# New owner of 2002 Altima, QUESTIONS!!!



## alex.d (Sep 11, 2005)

Check out my other post for pictures: http://www.nissanforums.com/showthread.php?p=988401#post988401

Anyways back to the questions. The car runs fine but couple of things a miss. First off the computer in the dash board. It never shows the correct MTE (miles to empty) when I fill it up it might say 505 and then on a quarter left it will say 300 (so it doesn’t make any sense). Second the speedometer is a little OFF, by a little I mean it shows I'm going 75 but in reality I'm only going 69, 70. (I checked by doing cruise control with other cars, radar on the freeway and even the build it computer test for speed shows it). Can anyone advice me about these things?


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## craigqc (Feb 10, 2005)

alex.d said:


> Check out my other post for pictures: http://www.nissanforums.com/showthread.php?p=988401#post988401
> 
> Anyways back to the questions. The car runs fine but couple of things a miss. First off the computer in the dash board. It never shows the correct MTE (miles to empty) when I fill it up it might say 505 and then on a quarter left it will say 300 (so it doesn’t make any sense). Second the speedometer is a little OFF, by a little I mean it shows I'm going 75 but in reality I'm only going 69, 70. (I checked by doing cruise control with other cars, radar on the freeway and even the build it computer test for speed shows it). Can anyone advice me about these things?


i belive the MTE reading is just an estimate. when i fill up it says around 500 for me too, although i have never gone more than 425 on a tank. its just a rough estimate. the gas light may come on and then after driving for a while it could just go off. its just the computer adjusting and readjusting estimates for you tank.
it is possible that radars and other cars may be off and you car is fine. if there is a real problem more than +/- 4 mph, i would take it in to a shop for a calibration


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## Afty (Nov 1, 2002)

The Altima's speedo reads about 5 mph fast at highway speeds. That's just how it is. The average speed thing in the trip computer is pretty accurate, though. Set your cruise control at 75 then reset the avg. speed thing. When it comes back up it'll read around 70.

Lots of cars have speedometers that read too fast. BMWs are notorious for it. Car and Driver even published an article about it:
http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1906


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