Does the L Series have a fuel light?

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:13 pm

Hi all.

I was driving my brothers liberty the other day and when the fuel got low it had a low fuel warning lamp pop up on the dashboard.

I have run my L pretty low (into the red on the gauge before) and never had a light pop up but I am uncertain as to whether mine has a fuel light or not.

Some have said theirs do but it doesn't come on until after the needle gets bellow empty on the gauge. and some say they don't think they have one.

Its a 1990 Sportswagon (the Speedo only cluster, not the touring wagon tacho and speedo cluster, not sure if that makes any difference)

Post by **Captain Obvious** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:46 pm

no fairly certin they dont

subius · Post by **subius** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:18 pm

nope they dont. I have a jap import awd cluster and it does have one. Not sure about the standard Aus delivered rx cluster though.

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:40 pm

They all do (the little square under the 'E' letter) , but the AUS delivered ones are not hooked up.

Battlewagon · Post by **Battlewagon** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:23 pm

Which explains why mine don't work...wonder if it is possible to hook it up?

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:33 pm

Nope, the fuel sender AUS cars have does not have a provision for it (and hence wiring is not there)

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 9:22 pm

GTlegs wrote:Nope, the fuel sender AUS cars have does not have a provision for it (and hence wiring is not there)

Is there a way of installing or making one.. possible from a Liberty?
Cheers
AP

spike · Post by **spike** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 9:41 pm

GTlegs wrote:They all do (the little square under the 'E' letter) , but the AUS delivered ones are not hooked up.

WHAT!!!
so looking into this!!!

on the other hand with the subaru being so shite on fuel it seems mine is the only sender that works in the house hold. but even so i drive it when the needles below the little white square

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:01 pm

AlpineRaven wrote:Is there a way of installing or making one.. possible from a Liberty?
Cheers
AP

You could rig something up (like a switch) in theory, but in practice, the fuel senders are individual for each car (and I think a liberty has two for each side of the car due to the diff hump in the tank).

Taking out the fuel level sender out of the tank is not recommended by Subaru anyway as it would stuff it up and you would need to instal a new one.

You could buy a new JDM sender I guess, and rig up the wiring, but how you would connect it to your dash is another question as the dash gauges only have two round connectors that power all the gauges.

Battlewagon · Post by **Battlewagon** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:08 pm

Perhaps source a jap import fuel sender out of NZ?
As for the wiring, where there's a will........there's some bloke with a soldering iron.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:26 pm

GTlegs wrote:You could rig something up (like a switch) in theory, but in practice, the fuel senders are individual for each car (and I think a liberty has two for each side of the car due to the diff hump in the tank).

Taking out the fuel level sender out of the tank is not recommended by Subaru anyway as it would stuff it up and you would need to instal a new one.

You could buy a new JDM sender I guess, and rig up the wiring, but how you would connect it to your dash is another question as the dash gauges only have two round connectors that power all the gauges.

Ive already swapped over the low fuel unit in my wagon and it was fixed by doing that...

Yeah but Liberty has 1 low fuel sender on the drivers side of the tank, the left side is only pickup line.
Cheers
AP

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:49 pm

Swear that my 87 touring wagon had a functional lightas I thought it a novelty compared to my GLTA sedan, which has the wires on sender (3 wires, earth, gauge and light) light in sedan never glowed for me

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:19 pm

Nope,my L DL wagon now runs a full touring wagon loom plus the touring wagon dash, never had the low fuel light on but have managed 65L fill in the tank on a few occasions without seeing any light appear. The dash does have the capacity to have a low fuel level light yet as GTlegs has said the wiring is not there - hence we do not have the correct fuel sender unit to do the job...

Cheers

Bennie

T'subaru · Post by **T'subaru** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:00 am

This got me curious and my 3 L series all have it although the fsm doesnt reference it ( didnt look at the full wiring schematic) but my owners manual does, says it illuminates at 2.0 imp gallons/ 9 liters. Pretty hard to see but below E there is a 2 x 4 mm window. Ill bet the wiring is there if the right sender is installed, strange they would send Au a different fuel sender.I could be wrong but Ive added electric mirrors and interval wipers and all the wiring was in place, plug and play:)

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:34 am

1988 SUBARU OWNERS MANUAL out of my 11/87 made TW

page 27

Low fuel warning light
This low fuel warning light goes on with the ignition switch at "ON" when the fuel tank is nearly empty [ about 9 liters (2.4 US gal, 2.0 Imp gal)]

Guess I got lucky, and I am tired, off to sleep through a once in 4 year soccer game

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:42 am

steptoe wrote:1988 SUBARU OWNERS MANUAL out of my 11/87 made TW

page 27

Low fuel warning light
This low fuel warning light goes on with the ignition switch at "ON" when the fuel tank is nearly empty [ about 9 liters (2.4 US gal, 2.0 Imp gal)]

Yep, maybe it does say that. I've also seen an L series owners manual that shows details of the L series AWD gearbox with lockable centre diff, but we never got that one either...

Cheers

Bennie

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:22 am

My 88 MPFI touring wagon had a functioning fuel light.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:56 pm

Interesting. Maybe I could get mine going then. Ruby Scoo runs a full touring wagon loom, dash and has an EFI fuel tank from a leone royale...

So what would be missing? I know the globe is in there and when swapped to the place of another globe that's the same its a working unit.

I would presume that the fuel sender unit would be the one capable of turning that light on being that it is from a Royale model.

Cheers

Bennie

spike · Post by **spike** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:50 pm

El_Freddo wrote: dash and has an EFI fuel tank from a leone royale...

ive got one sitting here too interested??

if it works the i might go ahead too

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:55 pm

please, look at your sender unit and report back the number and colour of your wires. Did have two fuel tank senders as spares since binned, and they had three wires, and a funny electronic? sensor thingmyjig at the end of the non sender wire for gauge. Think many just shoot themselves early in life. The extra little booklet for Australian owners manual does not state anything about warning light not being an option