MPG Still Sucks at 4500 Miles

engine23ccvfd

engine23ccvfd

Flameman Not An Onion
Guys hope you can help. My MPG has not increased one bit since i got my MM. Currently I average 13.7 MPG. I generally drive 20 miles a day at 80 MPH and 17 miles daily in city driving.

I do a daily WOT getting on the freeway which I am sure sucks some gas but I feel I am off some how. Any ideas?

Do I need to give break in more time?

Thanks

Andy
 
That does seem quite low. I drive a similar pattern to you during the week and get 17 MPG / 20.5 MPG cruising 78 mph for my weekly 217 mi. trip home.

With 5500 miles on her I've always used 93 octane and first oil change with Motorcraft 5W20. I keep my tires @ 35lbs.

Dunno...:confused:
 
Quite a few MPG complaints... I saw someone (RC?) bring up the axle bearing TSB in another thread about a noisy rear (no Mexican food involved either, apparently) and I'm wondering if these MPG issues aren't related in some way to excess friction on some of the cars for which the TSB would be applicable?

At the very least, perhaps a quick alignment check to prove that there isn't a wheel that's tugging too hard in one direction and soaking up all kinds of road horsepower.
 
Dang, Engine23 . . .

I average almost the exact same thing. I drive 22 miles highway @ 74MPH/18 miles city on a typical day. I inflated my tires to 38 lbs. I'm STILL getting what you're getting . . . 13.4-13.7 MPG!!!
 
My mileage is about 17ish with City driving.....the one time I did a lot of highway..it was closer to 20....but sometimes city is just not so great....but in truth I did not by this for the Gas Mileage.. :D
 
Well NBC shooter has an excuse,reformulated gas.
I don't know about Houston.
When we were in CA back in Mar. I noticed a drop in milage.
 
Doing 80 does not help MPG. Anything over 75 with this car and you can notice the MPG drop, and doing that WOT every morning is sucking some too. City driving of course is hell on MPG. So, I think you're probably doing about right with what you're doing with the car. I average 17-20MPG with mixed driving and 7000 miles on the odo. Check your tire pressure (mines at 35 front 32 rear) and try to cruise at 75 on the way to work, see what that does for ya.
 
Uhggg 75 there must be abother way.....Houston does have the reform gas. Cant remember if its just the summer or all year now. Shouldn't that crap run cleaner and more effeciently?

In the interest of science I will try driving slow one week and punish myself.
 
My mileage was always between 17-20... I would take it in and get it checked...
 
I just had my PCM flashed. Cured the rough start/ surge problem. Runs smother now. I remember a thread citing a TSB on this, it said the program was making the motor run rich. This was causing plugs to foul. If this is the case, wouldn' that have a large inpact on feul milage? I was gettin about 14-15 mpg from mine, mostly city driving and I have a weighted foot. However on my one long trip with the car, I got 24mpg over 400mi. on the highway. I will check gas milage now with the new software.
 
During CVN's recent St. Thomas trip, for one leg of the return I got 26 MPG out of the Marauder. It now has 2400 miles.

In mixed driving it has been consistant at 20MPG. I've really got to hit the loud pedal to reduce the mileage below 20MPG. I am quite pleased, as the 2001 CV LX Sport I had previous was hard pressed to show me at best 17MPG.

Best,

Paul:D
 
Low MPG here, too

I hover around 13 mpg with 4700 miles on the clicker now. LA city driving, lots of starts and stops, jumps on and off the freeway, and I've got a very heavy foot.

Just took her to Las Vegas for two days this week and noticed solid MPG increase to about 19 MPG and that's with the cruise control at 85 MPH.

Not too concerned about gas milegage, but I am driving a car that has never had any software updates, has never seen anything but 91 octane fuel, has no mods, and has not been back to dealer since I bought it (I pulled into an LM dealer to have oil changed at 3000 miles, overheard a mechanic ask a co-worker "What is that?" so I pulled out and drove to EZ Lube).
 
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i just took a 500 mile trip to sacramento from southern california.. i got an average of 23.7 MPG going around 75.. ive heard that the sweet spot for gas mileage on this car is around 2200 rpm.. so around 72-75.. and.. a/c was on the whole time.
 
I ran 600 miles last week with 4 adults and suitcases in the car, doing 72 - 75 mph......some 80 and I averaged 23.1 MPG. Now thats in Texas where the road is relatively flat. But I concur with the sweetspot......my car loves 2200 RPM.
 
Well, Matt, Cyclone . . .

I guess I'm not alone on this poor L.A. mileage issue. Cyclone--what exactly is different about California gas other than the low 91 octane? Someone here had mentioned that MTBE-additive fuel lowered mileage--I was under the impression the opposite was true, that ethanol-additive fuel lowered mileage (or horsepower), so I've been avoiding ethanol pumps (e.g., 76, Arco) and favoring MTBE pumps (e.g., Mobil, Chevron). I tried a tank of 91 octane Texaco for the first time last night . . . will see if there's any change to report.
 
This is maybe a wild goose chase, but how much extra cargo are folks carrying around, when they complain about gas mileage? I know it'd have to be a heck of a lot of cargo to carry around to impact mileage this badly, but I did know folks who carried complete toolboxes (the LARGE kinds) around in their trunks... one relative loaded down his 1978 Fairmont so bad that the rear end was practically dragging, and acceleration from the 302 2Bbl was painful, and this practically from the day he bought the car!

Another thing I've been wondering... I had a brake booster that was 'lazy' in releasing the brakes, to the point where the brake lights would actually go off if I lifted pressure off the pedal in any way. Maybe these low gas mileage cases are related to lazy boosters in a more extreme case? Might be something to check out... riding with your brakes semi-applied will soak up lots of power and mileage.
 
NBC Shooter said:
--what exactly is different about California gas other than the low 91 octane? Someone here had mentioned that MTBE-additive fuel lowered mileage--
Click to expand...

I don't know what the real story is...but, it would NOT be too difficult to imagine that politics would create a gas that would need to be used more (less MPG) to supposedly reduce emissions. So everyone uses more gas...then someday they say "Well, we THOUGHT we were reducing emissions...but..."
 
Oh wow,I wish I knew were to start...............
First I'm no expert on petrolium products.

I few years ago the tech editor for MotorCycleist Magizine wrote a VERY Long article on what is going on in CA with fuels.
Art Friedmen I believe was his name.
MTBE,Gasahol, and what seemed like 100's of other additive all in the name of helping clean up the air. Most have negitive reactions on other parts of the enviroment.
He's no crack pot either has lobbied and appered as an expert witness on many cases against the use of many chemicles used in CA.
I use the past tense because I think we lost him about 2 years ago...........


Truth is i don't know what was in the gas I put in my car out there,I also drove the car very easly because Im cheap,trying to maximize milage.But per gal. the fuel in CA has less energy per gal than Gas in other parts of the country.That has been said by many people for several years.
 
IN Texas five counties around Houston and I believe some of the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex are required to use the re-formulated gasoline however it does come in three flavors which i believe is 93 oct, 89oct, and 87oct....I went to one station (Texaco?) that had 91oct as its middle gas.

As for additional weight i dont carry much in the trunk. Gallon of water, gallon anti-freeze, quart oil, can flat be gone (extreme emergencies only), and 50 lbs of fire gear. I am a lean 150LBs so my cargo and body doesnt match some of all with a little extra padding.

I wonder if a emmisions(SP) test could tell me if I am passing more unburned fuel than I should? What about a dyno? I dont mind spending a little extra on gas but crap I get near the same as my big v8 Dodge Ram (5.7 liter I think)
 
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