Fuel Issue

[BUDDAH]

To the OP I doubt water in you fuel was you problem ( the engine would just STOP) although a new fuel fix it I would say the engine was starving for fuel so I would be looking for a blockage on the fuel line pick up.

Water won't always kill the engine completely, it depends how much water there is in the system, it may only get water in one cylinder at a time causing misfires, or it may only be a minute amount and run lean. It's all pot luck.

how this is possible in a fuel injected petrol engine


I have run 10/12% water to fuel/ air using water injection on several engines you would be surprised just how much water a engine can use before stalling

[west_minist]

So I've been driving around Australia while I'm on long service leave, done about 10,000 km so far with no issues whatsoever. Today I ran the tank lower than I think I've run it on the trip so far and ran into a bit of a problem. At an indicated 100km to empty (10L left in the tank), the car just decided it didn't want to accelerate any more. It would drive at very light throttle applications, but put the foot down at all, and it felt strangled (actually went slower). At no point however did it stall or cut out completely. Luckily I was only a couple of kilometres from my destination, and I limped into the first petrol station I saw and filled up. When I fired it up again, it ran rough for a few seconds, but seemed to burn through the "bad" fuel and once it picked up fresh fuel it was all good again.

My question is, was it something in the bottom of the tank? water? bad fuel? I've run it down to about 70km to empty in the past with no issues. I had 10L of fuel remaining (put 54L in) so it shouldn't have been picking up the dregs so to speak. Will it just burn through it over the next few tanks? Or if its something like water is there something I can add as a co-solvent (ethanol?) thats not going to mess with the engine.

All subaru's do not work well when the fuel is low. The pump sits high in the tank. If you log your car, you will see your car pings more and more as she moves below 3/4 full tank.

[Dropz]

This is also due to the fact that Subaru's have 2 fuel tanks so once the main tanks get to about half full it starts to pump fuel from the second tank into the main tank.

[MrPotatoHead]

I had a look at the diagram for the fuel tank, and it looks like there are three different fuel pickup points from what I can make out. Sounds overly complicated, but I'm sure theres a reason for it. In any case, the problem hasn't occured since, so I'm happy to let it be, and take it up as a warranty issue if it occurs again!