge, it's been almost on empty and I've never put more than 20 gallons in the tank, something isn't working properly. As I said, they already changed the sending unit, didn't help, what is it that they recalibrate? If it has anything to do with the sending unit then mine was already done.

Is there a possibility that if you have the miles to empty readout that you wouldn't have the low fuel light??? I don't think this would be the case, but who knows...

**P's Titan** · 08-19-2005, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbennett

I have an LE with the entertainment system and GPS, it has a miles per gallon and miles to empty display for the trip computer. I have a hard time believing my low fuel light wouldn't come on as I only had 30 miles to empty according to the computer. I just need to figure out what is going on, I don't trust my computer or my fuel gauge, it's been almost on empty and I've never put more than 20 gallons in the tank, something isn't working properly. As I said, they already changed the sending unit, didn't help, what is it that they recalibrate? If it has anything to do with the sending unit then mine was already done.
Is there a possibility that if you have the miles to empty readout that you wouldn't have the low fuel light??? I don't think this would be the case, but who knows...

In response to what I underlined in your response, dont take there word for it that it is fixed. They said the same thing on mine and it still doesn't work.

*WindsorFox* · 08-19-2005, 05:08 PM

I had a DTE reading on my Murano, it was never correct.

jbennett · 08-19-2005, 05:19 PM

Quote:

In response to what I underlined in your response, dont take there word for it that it is fixed. They said the same thing on mine and it still doesn't work.

You're exactly right!!!! I know it's not fixed, but it did have "the fix" done, obviously not the right "fix". Just talked to the service manager and I'm supposed to drop my truck off again on monday for this and about 9 other issues, 5 of which have already been "fixed"!!!!! Or so the dealer says... Service manager said he's seen part of my problem on the frontier where the fuel tank wouldn't vent properly making it very difficult to fill the tank past 3/4 full (same issue with the mustangs I talked about earlier), but this doesn't explain why the gauge reads empty and the low fuel light doesn't come on, is it really empty??? Maybe the sender for the light is malfunctioning, who knows, hopefuly they'll figure something out though.

**P's Titan** · 08-19-2005, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbennett

You're exactly right!!!! I know it's not fixed, but it did have "the fix" done, obviously not the right "fix". Just talked to the service manager and I'm supposed to drop my truck off again on monday for this and about 9 other issues, 5 of which have already been "fixed"!!!!! Or so the dealer says... Service manager said he's seen part of my problem on the frontier where the fuel tank wouldn't vent properly making it very difficult to fill the tank past 3/4 full (same issue with the mustangs I talked about earlier), but this doesn't explain why the gauge reads empty and the low fuel light doesn't come on, is it really empty??? Maybe the sender for the light is malfunctioning, who knows, hopefuly they'll figure something out though.

Yea I'm in the same boat, I'm kinda like it being off so I will never run out of gas...

jbennett · 08-24-2005, 09:26 PM

I think I may have the answer for the fuel gauge readout. Been talking to my service manager and Nissan Technical Info about the problem and the verdict is basically that you just learn to live with it!!!!! The tank is designed in such a way that the gauge reads empty when there are still 6-8 gallons left and the computer for the miles to empty or distance to empty on the Nav system gives you an estimate for how much fuel is left until the low fuel light comes on, so the readout will go to zero miles and the low fuel light will come on meaning that your empty, but you really have 6-8 gallons left, kind of a reserve I guess, just a little confusing if you go off the computer telling you that you are empty. I tested this tonight as I finally got my low fuel light to come on and the readout read "***" which means you have no miles to empty, I guess their idea of empty is the reserve capacity when the low fuel light comes on.

The computer really isn't that accurate so I've decided that it really has no benefit and I'll just fill up around the 1/4 tank level and should be fine. By the way, I pulled into a gas station within a 1/4 mile after the low fuel light came on and the tank took 20.3 gallons and I forced another 1.2 gallons after the pump shut off, so that gives me a good 7 or 8 gallons once the light comes on. Always nice to know when out in the middle of nowhere when gas stations are 50 miles apart... Hope this helps other people with this problem, you basically just have to learn to deal with it, that's the design of the tank and gauge...

**HudsonValleyTitan** · 08-24-2005, 09:37 PM

There is an issue with the fuel guage on early Titans. The dealer has no way of "recalibrating" it (unless they can calibrate the DTE feature on NAV equipped trucks)....they replace the entire unit. I had mine replaced a while back because it never read full.

rcantu · 08-24-2005, 09:45 PM

I had the fuel sender replaced too because it wasn't reading full and low fuel light was turning on way early. now it's fine.

jbennett · 08-24-2005, 09:54 PM

I also had my sending unit replaced because it wouldn't read full. It seems to actually get to the full mark now, but it only stays there for a few miles, I'm used to having it above the full mark and stay for about 60-80 miles. I have a '94 GMC K2500 with a big block, gets about 10 mpg towing and it reads full for the first 80 miles, only problem is once you get to 1/2 full it starts dropping like a rock!!!! Similar problem to Titans, only the reverse, it reads full too long, Titans don't read full long enough.

As long as I know how the gauge works I can adjust to it, I don't expect it to be perfect, but it would be nice to get close. My main problem is that the Nav display tells you that you're empty when you really have 8 gallons left, now that I know this it's not such a problem, I just wanted to know how the system worked. It took three trips to the dealer, getting the manager involved on the last trip and also getting Nissan Technical Support involved to figure it out!!!! Would've just been nice to have been told this the first time around and been done with it.

Still love the Titan though, best truck I've ever owned, too bad they don't have any 3/4 or 1 tons yet, I still have to keep my GMC K2500 to haul my camper and toys for now... Hopefully I'll move into a larger Nissan if they decide to build one, I'll wait for a 2nd or 3rd year production model, maybe I won't have all the problems I have with my 1st year Titan!!! Born 11/03...