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Fuel gauge not reading
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:37 pm
by screemingbark
Last night I decided to fuel my car to half a tank and cruise for a bit with a friend of mine(enjoying the APRIL snow!!!) Anyhow, we were cruising for about 20 minutes or so and decided to take it off the road to "test" the AWD. It was just awesome! Snow+mud+water+ice= effing fun! Until we came back onto the road, I looked down at my dash at a stop sign, the fuel gauge read that my tank was well below empty. Of course I knew this was not true, I was still driving and had just put gas in it. The car is still running just fine and the car is not leaking any gas. I was wondering if there was any way to troubleshoot/ fix this. Is this common or ever heard of? Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:43 pm
by Legacy777
The fuel senders can sometimes go bad. I troubleshoot a funky gauge for several months, and ended up replacing both fuel senders to completely fix my problem.
There are a couple threads, I believe in the Misc forum by me. I think one of the threads is titled "freaking fuel sender" or something like that. It should have some scans to the factory manual which can provide assistance in troubleshooting.
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:19 am
by screemingbark
Tonight I was driving around in my car and decided to stop for gas. Guess what!? The Gauge decided to start working again and has functioned perfectly all night. Problem solved for now..
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:37 pm
by Legacy777
You will probably see it crop up again.
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:11 pm
by screemingbark
Yea, I figured. To be honest I'm very impressed with this Subaru. It has 205xxxmi on it and is still a quick strong car, so I don't really mind fixing things here and there.
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:38 pm
by PhyrraM
When my gauge went out it read full all the time. It turned out that one of those very tiny copper wires from the coil windings @the gauge broke away from the solder pad.
Doesn't sound like your problem, but something to keep in the back of your head if you get really stumped.
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:21 pm
by Bdub
I found using a pencil eraser to clean the contacts on the senders works.
I also found this isn't a permanent fix.
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:52 pm
by SILINC3R
what about aftermarket guages. how would you plug them in. i am making a custom gauge cluster and want to put in aftermarket fuel gauge so it will be more accurate
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 2:04 am
by Legacy777
Unless the aftermarket gauge is configured for the resistance of the stock sender units, you can't.
Please start a new thread if you'd like more information.