Fuel door light

Now I see posts dating from 2004, in a forum for Impreza owners, that say that message is to tell the driver which side of the car the Fuel Door is on! If that is the whole story, I apologize for wasting your bandwidth. But I also think SoA ought to apologize for putting it there with no explanation anywhere! The Impreza discussion says that some other cars have the same message for that "protecting dummies" purpose, but I've never seen one. Bob W.

Damn, I missed the "2002" part of your message at first and was hoping you meant that Subaru had separated the fuel-door alert from the "OMG your car is about to do something horrible that's going to kill you!" alert it's currently part of. I was not happy to find that I had rushed into my Subaru dealer a couple of years ago because of the stupid fuel door. (Yes, I have since considered getting a consumer-grade code reader. Haven't done it, but I'm also not going to the Subie dealership any more.)

Patty

I hope you mean fuel cap rather than fuel door. AFAIK you can rip the fuel off completely and the car won't know or care. I've never had a problem with a Subie fuel cap but did panic when my 2006 Miata threw a code and I went to the dealership and left with my face nearly as red as the car.

Sorry, yes. I had replaced the cap but somehow not turned it sufficiently for the sensor. Anyway, my complaint still stands: that shouldn't trigger the same warning as brake failure and other major problems.

Patty

Guessing you don't like the low tire pressure light, low fuel light, headlights-on light, seat heater light, A/C recirculation light or door ajar light either.

Figure you're probably OK though with stuff like the oil pressure light, high coolant temp light, check engine light, and alternator warning light, etc., though ;-)

Why wouldn't I like those? They don't imply that I'm about to die a horrible death from brake failure or some such.

Patty

You're not differentiating between serious/dangerous warnings and inconsequential/informational dashboard notices.

No, SUBARU is not differentiating them. When they use the most serious warning light on the dashboard for a slightly not closed gas cap, they are misleading the driver as to the danger of the situation.

Patty `

If the gas cap is not tight and you get into an accident, mightn't fuel spill and burn? That sounds dangerous to me.

A gas cap on a modern vehicle can't be "slightly not closed." Its condition is digital, not analog.

Either it's closed and seals so the fuel system can pressurize and the engine runs properly- or it's not closed and can't pressurize because it's venting air. Thus, the warning light comes on.

You keep missing the boat here. You don't seem to understand much about your car and how it works...

Well then, it was closed tightly enough, because the car ran fine.

Oh, so you've decided to start insulting me? Great move.

Patty

That's my assumption--that Subaru treats it as a major problem because of the tiny possibility of danger. I don't know whether that was Subaru's decision or some U.S. law. I would think that once the cap is turned enough to engage the flanges (or whatever they're called), that's secure enough.

And I still believe that this issue should not trigger the most serious light on the dashboard.

Patty

Insulting you? Nope, I was just drawing conclusions from your posts.

If I was trying to insult you, believe me- you'd know it;-)

government, at least for those of us in the USA. One of the things required by emissions rules from the EPA is the equipment for capturing and burning fuel vapors that arise from the gasoline in the tank. When the car is not running, they are captured in a vapor tank (I think it is full of activated carbon, which can absorb the vapors and then can also release them if surrounding air pressure is lowered) and then when the car is next started the system gets the captured gas vapor back out and feeds it into the engine to be burned.

That is required by US EPA rules. The "Check Engine Light" (frequently abbreviated to CEL) light has to come on for any malfunction that could result in violation of the emissions rules. Subaru doesn't get any choice in that. If the cap is not on tightly enough, the "get the stuff back out of the capture tank" part does not work right. I can think of two ways it might fail but I am not sure which, or maybe its both, that could be releasing vapors: (1) when restarted, the system tries to lower the air pressure so as to make the vapors come back out of the capture tank: If there were a leak anywhere, it might not be possible to pull the pressure down far enough. (ii) the more obvious, if the system has any leak to the outside than the vapors could escape to the atmosphere, which is exactly what the whole system is intended to prevent.

So the choice of turning on the CEL if unable to withdraw the vapors is not Subaru's, it follows from the EPA requirements. If they do the same thing in other jurisdictions it might be just because it is simpler to make one version than many, although they already have to make significantly different versions for sale in different markets. I don't think the potential escape of gasoline in an accident has anything to do with this. Bob Wilson