Fuel Gauge

[Superu264]

My Legacy, like most of you, has a worthless fuel gauge.

When does the fuel light come on? I have driven around well below E without a light. Is it dependent upon the position of the needle or the floater in the tank?

Does anyone know if there's a trend to the gauge? I know a lot of them are screwed up but is it more common to say it has more/less gas than you actually have?

gas prices + fat pig Legacy FTL

[backpack09]

gas prices + fat pig Legacy FTL

Your complaining about gas in a subaru?

I have been daily driving my truck for a month now.. 10mpg rocks

My talon and galant get 20 to the gallon, but on premium.

My subarus gets 87 and 25-30mpg I am very happy with that.

[Superu264]

Yeah, I am complaining. According to the fuel gauge I'm getting 15mpg.

I don't drive the car that hard that I should get 15mpg. When the gauge is on E and I've only done 240mi something is wrong, so I want to figure it out.

[Huffer]

The fuel light is supposed to come on slowly (fade in/out) when you have approximately 2gal left (I think). It comes on solid when you have 1gal.

The needle does drop quicker once you get past halfway I've found.

I can usually do 200miles before the needle hits E.

I think maybe your fuel light isn't working?

[Superu264]

I think maybe your fuel light isn't working?

That is entirely possible.

There is no sound to go along with the light?

[backpack09]

Yeah, I am complaining. According to the fuel gauge I'm getting 15mpg.

I don't drive the car that hard that I should get 15mpg. When the gauge is on E and I've only done 240mi something is wrong, so I want to figure it out.

Ok, so you are getting 15mpg according to the gauge. What are you getting actually? How many gallons to fill up the tank after 240 miles? 10?

I bet if you run the tank dry or down to 1 or 2 gallons, the low fuel light will come on.

Fuel gauges go bad. Every car I have ever had, the gauge eventually goes bad. You could put a variable resister in line with the gauge signal wire at the tank, run your tank dry, and adjust it so that it reads empty when it is empty. But usually that ends up screwing up the full reading on the gauge.

I simply reset the tripodometer at every fill up, and make sure I fill the tank after about 300 miles.

I know this is not the answer you are looking for, but replacing parts will just make your wallet lighter, and will proabably not fix the problem.

[Huffer]

I think maybe your fuel light isn't working?

That is entirely possible.

There is no sound to go along with the light?

Nope. No sound.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Mine has only come on once. I was on the line and I parked on my friends steep drive way. As soon as I came off the driveway it went off again. So it probably is something in the tank.

[Superu264]

I filled up today, so I have a lot of time before I can test it out.

Backpack- it usually take ~13.5 which means there is 2.4 left which I guess tells me why the light hasn't come on.

[backpack09]

13.5 gallons at 240 miles is 18mpg. You have a right to bitch about that :)


I would check your o2 sensors, and run through some seafoam. Do you have any CELs? I know being OBDI your diagnostics aren't as good, but a dead o2 would still put you in limp mode.

I know the automatic sucks up some fuel mileage, but you being fwd should make up for most of that.

[Superu264]

I agree, the FWD/lack of weight of AWD system should help me

And my car is OBDII, some MY 1995 ATs were OBDII while MTs were still OBDI

[Plays_with_Toys]

Could be a MAF too. Are you using a K&N?

[Superu264]

No not K&N, the generic filter that came with the intake.

Its always been crap though, not just since the intake install.

[Wiscon_Mark]

You have a 15.9 gallon fuel tank (about 15.1 gallons of usable space).

I found that the light goes on consistently at about 1.5-2 gallons left (judging by the pump filling the car up). Measuring mileage by the fuel guage is hit or miss (mostly miss) on any car. Doing it at the pump is the only foolproof way.

I'm assuming your trip odometer still works? mileage / gallons = mpg

[Superu264]

I'm assuming your trip odometer still works? mileage / gallons = mpg

Of course, that's how I know was going ~240mi :wink:

[yotabeater]

i know what you mean. in my 98 LGT wagon i've gone about 140 miles and i'm down to 1/4 tank. my last tank was mixed driving and i got about 19mpg. i kind of thought it should be a bit better than that.

[Brockley]

I get about 20 MPG in my97 GT Wagon...

so sad,, my miata got 27 at Auto-cross' and a spirited drive there and back...

this car, I granny shifted for a WHOLE tank and got around 22.8 mpg...
(I live in the Mountains tho, that makes it worse..) but I would rather drive like I want and get a few less miles to the tank... (Exp. after Snorkel Delete.. MUCH better sounds at WOT!!!)

[Superu264]

Surely you're not comparing a Miata to a Legacy :wink:

[Wiscon_Mark]

Surely you're not comparing a Miata to a Legacy :wink:

Yeah, that's a really bad comparison.

[yotabeater]

today my fuel light came on for about 10 seconds then shut off. i was on almost 1/4 tank. within 10 miles it was one line above empty. kind of irritating, but hopefully now that i've got my ngk plugs in it it will get better than 190 to a tank.