Fuel gauge reading incorrect

Pique

I've a 2012 Subaru Outback diesel and got caught out the other day. distance remaining was 80miles, fuel gauge was at about 1/8 and it conks out. AA recovery checked ECU, found nothing wrong and diagnosed no fuel. Threw a gallon in and away she goes.

So what's wrong? Fuel level sender? Anyone know if there are one or 2 in these as I've read both. I'm busy with the car and would prefer to DIY a replacement job as it seems easy enough rather than leave it to mechanic and then get the long finger excuse that an urgent call came in etc and I'm without a car unexpectedly.

Any good Subaru forums that deal with something other than just Imprezas? Looked at a few but the activity seems fairly low.

I'm not letting the range drop below 200 miles now, but who knows if the problem gets worse, I could still be nearly running on fumes.

CJhaughey

Pique wrote: »

I've a 2012 Subaru Outback diesel and got caught out the other day. distance remaining was 80miles, fuel gauge was at about 1/8 and it conks out. AA recovery checked ECU, found nothing wrong and diagnosed no fuel. Threw a gallon in and away she goes.

So what's wrong? Fuel level sender? Anyone know if there are one or 2 in these as I've read both. I'm busy with the car and would prefer to DIY a replacement job as it seems easy enough rather than leave it to mechanic and then get the long finger excuse that an urgent call came in etc and I'm without a car unexpectedly.

Any good Subaru forums that deal with something other than just Imprezas? Looked at a few but the activity seems fairly low.

I'm not letting the range drop below 200 miles now, but who knows if the problem gets worse, I could still be nearly running on fumes.

Have you thought about taking it out and having a look at it? If the teabag filter on the intake has been blocked on the bottom it may only be able to suck through the top of the filter, which means that it needs a fair bit of fuel in the tank to keep the level at that height.
You will be able to check the operation of the float switch at the same time.

Pique

Yeah I will be taking it out to have a look. The sender works on resistance so I can confirm that once it's out, but I thought I'd ask here first in case anyone had previous experience with something similar.

wmpdd3

Pique wrote: »

I've a 2012 Subaru Outback diesel and got caught out the other day. distance remaining was 80miles, fuel gauge was at about 1/8 and it conks out. AA recovery checked ECU, found nothing wrong and diagnosed no fuel. Threw a gallon in and away she goes.

So what's wrong? Fuel level sender? Anyone know if there are one or 2 in these as I've read both. I'm busy with the car and would prefer to DIY a replacement job as it seems easy enough rather than leave it to mechanic and then get the long finger excuse that an urgent call came in etc and I'm without a car unexpectedly.

Any good Subaru forums that deal with something other than just Imprezas? Looked at a few but the activity seems fairly low.

I'm not letting the range drop below 200 miles now, but who knows if the problem gets worse, I could still be nearly running on fumes.

Not sure if you got this fixed, but a very similar thing happened to me. I bought a used car private sale and 2 weeks later I lost power with less than 1/4 tank of petrol.

The AA guy coped the bottle of Dipthene that was in the boot of the car and said as there was a new NCT that the previous owner had probably put too much in it.

He put 5 gallons of perol into the car and it started.

He reccomended keeping the car half full of petrol for a week or so and then letting it run down again and see does it conke at the same place.

It didn't. The fuel now reads correctly.