I've only had the car for 6 weeks but i have been driving it a lot. I've filling up 5 times and each time it only goes to 15-16 gallons. I was down to "23 miles" on the computer and it was very close to the E on the gauge. My last car would go down to 23 miles and only have 1 gallon or less left...not 4 or 5.

Should I have it looked at or is this normal? I didn't think much of it but after the exact same full ups, maybe my gauge is off?

 

If you have 4 or 5 gallons in a 20 gal tank you would be closer to 1/4 tank not very close to E. Searching the Internet in general or nissan's website would help you find out if it's 20 gals or not. If I had to guess I'd say it's 18.5 gal(5th gen size). If you were " very close" to E and you put in 15-16 gal and the fact that gas expands making it difficult to completely fill up then I doubt it's 20 gal... Gas doesn't expand that much.

 

according to all literature...7th gens have a 20 gal US measure, 16.625 gal Imp Measure and 75.6 Liter fuel tank

 

These cars, 6th gen too, have a 4 gallon reserve once you hit "empty". You can usually go another 40 miles once the light comes on, but the last thing you want to do is get the fuel pump assembly in the tank above the fluid line...could be a costly repair from what I've read.

The most I've ever ran it down, the fillup was about 18.5 gallons...since that one time I'll only push it past about 17g...

 

I usually put in +/- 17.5 gallons per fill. The most I ever put in was 19, so yes it is a 20 gallon tank.

I have noticed that when it gets to about 15-16 gallons the pump will auto shut off. If I wait a few seconds, I can almost always add another 1-2 gallons. It seems like it takes some time for the fuel to get out of the filling tube.

 

it has only let me put in 15 gallons on 3 fillups when the gas gauge is on E

 

for some reason i always thought it had a 18gallon tank

 

the window sticker on the max reads 20 gallon tank

 

the tank is 20 gallons...i fill up when there is pretty much nothing left...when it shows "---" on mileage left

 

I always thought it was 18 gallons, thanks guys now I'm gonna want to push it longer before filling up.

however, I just pulled 265 miles with just barely over half a tank of usage. Not bad.

 

The tank itself I am betting is 20 gallons but the fuel lines and fill-up tube adds to that number. The DTE readout is very conservative. I use a program that connects my iphone to the OBD and it gives me a more accurate readout. I tested it a few weeks ago to see. When the car was reading "---", the program was telling me I still had 82 miles 'til empty. So I drove another 45 miles and still no stopping but I wasn't carrying any extra fuel so I didn't want to push my luck too much. When I filled it up, it took 20.23 gallons.

 

Which app are you using?

 

This is good news. I was on the way to pick up my sister and it is a 100mile round trip. I got off the highway to fill up and now that I know this, actually could have made it easily. Good info for road trip planning.

I would like to know the app you are using also.

 

^ Nominated for best post of this thread.

The tank is definitely 20 gallons, but Nissan has the displays set to strongly encourage refills when there are four to six gallons left in the tank. This was the case with the 6th gen also. Why does Nissan do this?

#1 - To keep the fuel pump from overheating. The fuel pump is in the gas tank, at the bottom of the tank. It needs to be immersed in fuel to prevent overheating. If we burn it out, getting it replaced is not cheap.

#2 - To reduce the chances of running out of gas, which, in this car, could result in, among other things, having to replace the catalytic converter, a $395 to $900 job, depending on where you get it done.

Trying to get more mileage from a tank of gas is meaningless. Our MPG is totally independent of 'how many miles we get from a tankful.' The lower we drain the tank, the more gas is required to refill it. Our MPG stays the same, whether we refill when the tank is half empty or totally empty.

Even without these potential problems from trying to use all but the last gallon before refilling, common sense tells us it is very foolish to wait until almost out of gas to refill. I was not born with that much common sense, but 63 years of driving has taught me the hard way.

Just one example - Scurrying across western Texas in the late 1950s enroute from Maryland to Los Angeles, I knew I had enough gas to reach Odessa, so did not fill up at Big Spring. I reached Odessa with the needle near empty. There had been a storm, and Odessa was without power. Without power, the gas pumps don't work. I had to spend the rest of that day (cold crackers for supper - restaurants closed when power went out), that night (in a motel without heat or warm water) and half the next day sitting in Odessa before power was restored and I could proceed. All because I very foolishly let my tank get near empty.

I could tell you about desperately searching back roads at 1AM in rural West Virginia, backtracking over 60 miles in eastern Montana, getting stuck in the snow without enough gas to keep the motor working (and the heater running) in western Tennessee, etc, etc, all because I ran my tank low before looking to refill.

Letting the tank get below 1/4 full before refilling is nothing more than an ego trip that proves nothing. I would strongly encourage everyone here to avoid the stupid mistakes I have made over the years and refill when the tank is still 1/4 full. That is the least you can do for your family.

 

The DTE is also determined by your current gas mileage.

 

MaxLoverAz

I am using DashCommand. Cool app that lets you create a new dashboard in which you can have it give you a multitude of different information.

 

I love your posts.

 

Thanks, Ghozt. I learned my lessons the hard way.

On a trip from Ft Monmouth, New Jersey to Sierra Vista, Arizona back in the 1950s, I had a blowout late on a cold night in Arkansas. In looking at the tire, I had worn perfectly concentric ovals through all four plies, right down to the inner tube, which then exploded (tires were all 4 ply with inner tubes back then; no belts and no radials).

Had I so much as glanced at that tire in the month leading up to the trip, the situation would have been obvious. But I had never bothered to check the tires. At the time of the blowout, the trunk was packed as full as I could get it, and everything had to be taken out to get to the spare. And the spare tire was around 20 psi, which was barely enough to get me to a service station without damaging the spare. I was lucky, in that the blowout did not cause a wreck, and it was not raining or snowing.

That was worse than the time I drove to the top of Mule Pass, Arizona (between Bisbee and Tombstone), so I could straddle a big ditch there and change my oil. I drained all the old oil into the ditch (as was the custom back then), removed the filter, then opened the trunk and realized the new oil and filter was still back at the house.

As I said, I learned everything the hard way. By the time I reach age 100, I should be fairly smart.

 

LOOL

 

Ive been the guy to run out of gas. I thought I could ride all day on the --- but I was wrong. It was not like the last car where I could ride for 1/2 day in town and not even bother with it. I had one of my employes meet me with 5gal of gas and went to the gas station and put in just over 15 gal. First time running out of gas in a car. Only had her fro 2 months. Lesson learned.

 

I've had my 2010 Maxima for about 4 months and usually fill up when there is about 40 miles left on range and it is usually right at the 16.5 range- so I could go ALOT longer-

 

But if you read my post of 12-21, you will find a lot of good reasons why you would be very smart to never do that.

We can drop to around a gallon or two left before we risk damage to our car, but that still leaves us stranded in such events as a power outage (gas station pumps don't work without electricitry) or if we get stuck in a snowstorm and don't have enough fuel to keep the motor running so we can use the heater to keep from freezing to death.

Nissan thought this through very carefully before determining the point at which we should refill. We are playing it smart and playing it safe when we fill the tank when the gauges tell us to.