Long-term update: The curious case of the fuel gauge in our Nissan Patrol

Long-term update: The curious case of the fuel gauge in our Nissan Patrol

A few months ago, our Nissan Patrol LE went in for its mandatory bi-annual service. Yet again, we pointed out that the fuel gauge was showing wrong readings half the time. If you’ve read our past long-term updates, you’ll know this is an ongoing problem since we bought the car (although curiously, no other post-facelift Patrol owner seems to have this issue). This time, the service advisor blamed it on a low battery. Okay, we’ll play along and see what happens.

The battery had a partial warranty on it, since the warranty began in 2014 even though we purchased our 2014 Patrol brand new in 2016. That’s okay too. We paid Dhs 337 for the Panasonic battery, or 75% of the cost of the battery.

The service itself cost Dhs 900, which is reasonable for a 400 hp V8, considering the dealer service on our Toyota FJ Cruiser isn’t a whole lot less.

The dealer also “reset” the fuel gauge for the third time since we bought the car (which means once every service), and handed us the car back. The car drives great, except that the fuel gauge was showing wrong readings again by the next day. So we still rely on the trip computer on the central LCD to figure out our range, thankfully.

On a separate note, my son joined a nearby nursery now, less than a kilometre away, so the Patrol is getting daily-driven in slow-moving stop-and-go traffic for these short inner-city school runs. This is reflected in our fuel economy of 3.5 km/l, but this was expected from such kind of driving. We’re not giving up our Patrol for a Leaf any time soon.

Original Mileage When Bought: 100 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 5253 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 28.6 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 0
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 1236

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Bought: Dhs 3522

Read all 2014 Nissan Patrol LE long-term updates

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Comments

  1. i believe the use of fuel system cleaners (premium only) will help solving many problems, fuel gauge is one of them.
    in US fuel is treated with premium additives that helps a lot in saving fuel system and engine parts.
    but remember only premium fuel additives because the market is full of brands with no technical value. unfortunately, they are not available in UAE

  2. “Latest Average Fuel Economy: 28.6 litres/100 km”??? What is this? Rocket missile?
    Even in Middle East this is tooooooooo expensive!

    • Author

      Just a lot of start-stop traffic driving. We haven’t hit the highway with this car in a month, since we have other cars too.

      • Start-stop driving is especially sensitive issue with big vehiacles, on smaller units it’s not such a big difference in consumption. But still, traffic in Dubai is more “stop” than “drive”, so this is very important point to consider. Anyhow, Patrol (along with Land Cruiser) is still no. 1 huge off-roader in UAE, but with this information on consumption, you cancelled my last dreams of owning one of these. Anyhow, good article, and as always, Drive Arabia is doing great job!

        • This is what I also think. I won’t make the jump to V8 because of fuel consumption. I cannot justify burning that much fuel.
          My V6 Prado never went over 15liters/100kms. I ll stay with this, despite liking the Patrol very much.

  3. So my Korean Hyundai Elantra isn’t the only one having fuel gauge problems

  4. I recently bought a brand new 2017 Altima 2.5 SV and since day 1 having issues with the car starts to vibrate very bad when I drive it between 100-120 Km/h which is on most highways the speed. it took Nissan 1 month to resolve and even after that when I drive the car from any small hum on the road there are different noises like some thing is open like a suspension or something but they never agreed. The Speaker makes bad noise and when I show it to the guy he said you are listening to music too loud. I said so all of the speakers are happy except this one on such volumes. Like where is the quality control Nissan?

    • Author

      Suspension issues are truly hard to diagnose, because it’s hard to say if it’s the condition of the road, the tyres or the actual suspension that’s causing the issue. I think we tracked down our own vibration issue to flat-spotting tyres from being parked too long. We just started driving the car more and the issue went away.

    • My wife is driving Altima 3.5 SL (it was very good deal last year during Ramadan time), and she is more than happy with this car. No single issue for all this time. Although, I don’t enojy driving it, I fully respect Altima, as being very solid and confident car, especially on this weather conditions. Not being an “europian” car, but very realible when it is 50 deg outside, and AC cools down temperature in a moment. And, speaking about consumption, almost impressive for car of this size (~3.5 x less then Patrol):)

    • None of the brand new cars are supposed to have an issue like this. The issue could be after manufacture of the cars in Japan – the drive to the ship and from the ship the drive to the dealer car warehouse (once the ship brings the cars to port) some crazy driver must have “accidentally” bumped it hard onto some surface and damaged it. Once the car arrived at the warehouse he wouldn’t have mentioned what happened. And unfortunately, this car was sold to an unsuspecting customer.

    • If the issue persists, you have the right to ask for a replacement car or return your money. Go speak to Consumer Protection in the Department of Economic Development you will get your rights fully.

    • @ Gohar

      If you had checked the data from Consumer Reports Nissan Altima, they have classed it as a “not recommended to buy” classification.

      Reason too many reliability issues. I used CR for my car purchases and they are spot 100%…

  5. Even the fuel gauge seems embarrassed by the fuel consumption of that car. I remember when you had written initially that 20l/100km was going to get better after engine break-in.

  6. Change Fuel Gauge In Fuel Tank.
    Change Fuel Cap.
    Check Any leak of fuel vapor coming from the insulation of the fuel tank cap
    check fuel vacuum pipes, fuel pipes and fuel filter for any leaks or being loose
    check the fuel if it is clean from inside
    recommend to use one type of petrol either super or special not plus
    always fill the whole tank one time once it gets empty not frequent small amounts to reduce vapor from escaping from the tank or any air, humidity or felth goes in
    this problem with Nissan Patrol is common since old models even
    Thanks

  7. Mashfique, not a new thing, most of the Y62 Patrols on roads have this fuel guage being inaccurate problem. I have a 2010 LE patrol and have the issue since day one with the car, some local garages suggested me to change the Fuel guage which in inside the fuel tank.

  8. hey there mash I am your biggest fa. I would just like to comment that you can improve your fuel gauge by resetting it for free by obd 2 CODING SYSTEM.it will be helpful and pls reply me if there are any problems in the Nissan patrol cause I have one and I know how to solve almost every problems in the patrol.

    • Author

      Hey, thanks. the dealer told me they already reset it on every service when I complain, but it seems to be a temporary fix. Anyway, the issue hasn’t showed up over winter, so let’s see if it is weather-dependent.

  9. hey there mash thanks for commenting but I have one more way. with my patrol which is the top spec platinum v8 the fuel gauge which is located in the fuel tank might have a problem. even mine had problems and I checked on the internet too.this problem is very common in patrols especially after the 2013 model. you can clean your fuel tank.you can find this cleaning liquid in any petrol pump.if you need an extensive explanation pls email me. my email id is [email protected]

    and hey by the way I am a big fan of yours

  10. So what’s the current update? Its resolved?? Curious to know.

    • Author

      It’s been fine over winter. Might be a weather-based thing. Hasn’t been in for service since the last update.

  11. Its the Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor. Change that.

    • Author

      I’ve mentioned that, since it was part of a recall, but they say my 2014 is not part of the recall.

  12. mash,
    i bought an 2019 Nissan patrol platinum since i bought the car, there has been a scratching noise from inside the centre console I have given my car to Nissan for 4 days now, and Nissan cannot still figure out what’s wrong. do you even feel a noise it usually occurs when the car goes over a bump
    thank you.

    • Author

      Not sure really. I don’t pay much attention to minor noises since they never seem to become a big issue.

  13. Hi
    Even I’m facing same issue on fuel gauge. I tried to fill full tank and after couple of hours stop it shows half tank, and on every immediate second restart it’s shows accurate reading. It shows wrong reading on first start after few hours stop..

  14. Have the same fuel gauge issue with my 16′ Tiida – The trick behind it is to get the car on battery to see whether the fuel gauge is correct before starting the car, if it show’s an incorrect reading switch it off and try again, the 2nd time always show’s a correct fuel gauge reading.

  15. Hi. I have a 2010 y62 with the same fuel gage problem. Just replaced the fuel float (OEM) and was fine the first day then back to the same problem. Any update on this issue?

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