Carnutt Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Okay I have a 1995 Legacy L Wagon. My question is are the fuel gauges on Subaru's not accurate? My owners manual says I should have a 15 gal tank. When I first got the car the previous owner told me not to let is get close to E. So the first full tank down to little less than 1/4 I filled it up and only got 8 gals in the tank. So knowing I average 21mpg I reset my trip and would drive to 280 miles as that should still leave me gas in the tank. Well today I'm driving around and the gas gauge is below 1/4 but above E and I've got about 265 miles on the trip...well the car slows down and dies. Can't restart. Ran it out of fuel. Is my gauge wrong or do I only have a 10gal tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Pin Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 1995 Fuel capacity - all models 15.9 gallons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Pin Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 That is only 16 mpg on a car that should get better than that. Are any check engine lights on or when was the last time you gave it a general tune like plugs etc. Older O2 sensors tend to use more fuel but not always pop a code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Subie gas gauges of that era are notoriously bad. They create a composite signal from two separate senders, one in each side of the split tank. You can pull the fuel pump and both senders then clean the sliders and contacts. I did it years ago but never got it to be accurate so I always reset the trip meter at each fill up. But as 3Pin said, you seem to be getting very poor mileage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FerGloyale Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 1 hour ago, Olnick said: Subie gas gauges of that era are notoriously bad. They create a composite signal from two separate senders, one in each side of the split tank. You can pull the fuel pump and both senders then clean the sliders and contacts. I did it years ago but never got it to be accurate so I always reset the trip meter at each fill up. But as 3Pin said, you seem to be getting very poor mileage. The tank is a "saddle" design, and relies on a siphon action in the return line to pull fuel from teh drivers side, over the hump, into passenger dside where the fuel pump/pickup is at. It is possible that the OP here has situation were the siphon is not picking up the drivers side fuel. Pull the fuel pump and inspect the siphon action. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnutt Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 No check engine lights but I think it’s not pulling fuel from the drivers side. I’ll pull the pump and check the siphon action. Going to be doing a tune up this weekend and likely it’s nit pulling fuel from the driver’s side. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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