need help reseating the fuel gauge needle!

[badkelly]

'10 forester for the wife (with <1K miles)

 

so she was complaining about the tire monitor light being on. i've battled it before on several cars and if you pulled the bulb, it threw an engine light. easiest thing to do is cover the hole with electrical tape, which i have done before with no trouble. i had to lift the fuel needle to get the tape in there to cover it and it works perfectly, except when i put the fuel gauge needle back, it doesn't quite stay in the place i put it. it bounces and reads 1/2 off, either half full or half again past full. i have a full tank so i could set it correctly, but it doesn't want to stay in place. do i need to do something to the needle before i push it in? the whole needle, base and stem, came out when i pulled it.

 

btw....she doesn't quite know it has this problem, and she was mad enough that i did it in the first place without telling her

[johnceggleston]

i rdeplaced a speedo needle needle on a 97 outback. i set it to 0 mph with the car off. when i powered up the car, it jumped to 20 mph. so i pulled it off again and reset it while going 65 mph per my gps. it works pretty good , it reads 1.5 mph too slow, not bad fir a do it yourselfer. if i were you i would fill up the car to the max, pul the needle, and with the car turned on reset the needle to fulll.

 

let me know what happens.

[Fairtax4me]

The best fix for TPMS light, go two to three pounds over recommended pressure when warm. I've found through using many different types of pressure gauges, that no two gauges, even same type and brand, are calibrated exactly the same, even the digital ones. You can't buy a truly accurate gauge at the local parts store counter for $2.50. A decent gauge will be $25 or more, and a good one can be upwards of $50.

Most of the cheaper gauges I've come across read too high. And the ones that are built in with the air chuck, never accurate ever in my experience. Half of them aren't even close. At least 4 psi off in most of the one's I've used. This is 4 psi off when checked against a digital TPMS service tool. It reads the output of the sensors directly, which are generally accurate to within one one hundredth of a pound.

 

The result is your pressure is actually lower than what the gauge says it is. The TPMS still reads that the pressure is too low, so the light either doesn't go off, or only goes off for a few days then comes back. Putting the pressure even just two psi higher on the gauge than the recommended pressure is often times enough to cure this and the light will stay off for 2 months or more.

When the light comes on is not the time to check pressures. Once the light comes on that means the TPMS has found the pressure to be more than ~25% too low. The percentage can vary from one manufacturer to another depending on how sensitive they want the system to be, but 25% is the federal mandated threshold.

 

If we assume the threshold to be roughly 10% that's still 3psi low if the recommended pressure is 30psi. At 25% that's over 7psi difference between the actual pressure and the recommended.

 

So take the tape off, get at least a decent pressure gauge, and keep the tires inflated properly rather than ignore the warning light. Low pressure in tires leads to a lot more than just poor fuel economy.

 

As for the fuel needle. When you get it set to roughly where it's supposed to be put a dab of super glue on the end before you stick it on the shaft Then be sure to hold it still for about 30 seconds after placing it.

[badkelly]

you're talking to me like i'm a high school girl who would trade a car because the radio doesn't work. the problem is i keep increasing the pressure a little at a time, and i've had it in 5lb increments from 25 to 45lbs and it still comes on. up here in the mountains, i've talked to other subaru owners (because there are a lot of them) and they all have the same problem. theirs never goes off, either. a pressure that is good in the morning sets off the light in the afternoon. i know air pressures. i email companies when i buy tires and ask what the recommended pressures are for their tires. case in point: the terra grapplers on my suburban say 60-something, the store i bought them from said 30, the door says 35 or so, the tire place up here ran them up to 50, but nitto says 45 for those specific tires.

 

edit: and that's with 3 manual gauges and one digital gauge. the service guy at subaru already gave me the whole spiel about cool and warm air temps and also contradicted what the door said (30 front, 29 rear) when he said no, it's supposed to be 35. oh, and the shaft is what came out. the shaft is permanently fixed to the head that also houses the needle.

Edited July 1, 2010 by badkelly