Gas Mileage Mystery

pennwalk · Jan 31, 2008

My wife has been complaining about getting terrible mileage for the last couple of months. She is an accountant so she notices when the numbers aren't right. I even crawled under her car to see if someone had been messing with the gas tank. I seem to remember something about getting worse mileage with the winter blends. This week there was a article in the paper about people getting bad mileage and it having something to do with the ethanol they are putting in the gas. Do any of you guys know anything about this? It is bad enough paying $3 per gallon but going a lot less far stinks. I actually checked my mileage on the truck this morning when filled-up and it was lower than normal. I wonder if there is anyone around town who still sells gas.

Chris

Tig · Jan 31, 2008

Winter usually does mean more idling to warm up the car, tire slipping and slow going in the snow. That could contribute some. How much of a change in mileage have you seen?

deereman64 · Jan 31, 2008

When did you last change the spark plugs and cable leads? They do last much longer than in the past but over 50,000 miles that can be contributing factor. Im not as diligent as I should be on this because in modern cars they are almost impossible to find let alone remove.
The other point I find that with older cars and higher mileage the octane rating is important and I get improved performance and mileage with a 91 or 93

LMTC · Jan 31, 2008

Interesting point. My wife and I do most of our driving in a 2006 Sienna, with about 18k miles on it. We have both noted the mileage to drop in the last 3-4 months, and we rarely let it idle to warm up....we just stay in if it's that bad out. We've dropped from what was an average of 23.8 (onboard calculator) to an average of 23.0 in about 2000 miles, which means the last 2000 miles have been around 18+ mpg. That is significant.

garyfisher123 · Jan 31, 2008

You mentioned Ethanol, are you running E-85 (flex fuel) in the Toyota?

Nat · Jan 31, 2008

PA may be one of the states that have higher than government allowed pollution and are required to use oxygenated gas. I certianly don't know for sure. Here in NC a few years back we were required to use oxygenated fuel from Nov. til April to help lower pollution and our gas milage went down hill bad. It seemed to me to be wasted effort since more fuel was used to get to the same place so it would seem to make more pollution. Later, Nat

pennwalk · Jan 31, 2008

Tig said:
Winter usually does mean more idling to warm up the car, tire slipping and slow going in the snow. That could contribute some. How much of a change in mileage have you seen?

Steve,

As far as warming we are usually running behind, so we just go. Anyway Tom and Ray claim modern cars don't need to warm up. I do think we are driving less and more of it is around town. My wife said that the mileage in her '02 Accord went from 23 to 18 which is pretty bad. My T100 dropped from 17 to 16 so that might not be anything.

Chris

heehaw · Jan 31, 2008

things i have read, say you get better gas mileage with the lowest octane, unless your vehicle requires the higher octane: i have checked this on a couple 2,000 mile trips: went from Arkansas to Pa and used the cheapest fuel i could find, the used a grade or two better coming back and got the same fuel mileage, with no difference in performance i could detect: i have done this little test twice over the years and i came out the same both times: this was driving a toyota extended cab tacoma, 4cyl, 5speed manual transmission: 2 different trucks, one was a 93 model, i don't remember the year of the other one.
heehaw

pennwalk · Jan 31, 2008

Deereman,

I'm sure if any of the fleet needed plugs of wires or plugs the the guys at the shop would put them in. Even if they didn't need them if they had to make a boat payment you can be sure we would get them. As far as octane goes my wife uses mid grade because her dad always used hi-test. I find the truck knocks going up hill or when it is working hard if I use regular so I use mid grade too.

Chris

pennwalk · Jan 31, 2008

PA may well be a state that is adding ethanol to help with pollution in the winter I noticed on the pump there was a sticker that said something like "this fuel may contain up to 10% ethanol". In the summer Lancaster has air quality alerts all the time.

Chris