last time i checked got around 16 miles to the gallon

been using 92 gas since i have got her

redoing every thing under the hood

hoping to get better gas milage

she has 255k miles on her



Kyle Cisneros

I had to choose 26mpg also, but my 1990 manual tranny with 260k miles gets 27mpg mixed mostly city driving and easily +30 on the highway with the cheapest 87 octane gas.

I think this may also have a lot to do with driving styles and maintanence. I accellerate briskly but not aggressively, don't go more than 10 mph over speed limit, religiously coast down as long as possible to stops, and keep my tires at 33 psi. I treat the brake pedal like a limo driver, only trying to gently use it when I mean to stop completely and am going below 35 mph. This is pretty much what all those "how to get the best MPG" articles say.

Apologies to all about the mostly irrelevant posts. I am trying to make it to 15 so I can start a new thread on a question I have.

can anyone explain this: why does the first quarter of a tank go by so fast, i figure if it went down at the same rate as the rest of the tank another 80 to 90 miles would add up to the total range. i checked my tank and its in perfect condition no leaks holes or any kind of crap.

because a gas gauge isnt perfect.....

so your saying to recalibrate the gauge?

no you need a flux capacitor........or realize your car is 15 years old, one of the two.

edit:wow that sounded kinda rude. your gauge isnt perfect so dont trust it too much

i realize its 15 years old, but other people on here have the 3rd gens also , and some of them pull nice mileages. and dont worry i didnt take it as rude, just funny . I need to change spark plugs on the car and open up the air intake (CAI), and change the fuel filter and maybe fuel pump.

Hmm...

I've got a 93, and I usually get 330-340 out of 15 gallons on a city/hwy mix....straight highway once I went 275 on 9.6 gallons

I think that the Aluminum flywheel and crank pulley raise mileage as well.

I think vans crappy gas mileage has to do with him flooring it everytime he takes off from a light...

im getting 19 on city streets, i dont do much high way driving at all but it should be atleast over 20 i dunno about 26, and im on stock intake , dunno when spark plugs were changed , lowest octane rating gas..

I get 30+ consistenly on the highway and my first 1/4 goes by realy quick, but i can stay right at the 1/2 mark for well over 100 miles. And like I said earlier, I can get over 100 miles after my light comes on. It all evens out...

I suppose you could have it calibrated. But why bother? When it says you're low, you're low. That's what the gauge is for, right?

I get like 20 mpg city with a vaccum leak and a seeping head gasket !!!

I think my coolant temp sensor the two wire on has gone bad so the fans don't turn on when the car heats up. So I unplugged the sensor and the fans turned on because of some limp mode was activated by the ecu.

This last tank of gas has flown by and I have gotten horrible mileage is this the culprit?

Thanks

yes, but 20 mpg is not horrible

with 3" intake, 3" headers/y-pipe, 3" exhaust, upgraded ecu, 93/94 octane, new distributor cap and rotor, new plugs, new plug wires, new water pump, reinstalled manifold studs, 15" rims, im getting 15 mpg in the city. highway is usually lots better (have always loved that about the maxima).

was better before i fixed everything!!!!

but i can beat an automatic 5.0 fox-body mustang now!!!

still wish i had all of that money i spent on gas/mods, though....

3" exhaust???
no wonder your mileage sucks

I ran both 2.5" & 3" set ups (both w/test pipes), didn't make a difference. Having it tuned by a professional after all the upgrades, did. 20 mph w/20G turbo & 660cc injectors is pretty good. It's 6 mpg more than my stock VE Maxima gets. I always got at least 20 mpg on my VG, though. If you read Sport Compact Car's yearly best car challenge, they have the gas milage test. Those people get 40 mpg on their 600HP cars. Just shows how much the driving style means.
I think I figured out the reason of my terrible gas milage. I have about 400 lbs of tools & stuff in my trunk, plus I mostly drive it to work & back, which is about 2 miles each way, so the car doesn't even get a chance to warm up. I just got myself a $600 '88 Prelude, it'll be my work car from now on (if it passes emissions).

Thanks to all who participated in the little poll, now i want all you 26mpg and more people to line up and tell me how the hell you manage that lol. just kidding. have fun drive safe and all Hail THE MAXIMA

If you're not getting 26 mph hwy then I would start looking at fuel leaks and low tire pressure. Lots of 4th gen Maxmias with fuel leaks.

Big exhaust could only help milage. It helps it breath better, which means less energy is directed tward evacuating the exhaust gasses and therefore its put into motion.... equaling better gas milage.

Also, i agree.. i belive that a underdrive pulley will help milage.

I think these factors, and many more added together, are what makes it possible for me to consistently average over 30 mpg on the highway (with 550cc injectors). And even with lots of boosting, the worst ive seen around town is 20..

I checked out you pictures, looks like fun!!! Did you do a lot of the work youself? Also, how how is your car holding up?

on a N/A 3.0 motor, a 3" will hurt performance and consequently economy

Twas fun, yea i did it all myself. Cars holding up fine.. ive put over 12k miles on since i went boosted and its still running just like it was before i boosted.


i agree with the fact that 3 inch exhaust will hurt performance, but i dont agree with it hurting economy. I drove for over a year with a 3 inch exhaust on my N/a max and it still often averaged over 30 on the highway. drove to pheonix and back that way 3 times and i have this weird obssesion with keeping track of my milage all the time

how was mileage around town though?
out on the highway a too large exhaust won't hurt economy, around town it will.
oh, and I also am a bit obsessive on mileage.

haha, theres just somthing about knowing what mileage you get.. doesnt really change how much you spend.

Around town... didnt really notice anything different. low 20s and if i was really hard on it high teens.

23 mpg.

This hurts for a guy that's only driven Hondas all his life.

I used to have a 91 and it used to get anywhere from 16 to 24 mpg. The majority of the time in mixed driving it was around 19 mpg.

i agree with the fact that 3 inch exhaust will hurt performance, but i dont agree with it hurting economy. I drove for over a year with a 3 inch exhaust on my N/a max and it still often averaged over 30 on the highway. drove to pheonix and back that way 3 times and i have this weird obssesion with keeping track of my milage all the time[/QUOTE]

You should clearefy, that 3" exhaust might hurt performance on a regular n/a maxima. Once you put a huge turbocharger on it, 2.25" exhauste becomes an obstraction. The difference between 2.5" and 3" w/ 20G turbo gave me over 20hp.
I think you deserve a medal, though, for doing all that work by yourself!

I also have an 89 and I get about 25 highway. My car was also sitting 4 a year in need of a transmission, now I have 1 in it and started driving it but it still neeeds 2une-up stuff bad. I hope that's all it is cause I need them 30 numbers I am seeing up there.

Yesterday's Tank 316 miles on 14.9 gallons (weekend local driving, plus 3 days to work on highway)

i get about 26mph right now, at one point i was getting 30, then i had a hole in a radiator hose, overheated bad, doesn't run like she use too i'll fix the problem one day.....once i can figure out what happened

I was getting in the 27-29 mpg range but now I have fallen back to the 23-25 Must be the winter warm-ups and the leaking injector

i got 24.5 mpg highway going 80-85 for 2?? miles, and max and i got 28.5 at one point driving to chicago. of course i got the 5 cylinder upgrade and the exhaust leak. in the city i avg like 16-18

It's been around 14 mpg, every time. I think it's all because of the way it get's driven, though. I got a couple of hundred pounds of tools in my trunk, and I only drive it in the city (Univercity District of Seattle traffic), and the most of the time it doesn't even have enough time to warm up. The only couple of times I've driven it on freeway, long distance, I got much better numbers.

how about any of the other maxi's u had or have.

never filled the tanks on any of them.

I never paid much attention, but I know that I never got less than 20mpg on my '90 (it could've been a '91) SE. That thing pulled like hell, too. Did you know, that in Europe, they only sold VG's, and they have 170 (not 160 hp), and the 4th generation Maximas sold in middle east (they call them "Arabians" in Russia), have something like 220, or 230 hp, I don't remember for sure. Plus they have 2.5 litter engines in Europe, too (4th gen.) There are so many cars they don't sell in US.

i get around 400+ on a full tank mostley highway

Farthest on one tank was 438 miles, with the needle below E - averaged 26.5 mpg that time, I guess due to driving at 80+mph speeds and having the A/C on. On other trips, I have managed 27-28 mpg, driving between 70-80 mph. However, the person I bought it from(older gentleman) said he averaged 31 mpg on one trip. Could be true, since he probably drove in a much more sedated fashion.

I have an 89 SE and she guzzles gas and I also smell fuel in the car at start up. Do you have any idea what it could be?

weeping fuel lines