low fuel light?

[the3rsss]

I have never seen my low fuel light lit. The manual lists the lights that come on in the run position but low fuel is not one of them. Any way to test this? Also, and this one I thoroughly don't expect an answer to, does anyone have a schematic or experience with the wiring of the stock Panasonic in fast cd? Mine has no power. 99 obw

[bheinen74]

To test low fuel light indicator to see if it works:

1. fill small gas can with gas and carry around with you in the back

2. drive til the gas guage is the lowest you have ever seen it.

3. keep eye on dash for a bright yellow/orangish light.

4. when light comes on, go get gas at the gas station

5. if light comes on in middle of nowhere, you can fill with the gas can you have with you

6. if the car dies out and you never saw the light, the unit has a burned out bulb or something not working, fill with the gas can, go to fuel station, fill tank, then find out how to fix it.

[MilesFox]

the light is based on a thermo resistor that lets it come on when the fuel level is below this sensor. Electrically, it is independent of the gauge. the light can still work when the sender for the gauge is broken.

 

Drive until the light comes on, or until you run out of gas, whichever comes first. IF you want to test this idea, just take a gas can with a good gallons in it with you..

[forester2002s]

Here's a 5-year old post on the same subject:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=469698&postcount=20

[johnceggleston]

a slightly safer to to test your low fuel light.

 

1fill up and reset the trip meter.

2 drive for a week or until you need to fill up.

3 fill up.

4 now divide the number of miles on the trip meter by the number of gallons it takes to fill up. this is your miles per gallon. (multiply this number times 15.9 and that's how many miles are in your tank, with similar driving.)

5 now drive enough miles to use 14.9 gallons. (90 - 99 legos will still have one gallon, 00- and up will still have 2 gallons left.)

6 the light should be on now. (minr comes on arouns 14 gallons used.)

7 and carry a spare gallon just in case.

 

it is surprising the number of new owners who think the tank only holds 12 gallons.

Edited November 11, 2011 by johnceggleston

[idosubaru]

what kind of gas mileage are you getting?

how many miles are you getting when you're filling the tank up?

 

what John just posted is the way to do it. keep track of your mileage and multiply that by gallons in the tank (15.9 on your era OBW).

 

every 95-99 generation legacy i've seen has high reading gas gauges, it gets really low and looks like not much left by the gauge, but only takes 10 or 11 gallons to fill - which means there's still 5 gallons in the tank.

 

low fuel light comes on with about 2.7 gallons in the tank.

[jarl]

From the link posted before:

 

"EDIT: Just had another thought... Try disconnecting the two fuel-tank sensors, and apply a known resistance of more than 80 ohms (say 100 ohms) across the wiring terminals (and wait 10-minutes too). This might fool the combination-meter into thinking that it should illuminate the low-fuel lamp"

 

Shouldn't a resistor of infinity ohms work as well? If so, just disconnect the connector for the sensor and run the car for 10 minutes

 

Edit: never mind... the FSM for the '99 OBW ("wiring diagram", Pg. 47) shows a switch connected to terminal a9 of the dashboard. Pg. 73 of the same manual shows something different, but still according to the diagram the light should turn on if you connect terminal a9 of the dashboard to ground (I would use a fuse or aresistor just in case). A dumb design if you ask me (it's not fail safe), but...

Edited November 11, 2011 by jarl