I just recently purchases a 2004 Outback with a 2.5 engine that has 176,000 miles on it.  It had leaking head gaskets on it  and I pulled the motor and replaced them.  All went well.  Everything worked good for about 2 weeks and today the engine light came on.  I took it to the local parts store and the code it was reporting is P1518 which is something to do with the starter Interlock relay.  Later on today I was driving it again and it completely died while moving down the road.  It acted like It ran out of gas.  I knew it had plenty of fuel but to be sure I put 5 gallons in it.  It acts like it wants to start but still seems to be starving for fuel.  The fuel gage before the incident showed more than half a tank.  After the incident the fuel gage would not read at all. Even after I added 5 more gallons.  Any ideas?  It sounds like an electrical problem of some kind to me?

Sounds like the fuel pump has failed. If so and you decide to replace it, not all that difficult because there is an access plate inside the car, strongly suggest you replace it with an OEM pump. Many of the aftermarket pumps are smaller and don't fit the bracket. 

Why would the fuel gage stop working?

Sorry about your problems.  Don't know about a 2004 model, but back in the '90s Subie fuel gauges were just plain flakey--inaccurate and would often not work at all.

 

Consider looking for a used pump at a Pull 'n Pay.  Good luck.

this sound slike what happened to my mom with her 03 outback check this video out at the 9 minute 43 second mark. the metal cap he unscrews was not seated on my moms pump causing this issue for her after reseating the cap the car ran. it could also be the o-ring.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXH1A9sHt6M

Edited January 3, 201511 yr by sirtokesalot

Maybe you lost the ground to the fuel tank pump/sender.  That could explain both symptoms surfacing at once. 

 

Verify +12V to the pump at first key on, verify that the ground on the pump has no voltage drop to chassis ground. 

Why not just pull the fuel line at the filter and see if gas flows?

Why not just pull the fuel line at the filter and see if gas flows?

 

gas can still flow if that o-ring fails gas was still flowing with my moms subaru however it couldn't build enough fuel pressure to run due tot he o-ring in the pump releasing most of the pressure back into the tank.

Fuel guage and pump stop working at the same time sounds like the plug on top of the sender unit fried.

Corrosion does that.

Pull the access plate behind the passenger rear seat and check the plug.

Excellent Video.  Thank you.

Thanks.

Good idea.

When I pulled the motor out of the car is there any chance I did not get an electrical plug somewhere plugged in good?  The car ran fine for about 3 weeks.  If so what would it be?

I'm not familiar with all the connectors, but I'd say an improperly seated one, a missing ground - even a bent or 'pushed-back' pin in a connector seems quite likely.

 

on gen2, it's worth checking for the cap/o-ring problem but, I think that's unrelated to your recent issue.

I found the problem.  When I pulled the motor to replace the head gaskets I left I wire coming from the wire harness to the intake manifold finger tight.  As I would drive it would lose connection.  The tach would go crazy as well as the fuel gage and the temp gage.  I think it was also breaking connection to the fuel pump.  Anyway when I tightened it the engine light quit coming on and everything went back to normal.  Thanks for everyones replies.  This is a great Suby forum.