Distance Till Empty

[Dakota4791]

Does anyone else have trouble with the DTE?

Mine goes until about 50 miles left...and then it just becomes blinking dashes ---It seems like it's kind of pointless, if you don't know what the "distance till empty" is.

Am I missing something?

[vox]

Mine did that the other day as well ... there were still two bars left on fuel gauge. Not sure what to make of it, other than I did head straight for the gas station.

[jaywhiz21]

Does anyone else have trouble with the DTE?

Mine goes until about 50 miles left...and then it just becomes blinking dashes ---It seems like it's kind of pointless, if you don't know what the "distance till empty" is.

Am I missing something?

From the manual:

The display is updated every 30 seconds.The dte mode includes a low range warningfeature. If the fuel level is low, the warning isdisplayed on the screen.When the fuel level drops even lower, the dtedisplay will change to “——”.

[Dakota4791]

It just seems odd... if it's got 50 miles till empty, you've got plenty of gas. Then it goes to ---.If you keep track, you can figure out how many miles you have, approximately, but it still seems like it's worthless to say ---.I don't really need to know I have 400 miles till empty, but I definitely want to know if I only have 10.

[Etch]

It's probably saying you shouldn't be relying on the gas gauge anymore if it is that low. Gas guages are not perfect and don't always reflect the correct amount of gas.

In otherwise, it's telling you to get gas now!! lol

[Dakota4791]

It's probably saying you shouldn't be relying on the gas gauge anymore if it is that low. Gas guages are not perfect and don't always reflect the correct amount of gas.

In otherwise, it's telling you to get gas now!! lol

I guess it's just me...I don't think having 50 miles left is "get gas now!" Having it go to --- doesn't tell you if you have 50 miles left or 5. It's just frustrating, that's all...

[rsm]

I feel your pain. I haven't gotten there yet... but that does kinda suck. you could always reset either trip A or B at that point and count up to 50. but again.... kinda sucks.

[rogueish]

It's probably saying you shouldn't be relying on the gas gauge anymore if it is that low. Gas guages are not perfect and don't always reflect the correct amount of gas.

In otherwise, it's telling you to get gas now!! lol

We can put men on the moon, but can't make a gas gauge that isn't perfect? I don't see the complexity in that.

[Etch]

We can put men on the moon, but can't make a gas gauge that isn't perfect? I don't see the complexity in that.

The problem is that fuel is a liquid and moves around making an accurate calculation of remaining fuel impossible. When you accelarate, brake, make turns, etc, the gas is forced to one side of the tank and the device that measures how much fuel is usually a float. Now I don't know if the computer makes adjustments to compensate for such things, but I'm guessing Nissan doesn't want to deal with claims from customers that they ran out of gas when the computer said they had 5 miles left. In other words, they're probably just covering their butts by not letting the computer estimate fuel remaining after it gets down to a certain level.

[Dakota4791]

It's not even new technology - a lot of other cars have it, and it counts down to 0. If it doesn't count down the last 50 miles, what's the point of it? You want to know when you're close to empty, right?

[Jaded TC]

Happened to me today, but I got to 30 miles before it quit. I also made a stop and turned the engine off and back on, that's when it started flashing--- Were you guys constantly driving when it started flashing? As for resetting the trip, I could only read mine if I pushed the button and it would show for about a second and went back to flashing. I trusted the 2 bars I had left on the gauge and still had over a gallon left when I finally stopped for gas.

[Ticmxman]

It's probably saying you shouldn't be relying on the gas gauge anymore if it is that low. Gas guages are not perfect and don't always reflect the correct amount of gas.

In otherwise, it's telling you to get gas now!! lol

I fully agree with you Etch. Would you guys rather run out of gas because the warning indicated 50 miles and you actualy had 25 or less and ran out of gas before you found a gas station or would you rather be on your on at 50-30 miles. IMO when you run that low you shouldn't depend on any DTE calculation and as Etch said Nissan is probably covering itself from any litigation by having it setup this way.

[mmyye]

when my car filled up, it shows 284 miles (dte) is that normal? sl awd

[Iridiman]

The estimated distance to empty is a very simple system. it multiples approximate tank capacity times recent average fuel consumption (as "calculated" by the computer). If the computer thinks you are getting about 20 mpg, this would be an expected number. My computer thinks I am getting 27 mpg (I'm not quite that good with my awd sl) so it guesses I have almost 390 miles to empty on a full tank. As I drive, the estimated number of miles to empty is updated in a non-linear fashion as my fuel consumption per mile varies. As I near the end of the tank, it skips around a bit.

We expect computers to give us precise and accurate numbers. This system is much less sophisticated than that. If you drive like you have an egg between your foot and the accelerator, it rewards you with a larger estimated fuel economy number and a larger estimated distance to empty number after a fill.

[Jaded TC]

[Ticmxman]

Oh man! And I understand both your and Iridimans point.

[cpca]

Personally, I agree with Nissan's decision. The vast majority of drivers are not as sensible as the members of this forum. If the DTE display counted down to 10 or 5 or 0, there would be a bunch of idiot drivers intentionally delaying a pit stop until the last minute (one more trip to the mall, two more freeway exits, etc.), because they believe the gauge can magically compute the DTE to the last centimeter. Then they inconvenience themselves and others by running out of gas, and try to blame the car. In winter conditions, the consequences could be worse ...

[Dakota4791]

If you're 20 miles from home and it's 3 a.m., I'd like to know that I have plenty of gas to get there rather than having to stop at some scary gas station in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night..... or, if no stations are open, know that I don't have to worry about it until the morning.

[Etch]

Again, even if it did tell you had 20 miles left, you shouldn't rely on it. It's an estimate that really can't be considered accurate. You really don't want to be running out of gas on a fuel injected car. You run the risk of clogging the injectors.

My advice, don't be somewhere at 3AM 20 miles from home if you are that low on gas. Fill up before then. I always fill up when I get down to 1/4 tank. I do that to make sure I have plenty of gas to get where I need to in any emergency situation and also to make sure I don't run out of gas and get the injectors clogged.

[websfear]

I wouldn't even want to run what is in that tank for the last 20 mile. Probably ok for a new car, but eventually there is a lot of gunk at the bottom of the tank.

[Etch]

I wouldn't even want to run what is in that tank for the last 20 mile. Probably ok for a new car, but eventually there is a lot of gunk at the bottom of the tank.

Yeah it's best to not let your fuel run too low.

I've only run out of gas once in my life and that was in my Mach 1 when the fuel gauge wasn't working.

[Ticmxman]

I hope this topic is about out of gas.

[Derango]

Can't tell...the gauge keeps flashing "---"

[Etch]

Can't tell...the gauge keeps flashing "---"

LMAO good one.

[Ticmxman]

So who's going to push the envelope when the DTE at 50 miles to go starts flashing. Who's going to reset the trip meter to zero and try to get every last mile they can before refueling. I suppose if they run out of gas after 40 more miles they will have a problem with Nissan's DTE system after all they came up 10 miles short. Sometimes you just can't win.

[corner49]

I still think it's dumb. Most auto makers combat the stupidity by making 0 not really 0. In my Lincoln I've gotten to 1 twice and 0 once, and the car never missed.

I've made a lot of trips up and down I95. And a lot of trips home on leave (In the military you get away when you can). 1800 mile trip, 300 mi/tank, If I stop every 300 mi. I gotta fill up 6 times, I cut those 50 miles off, it's up to 8. That's at least an hour of drive time, like I said, in the military, my time off is precious.

[Etch]

I still think it's dumb. Most auto makers combat the stupidity by making 0 not really 0. In my Lincoln I've gotten to 1 twice and 0 once, and the car never missed.

I've made a lot of trips up and down I95. And a lot of trips home on leave (In the military you get away when you can). 1800 mile trip, 300 mi/tank, If I stop every 300 mi. I gotta fill up 6 times, I cut those 50 miles off, it's up to 8. That's at least an hour of drive time, like I said, in the military, my time off is precious.

Here's hoping you don't push the envelope too much, because if you are that tight on time, you might not want to take a chance running out of gas. I'm pretty sure that will cost you a lot of time walking down the highway looking for a gas station.

The Rogue can get 400 miles on one tank, so I'm not sure why you are filling up at 300 miles anyway.

And I was in the military too..