As those who have been on maxima.org a dozen years or more will confirm, I have constantly harped on never letting the fuel tank drop below a quarter tank. I have given many, many reasons/examples of why this is important.

Here is yet another one.

During the evening rush hour in Atlanta Thursday evening, there arose a little fire under the viaduct that carries I-85 northeast out of downtown Atlanta. I-85 carries around 275,000 vehicles per day. Pretty soon, flames were reaching way above the viaduct. The flames were so intense that drivers in passing cars in both directions were saying it felt like their eyebrows were on fire. At that point, police and fire units closed the interstate in both directions. Thousands of vehicles were jammed up on both sides of the fire with no place to go.

And all the efforts of fire trucks (including foam trucks from Atlanta International Airport) were useless, and the fire grew larger and hotter. Eventually, a full span carrying all northbound lanes fell fifty feet to earth with a huge boom. By this time, every lane in both directions was backed up for many miles. It took hours to finally get all those thousands of cars turned around and going the wrong way to make their way to an exit. Some drivers were still arriving home around midnight.

That is except those who were low on fuel, some of whom ran out. They ran their car while sitting because they were hot. It was 85 degrees at ATL airport Wednesday, 86 down here at my place, and probably close to that Thursday. And we all know it is hotter on a busy jammed freeway than it is in surrounding areas. As nothing was being allowed back onto the freeway, those folks were left waiting for 'hero' trucks (they help disabled vehicles on Atlanta freeways) to organize and begin rescuing stranded motorists. Those will be the drivers who got home after 1 or 2 AM. Just another day on Atlanta freeways. . .

As I have harped on for so many years, do not let your gas fall below a quarter tank.

If things go well during inspections these next few days, the southbound section of I-85 could possibly reopen within a week or two (will be closed pending major inspection of several spans). Northbound? Closed indefinitely. It will be many months before that gigantic span of solid concrete with rebar can be rebuilt. Unfortunately, the fire was just south of the I-85 interchange with GA 400, so there is no good detour. Traffic will be a disaster in that area for months. The governor has declared a state of emergency.

Please gas up.

 

I can add to that too....we had A blizzard here in NY and I'm driving home from work and snow is coming down fast...... I'm on the highway and I notice lots of red lights so I slow down and get stuck behind many cars in traffic..... about a foot of snow if I had to guess at least was everywhere too maybe more and more coming down real fast .... so I hit lots of traffic and nobody is moving. SO I'm thinking accident ahead somewhere.....well half hour passes by and I move two car lengths....I'm thinking now I gotta get off at the next exit or I'm gonna be here forever....about an hour and 20 min passes and I finally make it to the exit ramp which is uphill to make matters worse
Then I look and theirs A van stuck that was going up the ramp and his whole van was on the side of the ramp in the grass stuck in some deep snow facing the opposite way .....felt real bad for the guy, so he's hitting the gas in reverse trying to get back on the ramp while many cars are getting stuck but at least staying on the ramp. Now I'm thinking if this dude gets traction the way he's hitting the gas he's gonna slam into all these cars, luckily he doesn't. So I see A suv make his own route on the grass and just go around all the stuck cars on the ramp, and I follow with my Michelin tires lol, My little 15 inch rims and nice all season tires go like A 4x4 by everyone....finally out of that mess....took regular streets home. Lesson learned tho.....imagine gas was low for some of those people I was thinking...nightmare.

 

What? There was a fire so intense it caused a bridge to literally collapse and you're advising people to always make sure they have MORE combustibles around them?

 

I will add also, my wife's 2016 Maxima actually runs out of gas when the needle hits 1/4 mark. Picking the car up today for the third time, they replaced all kinds of stuff. She is done with it and trading it on a 4-Runner.

 

thats crazy, ive let mine run to literally empty everytime, ~15 miles remaining. never had any issues

 

I am glad your gauge, like mine, is fairly accurate. That is important.

I would still encourage you to fill up when the fuel drops to a quarter tank. The fuel pump on the Maxima is inside the fuel tank, and depends on being immersed in gasoline at all times in order to not overheat and fail. And if we misjudge even one time and run out of fuel, our catalytic converter may no longer pass emissions inspection and need to be replaced, which can run almost to $1 grand at some dealerships. And if there is an area-wide power outage (we have those here in GA several times each year, usually in winter icing or spring and summer storms), then gasoline pumps do not work and we will have only what fuel may be in our tank.

At my advanced age, I have had many situations in which I would have been in serious trouble had I not had plenty of fuel in my vehicle. When younger, before I began fueling up well before empty, I had several very unfortunate situations by not having much fuel in my tank. I have related many of them here over the years. I prefer to not take unnecessary chances.

 

Just as info for those who may be travelling near Atlanta - The fire did more damage than expected to I-85, and three very heavy spans on the northbound side and three very heavy spans on the southbound side, as well as all supporting pillars on both sides, will have to be replaced. The early target date for completion if things go well is September. There are no viable detours. In the interim, as I found out the hard way Saturday, traffic all around Atlanta is now in terrible condition, with I-285 stop-and-go most of the way around the metro area, and many secondary and residential streets in total gridlock. Atlanta traffic has always been bad, and this fire proved to be the tipping point.

 

You will really "eat it" trading so soon. As suggested earlier, your trip meter/odometer works so why not pre emptively fill your tank @ say 250 miles traveled?. I just don't get running a car down to nearly out of gas before filling. I have been in the drivers seat since 1962 and have never run out of gas mainly because I always fill up at nearly every road stop. Things like snowstorms and road closures happen. You can never have too much gas on board!

Of course I agree that you fuel guage should be working and I hope that gets fixed since it is a rare issue your are saddled with. There aren't too many parts involved to get this working correctly. Meanwhile just fill up more often. Please let us know the outcome on the fix

 

Logic seems to escape you today....

 

I don't know if you answered this in the other thread, but did YOU observe the gauge on 1/4?

 

I'm listening to the breakfast club this morning and Charlemagne the God just gave donkey of the day to the guy that started the fire. I know it has nothing to do with the topic at hand but, It was a crack head. I can't make this **** up. I'm literally crying at work trying to keep my laughter down from everyone around me. Lawd I'm so glad I was on here yesterday and came across this post.