I was under the impression if you ran your gas tank out you may have a problem restarting because of air in the fuel line.

 

You don't want to run it out of fuel; it could damage your fuel pump. When the low fuel light comes on, you have a slightly over 2 gallons of reserve in the tank.

 

I came close once. The light comes on with one bar left, but not right away. It said 60 miles left, but it was already showing 60 miles prior to light coming on. I got to the point of zero bars and it doesn't go below telling you you have 20 miles left. The meter only goes down in 10 mile increments. When I filled up it was in the 14 gallon range, below the 15.9 capacity rating.

The only time I let a car run out was with my wife's old Forester. I didn't realize it before hand, but on that car the fuel light meant business. After getting a gallon from motorist assist it ran normal from then and on.

Made edits based on experience today and I was paying attention. I never got below one bar and that was after driving 10 miles after the light came on. When I filled up it took 14.1 gallons and said I had 50 miles left. That was about right. Also, my indicated mileage was only 1.3 mpg more than calculated.

 

I just fill up at half a tank. I don't care whether it takes 6 or 7 or 8 gallons. It'll get me down the road just fine. YMMV

paul

 

A couple times in my Impreza I got so low it sputtered going around the turn to get to the gas station. I've gone well past the point of no bars on the gauge of my XV and I was expecting it to do the same or just plain run out of gas. It didn't, but that fill-up took 15.52 gallons! I don't think I could have gotten much closer to empty with going dry.

 

My last truck said 70 litres in the manual but with it still running but the low
fuel lite having been on all day it took 87 litres of fuel so i don't entirely trust
what the manual says?
Just wondering if anyone has ran out and then found out the real tank capacity ?

I would not just be questioning the fuel tank capacity but also the petrol bowser accuracy. Is it registering more fuel than it is actually delivering? This could be the real issue here....


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When I run a fuel system cleaner like Techron or Red Line, I'll take it down to fumes. You're supposed to, otherwise you're diluting the additive, but agree with others. It's not a good idea run it below 1/4 of a tank. All sorts of bad stuff happens.... you can get water condensation, ice crystals (the engine will just cut out once one of those gets sucked into the filter), the filter clogs up with sediment, etc.

 

A few months ago, I ran the tank so low that the low fuel indicator went from yellow to red and had NO bars on the fuel gauge left. I ended up filling up about 56L.

 

Cool! I didn't know the yellow indicator light would do that.

I've run my 2014 XV until the point the yellow "low fuel indicator" was on steady, with one (or maybe no) bar left. It took a 14.4 gallon fillup. I believe the miles 'till empty was about 60 miles.

Because these particular fuel tanks seem to go 'empty' quickly, once the level gets pretty low, I typically fillup with ~3 bars left. It's a ~12 gallon fillup that way.

Like others have suggested, it's said it's not good to keep the fuel level extremely low. It's got nothing to do with the pump pickup, sucking air, etc.. It's because the fuel pumps rely on being submerged in fuel for cooling purposes.

 

I was down to 2 bars but i saw no low fuel indicator?
I will have to look in the manual to see where on the dash that lite is?
I don't make a habit of letting the fuel get too low, in the winter a
1/4 tank is considered empty to me i was just doing alot of errands
today and by the time i got fuel it was down to 2 bars.
i was just curious if anyone had run an XV out is all?

 

I once went down to 0 bars and filled up 59.5 litres. That was a close call.

 

According to fuelly, my largest fill-up was 16.26 gallons ... definitely pushing it!

 

Wow, that's more than the tank is supposed to hold.

 

I always run it down to the last 2 or 3 litres. I do not experience any problems at all.
The distance remaining indicator is pretty accurate over short distances like that. You can go well past zero bars without problems.

 

Drove an additional 45 kms (hwy) once fuel warning light came on. DTE read 60 kms and dropped to 50 at fill up. Required 55 litres to fill. Manual says 10 litres of gas remains once warning light comes on - seems fairly accurate.


KCT

 

Running low on fuel damages fuel pumps after a while of doing so. When you tank get low the fuel gets warm thus making the pump hot as well making it fail eventually. Running any pump dry damages them.

 

This hasn't been the case for quite some time. Modern fuel pumps have no issue running down the tank (you're not running the pump dry if it's still flowing gas).

I'd have to check Fuelly, but I think the most I've ever put in the tank was around 15.75 gallons.

 

I completely agree with not running to 1 bar. But what's wrong with a 1/4 tank? A fuel pump inlet is only 1/4" tall. So as long as it stays submerged in gas it doesn't matter. And because the tanks has a siphoned even with a 1/4 tank regardless of going down hill or up hill you can never starve the pump until everything is gone.

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On most vehicles the fuel pump sits in the tank and is cooled by having gasoline around it, so running your tank nearly dry is bad on fuel pump life. Ideally you shouldn't let it get below about a quarter tank, but realistically just make sure you're on the way to a gas station when the fuel light kicks on.

 

Isn't the fuel pump relay in the engine bay?

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Yep, relay is in the fuse/power box under the hood. Why?

 

The relay's under the hood, the pump is in the tank, well above the fuel pickup. If you look at a photo of the fuel pump assembly, you'd need to refuel at about half a tank in order to keep the pump completely submerged. Which would of course be ridiculous. Look in the manual. Does it say anything about refueling at half a tank? No, it doesn't. And Subaru has a pretty sharp staff of lawyers who would demand some sort of disclaimer or warning if there was an issue using up 15 gallons of gas in their 16 gallon tank. Other car companies too.

The "cooling the fuel pump" myth is bunk, as there are plenty of pumps in your house that work just fine not being submerged (dishwasher, washing machine, etc).

Running the tank (and ergo the pump) dry will absolutely damage it if you make a habit of it. But if you're constantly running out of gas you probably have larger issues.

 

The "cooling the fuel pump" myth is bunk, as there are plenty of pumps in your house that work just fine not being submerged (dishwasher, washing machine, etc).

Running the tank (and ergo the pump) dry will absolutely damage it if you make a habit of it. But if you're constantly running out of gas you probably have larger issues.

Comparing a dishwasher pump with a fuel pump? Totally different pump/motor design, speeds, pressures and flow rates. The only cooling they get is from the fuel. They don't need to be completely submerged for this to happen (bad wording on my part above).

There's no way to run your tank "dry", the pump will loose prime and stop pumping before that happens.

 

I ran mine so low last week that the amount of klm to go disappeared. I got home after a night shift and asked my wife to fill up the jerry can (5litres). I went to the petrol station and put in a further 55litres. I won't be doing that again in a hurry.

 

I ran mine so low last week that the amount of klm to go disappeared.

I do this on pretty-well every single tank (unless I'm a long way from a petrol station). So far I haven't had any problems at all and don't expect any.

 

I do not see the purpose of running the tank to empty. I can see running the tank till the low fuel warning light comes on and then filing up to see what your gas tank has left as a reference. You do not need to run your tank dry to check your mpg. Subaru says it` a 15.9 gallon tank, why would they lie about that. Theoretically you could probably get 15.5 gallons to be sucked up but why. Over the years the bottom of your tank will collect contaminates and moisture, why would you want to run that through your engine ?

 

One of the things I like about the car is that it's got an adult-sized gas tank. Other cars I looked at made do with aaround 12 gallons. I drive between 600-800 miles a week, so that makes for fewer fuel stops. May not be a big deal to some, but it is to me. Oh, and there's usually a $.30/gallon difference in the price of fuel between my home and my office. Nedless to say, I don't fill up at home unless I absolutely have to.

Crud can and does develop in the tank; either from dirty fuel or from the tank lining degrading. In either case, the screen over the pickup will prevent it from being sucked into the fuel system and the fuel filter will prevent it from ever seeing the engine.

 

Guilty. I'm always waiting until the last minute to fuel up. I'm not proud, just lazy.

 

Same here. There's really no logical reason to wait, but procrastination is my life.

 

I put in 15.68 gallons the other day. I don't do this regularly but all of the gas stations that I pass between work and home are 20-40 cents a gallon more than this one near my house and I was (pretty) sure I was going to make it. When the last bar on the gauge went off as I passed the Exxon station I thought twice about going any further but that's the most expensive gas station for 20 miles around so I took the chance.

 

A man after my own heart. Not on the XV but back when living in Carmel the wife and I made trips on weekends to check out homes in different areas of Maine. One time I didn`t refuel in Maine and wanted to make it back on one tank. Well when we got back to Carmel I pulled into the gas station across from the strip mall and left the SHO running while gassing up and it took pretty near a full tank within a couple of tenths also. My wife let me know she wasn`t happy with me trying to make it back running on fumes.

 

Yeah since the advent of fuelly I don't do it anymore but I used to put in 50 cents if that's what it would take to get to a station more reasonable than what was easy and in front of me.

 

Hello all,

New member here.

I have a 2018 Crosstrek which I love. I bought it new after when the transmission went at 298K miles in my 98 Outback.
Love the Crosstrek,

I just pumped 17.5 gallons of gas into it according to the meter at the BP station. I've never put more than 16 gallons in before and that was when there were no bars showing on the fuel gage. Today there was one bar showing, low fuel lite was on and meter said I had 40 miles left on tank.

Should I smell a rat? Never had a problem at this station before.

Manuel says 16.6 gallons. I looked all around and under car and nothing was overflowing.

Thanks all in advance

Dave