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MPG's way too low for a 38000 mile car ????

G

greengasguzzler

New CEG'er
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
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10
Please help with your info. I just bought this car for the purpose of saving gas. It's a 1996 zetec 4 cylinder automatic. This car is getting 18.4 mpg's combined highway/city. Im getting less than 3 mpgs more than my 98 olds intrigue 3.8 liter 173000 miles.
Ive inquired at 2 mechanic shops and they blow me off like this is the expected mpgs for this car?? According to all the posts ive read here regarding mpg, almost everyone is in the twenties and up including six cylinder owners.
I bought it from the original owner (elderly woman) 38000 miles. according to receipts included with the car the plugs/air+fuel filter/ect/thermostat have been changed within the past 10k or so.
The check engine light is not on, and the mechanic said this is indicative that everything is fine, but obviously its not.
Im not running the A/C or defrost and tried babying it, but still get the same 240 miles out of 13 gallons of gas. I will be checking the back brakes for dragging as recommended in other posts. Tire pressures 32.
The car has only two issues thant may or may not be contributing to the poor mileage. #1 temp gauge is erratic. #2 the car idles high for like ten seconds before it drops low enough to put in gear, even when completly warmed up. doesnt matter if you drove 30 miles it races then drops slowly after every start. I just noticed tonight that the idle also hangs high for the same amount of time if i rev it up in park.
I plan on checking the filter and cleaning throttle body and idle air valve. Aside from that i dont know where else to look, and im dreading taking it to the dealer where ill be sodomized for even a minor repair, but no one seems to want to touch this issue.
Sorry for the long post, but i wanted to be thorough in my description of my problem. Who better than fellow contour owners to get advice. THANKS !!!!!!!!!!
 
well, you came to the right place. Yes you should be getting much better gas milage. Heck, I am getting 260 miles on around 11 gallons of fuel and that is normally reving it to around 5K or so when I shift and colder weather.

If your temp guage is going bonkers, the sensor might be bad and that could cause it to run rich.....it would be thinking that the engine is colder than what it is.
 
elraido said:
well, you came to the right place. Yes you should be getting much better gas milage. Heck, I am getting 260 miles on around 11 gallons of fuel and that is normally reving it to around 5K or so when I shift and colder weather.

If your temp guage is going bonkers, the sensor might be bad and that could cause it to run rich.....it would be thinking that the engine is colder than what it is.
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According to the haynes manual it has a separate sender for the gauge, and an ECT for the computer. Even though i have receipt saying the ect has been changed already maybe its bad again. Im going to change the ect and sender if the cleaning doesnt make a difference. thanks
 
The temperature gauge is known to deviate by large amounts during normal driving. For example, when driving at speeds >50 mph, my needle sits STEADY on R in "NORMAL." However, if I am stopped at a light, my needle sits STEADY on L. Go figure :laugh:
 
zorrex said:
The temperature gauge is known to deviate by large amounts during normal driving. For example, when driving at speeds >50 mph, my needle sits STEADY on R in "NORMAL." However, if I am stopped at a light, my needle sits STEADY on L. Go figure :laugh:
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but that is also because its a zetec. the duratec guage doesn't move around much, if at all once its come to temp.
 
BoSoxBruin said:
Open up the drivers side door and there will be a silver sticker... Unless you have non-stock sized tires, tire pressure should be 34 PSI for Zetec tires... I do not think this is robbing you of 10+ MPG though , LOL...
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stock tires pressure for P205/60R15 tires is 31 front and 34 rear ... I run 32 front and 35 rear


but if the pressure is low that will add to the lower milage ...
 
BrApple said:
but that is also because its a zetec. the duratec guage doesn't move around much, if at all once its come to temp.
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The OP was referring to a Zetec :cool:

Zetec FTW :laugh:

OP, if I were you, I'd check with an OBD-II scanner to verify the temperature, because even if you're "sending components" are working properly, as mine are, then if will still bounce around a decent amount. Low-speed fans come on at 212 and high speed fans come on at 220 IIRC.
 
Id say definitely temperature is the problem. There is no reason a 4 cyl should get 18 mpg. My 98 CSVT would pull 30+ highway and 24 combined. Take it to a competant mechanic or a competant buddy.
 
It's hard to say. My ATX Zetec gets about 25 avg. Granted I'm not too nice to the car, but the ATX is REALLY bad with gas. I'd be willing to bet that car hasn't seen ANY hard driving at all. Does anyone know if giving it a good, hard beating will help it out at all? :laugh:
 
zorrex said:
It's hard to say. My ATX Zetec gets about 25 avg. Granted I'm not too nice to the car, but the ATX is REALLY bad with gas. I'd be willing to bet that car hasn't seen ANY hard driving at all. Does anyone know if giving it a good, hard beating will help it out at all? :laugh:
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well I once read that the zetec should be taken above 4k rpm when driven to help keep the hydraulic lifters adjusted and working correctly .... the idea seems to work :laugh:
 
BrApple said:
well I once read that the zetec should be taken above 4k rpm when driven to help keep the hydraulic lifters adjusted and working correctly .... the idea seems to work :laugh:
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All righty then. OP, put the pedal to the floor and force your car to shift off the rev limiter :D
 
When I first got my zetec I was having the same problem as you, 18-20 mpg. First I changed the two temp sensors, new air filter, and ran it hard on a couple tanks of premium. Then I replaced my muffler (rusted out) with a strait pipe, and ziptied the filter to the intake system, removing the airbox itself.

The most notable was the strait pipe, but currently I get 25-26 mpg. After a full fluid flush and oil change I expect to raise that up a bit.

Also on the temp gauge, mine worked sporadically when I first got the car. I replaced both sensors and got it working. Even now the gauge sits about 3/4 inside the brackets to just under the right bracket while driving. The zetec is a light block, it doesn't take much to heat it up or cool it down.
 
KennyT772 said:
When I first got my zetec I was having the same problem as you, 18-20 mpg. First I changed the two temp sensors, new air filter, and ran it hard on a couple tanks of premium. Then I replaced my muffler (rusted out) with a strait pipe, and ziptied the filter to the intake system, removing the airbox itself.

The most notable was the strait pipe, but currently I get 25-26 mpg. After a full fluid flush and oil change I expect to raise that up a bit.

Also on the temp gauge, mine worked sporadically when I first got the car. I replaced both sensors and got it working. Even now the gauge sits about 3/4 inside the brackets to just under the right bracket while driving. The zetec is a light block, it doesn't take much to heat it up or cool it down.
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Pretty spot on, except for the zip-tie thing. Yeah don't do that.
 
zorrex said:
Pretty spot on, except for the zip-tie thing. Yeah don't do that.
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Well call me on it or not, until I have a reason for changing it or the money to it's staying that way. The best way would be to cut the lower part of the airbox out and use the stock bracket to secure the filter.
 
38K miles is pretty low for the vintage of the car. That's what, 3100 miles per year? That is one of the reasons that a "driven by a little old lady" car may not mean that it's not going to bring with it its own kinds of problems. Namely that the car was probably only a grocery getter, driven on short trips and probably never really got warmed up. You don't mention what part of the country you are in but if it gets cold there, the engine could be pretty gummed up. What I'm getting at is that you may have to treat the engine as if it has 380K miles on it and start doing things like compression checks and such to get to the bottom of your poor gas mileage.
Karl
 
Sounds like the ECT sensor to me. A fully warmed up engine shouldn't have a starting RPM surge. Should be a simple test with a scanner.
 
KennyT772 said:
When I first got my zetec I was having the same problem as you, 18-20 mpg. First I changed the two temp sensors, new air filter, and ran it hard on a couple tanks of premium. Then I replaced my muffler (rusted out) with a strait pipe, and ziptied the filter to the intake system, removing the airbox itself.

.
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As soon as time permits ill be changing both sensors, checking gap on plugs, checking the air filter, cleaning throttle body, use a bottle of Techron.
is the straight pipe you spoke of a stainless steel straight through muffler? do they make these that sre not super loud? Also this filter you ziptied was it the aftermarket cone shaped one usually used on a cold air intake setup? im just trying to visualize this mod. I hope i get similar results as you.
 
zorrex said:
All righty then. OP, put the pedal to the floor and force your car to shift off the rev limiter :D
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Ill try to show her who's boss for the next few tank fulls. Im just nervous being im used to beating on my olds 3.8 and havent had a 4 cylinder in about 7-8 years. Man ill tell ya nothings more frustratiing than carreer mechanics not so much as having a theory on how to attack a problem such as this. Oh well at least im handy enough to do all the suggested things so far. Im also nervous about letting these guys at autozone/advance hookup the scanner. Is the connection fool proof or can they blow up my cars computer by connecting something wrong?
 
Regarding cleaning intake components, are there any no-no areas to avoid? Can the mass air flow meter be sprayed with intake cleaner?

Regarding using the scanner to check temp measurements, does it show the temp being measured by the air intake temperature sensor? if so i guess i could expect to see measurements of 200 hundred or so for engine temp, and the same temp appx as the ambient out door temperature for the intake sensor?

Regarding the idle air control valve after cleaning, should it be lightly lubed ater being clean noving part and may have been striped dry bye the cleaner
 
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