My wife called today and said the car quit. I'm pretty much speechless at this point since the car is an 06 with 4K miles. She said that she took off from a light and when she shifted to second the car had no power. She tried skipping to third and still had no power. I assume when she said it had no power she means that it wasn't pulling like it should. She got it pulled over to a side street and that was it, the car wouldn't even crank again. It sounded to me like it was out of gas but the gauge still showed 1/4 tank. She called Nissan roadside assistance and they had it towed to a local dealer. They actualy have someone in their service dept tomorrow (Sat) but I don't know if they will have any idea what's wrong with the Z. Anyone here have a clue or idea what could be wrong with it? I tried using the search function but nothing was turning up that seemed remotely close to our problem. Wish me luck fellas!

 

Sorry to hear that man. Good luck...

 

Bad MAF sensor?

 

Do the lights and radio work? Loose/Busted alternator belt? Loose battery cable?

 

something like that happened to me once, i think it may be a week connection to the battery. check all the wires. thats the only way i can explain a car just dying on u.

 

maybe a faulty crank sensor? or loose wires.

 

I don't have the car here with me so I can't check anything on it. I am pretty sure that she had electrical power. When I got to where the car was she had the windows down on it (only about 98* here yesterday) and she was able to power them back up. Which I also realize the electrical load for power windows is nothing like the load for running an engine. I had her hit the switch and the engine was spinning fine and even sounded like it was going to hit a couple times but no dice. The dealer opens at 8 this morning and believe me I am more than curious to here an explanation for this. At this point disappointment does not begin to describe how I feel about a car with 4K miles leaving my wife stranded.

 

Ah it's proabably something real minor. Not all cars come 100% from the factory. Good luck.

 

A car will not stop running if the battery is disconnected or dead. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself.

The only thing the battery does is store power for starting the car and running electrical items when the alternator is not spinning.

 

^^ FYI.. my Z stopped running when it was disconnected from a battery.. It seemed fine when I was rolling but every time I came to a stop the car died.. I knew what the problem was because it was my own idiocy that i forgot to tighten the neg lead after changing the battery.. I was in moderate traffic too and the damned thing kept popping off.. i had no tools to tighten it!!! worst ride of my life.. embarrasing too!

--mike

 

exacty .... you're car needs power and it doesn't come from the alternator it comes from the battery. the alternator just makes sure the battery is recharged.

 

Well we got back a little while ago from picking up the car. The service manager said they spent half the day working on it. They tried hooking it up and ckecking the codes, fuses and relays were checked and they even had it on a lift seeing if something was obviously wrong on the underside. Well after having it towed and a couple techs spending the better part of the day on it the problem was tracked down......... Out of gas! The gauge was showing 1/4 tank and the DTE was still over 100 miles. They have ordered us a sending unit and said it should be here by wed or thurs. I don't know who feels more stupid here, us or the techs! It still sucks having to be towed, but I do feel better knowing that it is a relatively minor problem. Thanks for the input and thoughts fellas!

 

Glad to know it was nuttin' too bad . Now, if you accidentally run out of gas, you can say it was your car again

 

The Z has a gas engine, not diesel.

 

yeah the Z is known for having a bad level gauge in the tank... no matter how much you fill it, it never gets full...

mine, would never get full, and then go empty, then up to 1/4 then empty then 1/4 then empty then I had to refill, but I still would only get 16 gallons in!

 

Hopefully everything gets squared away dude, good luck. Jason@Performance you are completely right...I have all of the same problems...

 

crank sensor maybe?

 

never had the gas guage problem on my Z... count my blessings i guess

 

I've had a gas receipt that read 19.3 gallons before.

-Acree

 

hehe damn, the OP beat me to the punch. "Out of gas" was the first and only thing that came to my mind.... it's nothing short of hilarious it took nissan techs half a day to figure it out. Can we say "incompetence"? Z's have quite a few known problems with the fuel system.