After recently purchasing a 92 Loyale for a song (800$) at 71K, I did the most common tune-ups, including a new fuel filter, and promptly wanted to do an accurate estimate of my mileage by running the engine dry, refueling, and then running it dry again. Seems though that I will never run out of fuel, since my low fuel light has been on for the last 50 miles. Needle does not seem to be stuck, though, since the mileage-to-needle-movement seems reasonable from what I can gather.

 

Is it common for these old Subarus to give you a extremely premature heads-up, or is mine just funky?

yeah they give you a good deal of reserve fuel. I recomend aborting your test as its a great way to suck up crud/water/rust from the tank when it runs dry.

 

I usually just look up the tank capacity in the owners manual. its a lot easyer. I then reset the trip meter every time fill up. so if I start going beyond my regular fill up milage due to a failed gauge or sender I can still tell how far I can go by the meter. it also helps keep track of fuel milage.

I recomend aborting your test as its a great way to suck up crud/water/rust from the tank when it runs dry.

But wouldn't all that crap just hit the filter and stick? And isn't it important to get that stuff cleared out eventually?

some of the crap would get past the filter and get into all sorts of places you don't want to have to clean out for at least 100,000 miles more

 

the best way to clean out the tank is to drain it and remove it, and take it to a radiator shop, or buy a backyard flush and seal kit.. but radiator shops can contain and dispose of the waste fluids really conveniently.

You could also inspect your fuel gauge sending unit at the tank.

it's a "feature"

 

we don't want our customers to run out of fuel needlesly, so we provide them with a light that comes on when there's about 1 1/2 -2 galons in the tank

mine goes on at 3/4 Never bothered to figure it out.

and as a bonus, they usually work even if the guage doesn't do anything