Alright guys, i started spring break yesterday and drove from orlando to tampa, and on the drive home i monitored my miles and gallons used. My average after getting home was 13.257 mpg and i have no idea what the hell got me there.

I was cruising at 75 mph at 2100 rpms the entire way, with a little bit of stop and go traffic on I-4 (maybe 5 mins worth).

the car has a K&N drop in with the fender snorkel cut wide, glasspacks, and is otherwise stock <------which sucks.

i am putting on a O/R x this week to go with my fox body springs and new shocks/struts....so I want to try and get some mpg back too. i am cleaning the IAC (not for mpg, for surging), i already checked tire pressure, getting a new fuel filter, i cleaned the intake system and am kinda lost as to where to go from here. The car has an "excess fuel" exhaust smell, but never any soot in the pipe so it doesnt seem to have the symptoms of running rich (haven't checked the plugs). I hear Dime is getting like 30 mpg with 4.10s so what the hell am I doing?

Oh and does anyone else have a "squatting" problem with the rear? On hot days it feels like the rear calipers are binding and the car literally feels like its dragging ***...but only on hot days...i cant figure that one out either.

thanks

 

idk man have you checked for sludge? when you claculated for mph did you use mile driven/gallons filled up. i was doing like 230 divided by 15.7 and was only getting like 15 mpg but then i realized i wasnt using all 15 gallons..just around 12. so that goes from 15 to 20 mpg...

 

Is your e-brake adjusted properly, because if it is slightly engaged that could be killing your mileage.

 

^+1 check e-brake

when its hot metal expands, when its cold metal contracts, could be your problem, caliper or E-brake could be dragging.

Also if you smell gas you might have an exhaust leak somewhere, i'd check that out.

GL.

 

i dont use gallons filled because like you said, you never actually use all of the gas since the fill up...so yeah im pretty sure i have the right MPG, but even if im off by 2 mpg im still only getting 15mpg in a stock 4v.

defcon...i dont know anything about the ebrake other than its a bitch when youre reworking your discs/rotors/lines.....how do you check the engagement/ adjustment?

thanks by the way guys

also just checked my exhaust...no leaks all the way back. I am having an x-pipe installed so when we get it all hooked up i will double check against leaks then too.

 

x pipe should help. maybe the cats are clogged.

 

messin with the e-brake now...i couldnt find any older threads on how to loosen the brake, just ones on how to tighten it...oh well.

and the car only has 59k on it (rolled over on the drive home ) so if the cats are clogged i would be surprised...but i didnt mention that before, so thank you for the suggestion.

 

as soon as u fill up devide the amount of miles u drove. (refresh it everytime) with the amount of gallons u put in to fill it up (this way it is how many gallons u actually used)

not to be a dick but i dont see the confusion on calculating it. i am in the habit of doing it every fill up now. O.o

 

im not confused on how to calculate it, that was never my problem. my problem was that i know i am getting 13 mpg and i didnt know what the problem was that was causing my excess fuel consumption. taking defcon and svtee's advice i checked my rear wheels for bind, and sure enough those bastards dont move at all.

lifted off the ground out of gear i applied the e-brake and the line barely tightened, meaning that it was slightly engaged already. i tried to spin the wheel by hand and the drivers side didnt moveand the passenger side was a PITA to spin and didnt freely rotate after i stopped applying force. I had checked these lines before (like in my first post, i said i couldnt figure it out) because every time i checked it was cold outside and the pads werent expanded. so now that its hotter outside (85*), the e-brake has just enough tension in the line to cause brake bind...which sucks.

i hope i dont need new pads, and i am taking care of it tomorrow. as long as this is the problem, which really seems logical at this point seeing how obvious the bind was, then i should see a drastic improvement in my mpg, which is nearly orgasmic.

i really appreciate the input guys. thanks for all the help. i'll update tomorrow to tell everyone how much of a dumbass i ended up being.

 

post up ur next fill up mpg as well so we can see how much of a help it was?
glad ya figured it out