Q400 Fuel Pressure

  • Hi - I have a quick question on the Q400 fuel system. I tried searching up this issue on the forum as to not repeat a thread but couldn’t find it so I assume I’m doing something wrong. When I simulate a flight and start by shutting down the engines at the gate and then subsequently restart the engines, after the appropriate pre-flight prep, I occasionally receive low fuel pressure warnings on the annunciator panel a few minutes later, typically during taxi or climb. It doesn’t occur all the time and sometimes happens to one engine and not the other so I can’t figure out what creates the low fuel pressure scenario (it doesn’t occur if I simply start the sim with the engines running and leave them like that). Per procedure, I turn on the AC-driven AUX pumps for both engines (MFD confirms AUX pumps are on) before takeoff to hopefully ensure proper fuel inlet pressure at the engine-driven pumps and I try cycling the AUX pumps on and off throughout the flight to clear the issue but it seems to go away on its own independent of this action. FF to both engines appears normal, even with the indications illuminated, but fuel doesn’t appear to be consumed when this indication is on.

    I hope I’m doing something wrong as it’s pretty neat if the sim can simulate a low pressure scenario in the fuel system! Maybe I need to change those fuel filters on my Q400!