Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Gas Mileage is down the crapper

My motto: Fill it till you get wet, so I know I don't have an air bubble problem. However. I have a 2000 zetec atx with vct and I'm only getting 270-ish miles to a 15.8 gallon tank. Roughly translated, that's 16 mpg! I live on flat land, I have a new fuel filter, air filter, autolite doubleplats, the car only has 20k on it.and i drop a bottle of techron at every oil change. I just don't get it. The only thing that i can think of is that I need a new o2 sensor, but there's no cel. The only other clue I have is that I get that "spent fuel" smell at startup from the pipe. Anyone? anyone?

No Contour has a 15.8 gallon tank -- they are all 14.5. Ford typoed the capacity in the later owners manuals.

Sounds like the O2 sensor(s) are marginal, but not marginal enough to trip a CEL. I would look into that. I was getting bad gas mileage, changed my last O2 sensor that had been on the car for four years and it improved greatly. I was not getting a CEL either.

-Lance

So lemme get this straight. Ford spent 1/2 the national debt developing this car, didn't market it properly, and then pulled it from the market because it didn't sell to well, AND hired a special ed student to type the manual.

seems like everything is business as usual at FoMoCo
Luckily, where the blue oval drops the ball, Kinley picks it up.. Thanks for the tip.