craigsager

I put in 55-60 miles in one day after filling up the tank completely. No way should it be full still. I didn't top off my tank at the pump either. Is there a way to reset the fuel gauge?

AdvanSLF

Cars are like that. From my 99 camry to my 04 rsx and is350. It won't deplete drastically as you would expect. After your 60 mile trip if you turn the vehicle off a few hours, drive it again but just idle a little you'll see it goes down.

craigsager

What do you mean it's like that? Driving 60 miles, that's roughly 2.5 gallons of gas. I expect my gas indicator to be accurate and not show full when it's not. We're not talking about it's only moving a little. It's not moving period from full.

toyotatom

It seems like every car I ever owned has stayed reading full for 40 to 60 miles of driving after filling. The IS is no different stays reading full for around 60 miles before starting to drop down.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

the fuel tank isnt a perfectly uniform shape for the gauge to go down linearly. Gauge goes down slow in the beginning but faster near the end. All the cars I ever drove were like this.

AdvanSLF

what has been your history with cars? i mean that in a non-offending way, just curious to know what cars you've experienced/driven. i don't know if its a japanese car thing, but every japanese car i've had has done this.. the needle won't go down after driving 50 miles.. i'll get in the car the next one or two times and all of a sudden my needle dropped like a less than a quarter of an inch, then i though wtf, my last trip was only 5 miles?!?! like the others has said, its not uniform or perfect so there's gotta be some variance in there.

also when your car or any car's gas needle hits the last line, with the empty light on, do you think there's really no gas? of course not, there's a small reserve left to get you going at least another 5 or so miles.

ancpratt

I'm driving an IS 250 F-Sport and the fuel gauge is digital. I too have been experiencing this issue where the fuel level read-out is not a real-time indication. I find that no matter how much gas I have in the tank (not just when it's full), I have to turn the car off then back on to "reset" the fuel gauge. Once I do that, the level drops quite a bit on the indicator to reflect the true amount of gas in the tank at the time.

I feel the fuel level indicator may work in a similar way to how the TPMS air pressure sensors work. They're just not very accurate in a real-time fashion. Those along with the fuel sensor probably only send level updates to the ECU once every periodic time; not constantly.

ancpratt

Also, I just purchased my IS 250 3 weeks ago and traded in my 2007 Camry Hybrid for it. I absolutely love the IS but my only regret is how much gas the IS guzzles. I was so used to getting 40 MPG in the Camry Hybrid and now can only squeeze a max of 20 MPG out of the IS so far. So when I see the gas in my IS at a certain level on the guage, turn the car off then back on later only to see it has dropped a bunch more to reflect the true amount... that upsets me even more!

redcupr

Mine did the same thing one time. I filled it, and drove 105 miles before the gauge moved one pixel. It then dropped pretty quickly over the next 50 miles or so until it caught up to where it was supposed to be.

I've also had the opposite happen. Filled the car and the gauge didn't go up for a few miles, at which time I could watch it rise to full in the matter of few seconds.

I was going to talk to Lexus about the issue but it hasn't done it again.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

when you fill up a tank you are nearly submerging the tank float that shows the car the level of the tank. For the float to even start moving down you have to use a few gallons. And the reason why it drops faster towards the end of the tank is because its on a swing arm and the arm moves more towards the end of the tank than it does in the beginning.

smardav

This is awesome!

AdvanSLF

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!! just reminded me of a conversation i had with a friend.

me in the IS350, he in the camry hybrid,
me getting 20 mpg, he getting 40 mpg,
me having to drive 60 miles, 3 hours a day r/t,
he having to drive 10 minutes 5 miles away
me kicking his *** after he said that lol.

ancpratt

Ha ha ha!!! I hope you kicked his *** on the road too by blowing his Camry away!

craigsager

I've driven only Japanese-made cars, (Honda, Toyota, Acura), but the fuel gauges were all analog. I don't recall ever driving 60 miles and the gauge stays at full. But yeah my fuel gauge started moving this morning on my way to work and it's dropping pretty fast so I'm sure you're right.

I know fuel gauges aren't accurate when a car is in motion due to the "slushing" of the gas in the tank. I've always been able to observe a linear depletion of my gas so it was easy to estimate how many miles I have left before I have to refill. If the IS250 isn't linear, that'll mean I'll have to play on the safe side and refill early.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

just fill up when the light comes on. F Sport gauges have many increments as well as many pixels to show you a very good resolution of fuel remaining so it would update very frequently.

Be glad its not like the 370Z fuel indication which is the worst I've ever seen. 16 illuminated dots to indicate from F to E, so basically 1 gallon per dot. However you have no idea how much you have in between each dot so you could be at the beginning of the gallon or at the end of the gallon. Also you cant tell how much gas is left after all lights go off, assuming that thats the reserve 2.5 gallons of the 18.5 gallon tank. Are you at the beginning of the 2.5 gallon reserve or at the end? Use the estimated range display you say? When the estimated range goes below 35 miles it displays a "---" instead of a number. Combine this with no dots left and you have no idea how much gas you may have left. But wait theres more. The dots wash out in bright sunlight so you cant see it. So most 370Z owners just fill up at 1/4 tank remaining just to be safe and not get into this unknown area.

http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/370z/2...uel-gauge.html