OK... Filled up the gas tank and drove home. Next day wife drove X Trail. Following day when I came to drive the vehicle the fuel gauge was reading below half. Went to fill her up and she only needed a quarter tank of gas even though she was reading below half.

Monitored fuel gauge next couple of days and noticed that one moment it would be almost full and soon after it would be below half full. Back and forth ever so often.

WHAT IS WRONG HERE???

Hiya Having the same problem.Can turn ignition on and fuel light can come on.Turn off and back on and then shows half full.Believe there is a answer to this on the Forum..shall have a look.Could be the float sticking.Regards Barry

Hello McArthurStudios / other Members,

I know that this is not the same as your description of how your X-Trail`s Fuel gauge seems to be very inaccurate sometimes but this is something that I just cannot understand about my X-Trail`s gauge:

As some Members might remember because I used to drive my X-Trail very infrequently I used to regularly run it while parked for 20 to 30 minutes to keep the Battery charged and while I was doing that I also ran the Air Conditioning to keep the system lubricated etc.

Every time I did this the Fuel gauge would be very noticeably lower than when I started the car and even when I turn off the Air Con - lift off the accelerator and leave the Engine idling for a few minutes the gauge does not go back up to where it was when I started the Engine.

By `very noticeably lower` I mean that You would probably normally see a similar difference after driving for 30 or 40 miles !

No amount of time left idling will get the gauge back to anywhere near where it was at the starting of the Engine but when I leave the car until the next day and check again the Fuel gauge is back to where it originally was before the very noticeable drop.

I first noticed this some years ago when I had a full tank of Petrol - topped up to maximum - a few squirts after the Full indication on the Petrol pump - I ran the X-Trail for about 20 or 30 minutes to keep the Battery charged and had the Air Conditioning turned on to keep the system lubricated etc. - I glanced at the Fuel gauge and it was about 3mm lower than the bottom of the `Full` line - it had started with the needle at the top of the `Full` line.

When I described running my X-Trail like this in another thread I was advised by one of our very knowledgeable Members Avocet that this was a very bad thing to do so I have stopped doing it and now have to drive the car much more regularly just to keep the Battery charged and the Air Con system lubricated / working.

At present my X-trail`s driver`s door window is not working [£670.odd to repair at Nissan Service Centre] - this is the second Summer since it malfunctioned - so I have had to use the Air Conditioning for every trip - obviously that helps to keep the system lubricated etc. but it does look like it adds a lot of Fuel usage when I look at the gauge ?

Sorry that this is `Off Topic` but as it does related to the X-Trail`s Fuel gauge I hope that You will forgive the deviation ?

Regards,

Chris

I do not fully understand. If you run the car for 20 or 30 minutes it will use some gas. As it is used so rarely it probably does not run as efficiently as it might otherwise. The fuel gauge is a rough indication of how much fuel you have.
In my opinion, over $1000 Cdn to fix a window switch or one that is off its tracks is way out of line. For this kind of thing, Dealer pricing has gone nuts. You probably have some corrosion on a contact, a broken wire, or an issue with how the window is sitting in the door. An independent mechanic and scrap yard parts for this will save you a small fortune.

Hello Quadraria,

Thanks for replying to my message.

The point that I was making about the Fuel gauge is that when I was running my X-Trail for 20 or 30 minutes with the Air Conditioning on the Fuel gauge needle dropped to about where I have previously seen it go to when I had a Full tank and then drove for approximately 30 or 40 miles.

Of course I know that running the Engine for 20 or 30 minutes would use some Petrol but not seemingly a similar amount to driving for 30 or 40 miles as the gauge shows - as far as I am concerned the difference in the gauge should be almost imperceptible ?

Regarding the Electric window malfunction - it is nothing related to the switch / corrosion or the glass stuck in the Window tracks - the Window motor has malfunctioned or the steel cable that runs through the Motor has shredded / stranded and got stuck in the Motor.

Although I have used a Nissan Main Dealer Service Centre for all of the work / servicing and MOT tests required on my X-Trail during the last 10 years I will not pay the £670.00 that they quoted to replace the Electric window regulator / Motor / Cable etc.

I am A Building Services Engineer / Heating, Plumbing & Gas Engineer so apart from suffering from a severe back problem which sometimes limits my mobility / bending etc. I am well capable of taking the Door card off and replacing the Window Regulator / Motor etc. but I have not been able to find those `Used Parts` in what seems to be `good condition` or a `reasonable price` online.

I have previously looked at online `Vehicle Breakers` / `Nissan Used Parts Specialists` for those items salvaged from another X-Trail but I have never found any adverts / listings that I was completely happy with.

I have seen new Regulators from Lithuania without the Motor - bent Regulators [obvious from the photos] - Motors that looked very dirty [badly removed and stored ?] or prices that were outrageous for `Used parts` / compared to other listings or for the Passenger door Window Regulator.

Members often mention `Vehicle Breakers` / `Car Scrap Yards` and I agree that these are a VERY useful places in some parts of the country - but I live in South London and although 30 or 40 years ago there were plenty of those in the South London / London area since then the value of Land for building on has vastly increased and the land where most of those places were has long ago been built upon.

There are still a few `Car Breakers` in outlying areas of Greater London / Kent etc. but for some reason unless one lived locally or was recommended to some of them there is no advertising / no online listing or registered telephone numbers.

That type of operation is very more concerned with Scrapping the vehicles - they do strip the saleable parts but offer them on a `Drop in` basis - people go in and ask "have you got a starter motor for a ...... ........ ?"

I do not know / have never come across online a Vehicle Breaker / Car Scrap Yard anywhere within a reasonable distance from where I live that I could telephone to ask about `Nissan X-Trail Used Parts`.

Thanks again for your reply to my post - I wrote this long response because I wanted to explain the situation so that you knew exactly what I meant about the Fuel gauge and the Electric window.

Regards,

Chris

Thanks for the detailed answer, Chris. I was reading about the fuel level floats in the factory service manual, and one of the things that struck me is that the fuel level is an approximation. I have a 2006 T30 with the 2.5 and was parked a couple of weeks ago with the nose uphill and what I thought was a quarter tank of gas. After walking the dog for an hour, came back and the X would not start. Started rough when I backed up a bit to be on more level ground. Thought my fuel pump was on the way out, but it seems that my fuel level float can get stuck around the quarter-full mark, and either does not go down until I turn off the engine and restart and then low fuel light is on and the gauge at empty. The Nissan part prices for the parts here are crazy, and the X trail seems to be one of the rare models that you cannot get a reasonably priced complete assembly.
Anyhow I jumped the gun as I knew of someone selling a used unit that had tested good for $30 CDN and bought it just in case. However, I was wrong in thinking my pump was on the way out. I am tempted to install it and see if it fixes my minor gauge issue, but there is no rush, so I will keep it as a spare and try and make the quarter tank mark my new empty and time to fill.


I guess I am lucky that in the Ottawa region we have a number of Kenny U Pull parts yards where they let you pull the parts yourself and charge a very nominal fee. In the past couple of years, more X trails are showing up for picking. For stuff like a window or wiper motor, or my most recent get -- a daytime running light unit $8 instead of over $300, it makes a big difference in maintaining the car. It's nice to be able to pull and get small plastic bits that cost an arm and a leg through the dealer, and which you usually you have to wait for as they are special order.

Hello again Quadraria,

Thanks for your reply.

If You were to look through some of my previous posts you would see that I often go into a lot of detail when describing / explaining something where other Members might write just a paragraph or two - my messages on this thread are probably examples of that.

What I probably should have written is that I would not have expected the Fuel gauge needle to have moved enough for me to notice after running my X-Trail for 20 or 30 minutes.

If the Fuel gauge level detector is similar to a W.C. Cistern float valve [but smaller] I would expect the level indication to be incorrect when the X-Trail is parked or stopped on a slope / hill - also if it is constructed as a small float on an arm I guess that the arm could get stuck occasionally ?

Good luck with your X-Trail regarding the Gauge issue - I hope that it never causes you to run out of Fuel.

Regards,

Chris

I've seen similar fuel gauge issues on a rear wheel drive Cavalier. The fuel gauge on mine would drop slowly whilst you were driving. Then, if you stopped and turned the engine off for 30 minutes and restarted, the fuel gauge would drop by up to 1/4 of a tank.

I just do not fully trust the gauge anymore and every time I fill up I reset the trip mileage meter. I tend to fill up around the 350 km mark. I even swapped my fuel pump assembly with the float for another and it still behaves a bit strangely. I actually think the issue might be the dash indicator, but it hasn't been enough of an issue for me to dig into yet and figure it out.

In AUS we found the problem was the fuel sender printed circuit board being "dirty" from carbon buildup across some of the tracks and cleaning it fixed the problem.
Here is a link and hopefully you can see the pics.
https://baustralianxtrail.runboard.com/t129993,offset=0