I told her to stay close and for the most part I couldn't see her in my mirrors.
Over the 1200 mile trip I filled my Dodge Ram up 9 times and burned almost 180 gallons of gas (sorry Mr. Gore).
We filled the Max up once at home and once around the half way point just for the heck of it. Only burned about 27 gallons of gas!

Not a typical occurance I know (I only get about 20 mpg city driving) but still something cool to talk about.

 

My 5-speed just revs too darn high on the highway to break 30 mpg. I get a rather consistent 25-28 in mixed driving though.

 

That's a common complaint I've heard about the MT, that it is geared all wrong for fuel economy. Hate to say it, but going a bit slower will likely help the gas mileage.

I've read about a guy that got to 204 mph (334.6 km/h) on a bicycle. His secret? He drafted a car. According to the article above 90% of energy expended on a bicycle is air resistance.

 

Maxed_out_99, I'm starting to wonder how much one of those consult2 scantools cost on ebay.......

I just reread your first post and noticed you said that is all city miles. In that case, you're not doing that bad. EPA city mileage is 20 mpg, so you're 1 better at least.

 

i dont know about e bay but i do n know those are extremly expensive, get in good with a nissan tech or flash 20 bones and think theyll do it

 

97 gxe stock auto 132K consistantly get 23 with mixed driving

 

In addition to factors already mentioned, weather affects mpg. When it is winter cold it takes longer for the engine and transmission to warm up, and fuel consumption is higher during warm-up. This affects short trip mpg a lot. In addition, gasoline sold in the winter has a bit less energy per gallon. And if it's raining your car encounters more resistance than driving through only air. A strong headwind can make a difference too.

Ethanol has less energy than gasoline too. Some regions use more ethanol than others, some stations use more ethanol than others. Ethanol has a higher octane than gasoline, so *some* "premium" gasoline has more ethanol than the regular, which can actually yield lower mpg than regular unless your timing is really retarded on regular.

In my experience, a bad knock sensor will only reduce mpg by 1 point.

 

99 GXE, California.

Have been using 91' for a few years now, getting about 19-21mpg average with fairly aggressive driving about 60/40 traffic to freeway speeds. I do have some slight machenical issues and am probably due for some new plugs.

 

I didnt know that ethanol would cause MPG to drop that much! Is that really the case? If so, which 'mainstream' gas (Exxon, Sunoco, etc.) would you recommend for best gas mileage? I am using Sunoco 93, and I saw on the pump that it could be 10% ethanol (living in PA here). If I knew of a non-ethanol provider, I would like to give that a try, not only for MPG but for other performance considerations. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

By the numbers, ethanol has about 66% of the energy of gasoline gallon for gallon. But it also has a higher octane (have heard it can hit 100 octane) so our Maxes can run e85 and probably do ok, with a hit on gas mileage.

10% ethanol likely doesn't change things much, if that's really how much they're using. I suspect they use ethanol to boost the octane of low octane fuel cheaply, which would explain why it varies. Apparently e85 vaies even more so in the percentages of gas/alcohol. I've sucessfully run e85 in my 97 villagerwith no issues, other than lower mileage.

I've noticed running high octane makes my car run smoother, but it seems to be a bit less punchy in the higher rpms. But in the low rpm range, it's hard to keep it at 45 mph---keeps wanting to speed up! The owner's manual recommends using 91 octane, but it can run 87 safely, assuming the knock sensor works correctly.

 

I fully agree with this. I get an average of 21 mpg with 80% hwy and 4 people with tools.

I have a 99 auto i30. At first I was getting 12 - 15 and was planning on getting rid of it for a v8. I inflated all the tires and got rid of enough unnecessary trunk junk which cause my head lights to need realigning. That rose it up to acceptable. Sad thing is that my 90 Buick with a 3.8l engine uses 87 octane and always gotten better milage.

 

98 se 5 speed
weapon r intake ,magnaflow exhuast i can only get about 13 mpg

 

I get 26-27 avg on the highway with plenty of traffic (58-67mph). 24 avg when there is no one on the highway (80mph).

87 Octane, Auto.

 

13 mpg???? You do know to shift it out of first right??

I can't imagine how that is possible!

 

i put 10 gallons of 89 octane chevron in and only got 165 miles out of it. that super soft driving all city. im thinking thats around 16MPG that PRETTY bad isn't it?


what could cause that big drop in gas? only sensor out is knock sensor.


i put 6 galls of 93 octane see how many mpg i get out of it.

 

well i got 90 miles out of 6 gallons of 93 octane chevron. WOW....someone help

 

The knock sensor is there for a reason, repair that and then check your mpg.

Things that got my mpg from where yours is to 20ish were taking out over 200lbs of junk that was in my trunk, inflating the tires, driving like an old lady and REPAIRING my knock and o2 sensors.

 

My knock sensor doesn't even work and I get decent mileage. Just started to use 93 octane and got 29mph the other day.

 

The knock sensor is really only good for those who use lower octane fuel. 93 octane likely won't knock to begin with. That is a decent number, but what do you average?

 

Mine runs like crap on 87. If you can't afford the car sell it...

 

Well I still knock when I am in lower speeds, but it does it less often. 29 is what I averaged on that drive; it was about a 45minute drive, and about 44 miles. Lately with 93 octane I get 27.5-28mpg.

 

I used to be in awe of these numbers til I got my Scan Guage.

By watching the numbers on the guage (epecially the gallons per hour and the throttle position sensor reading) the Sg says our daily average is in the 30s. Not bad since we usually get 25 MPG.

 

Wow I have a Scan Gauge also and I never hit over 29. I just seafoamed my max too and it seemed to have a lower MPG.

 

97 5sp. On the highway at a steady 75 I get 28 and change. In my usual mixed mostly-highway driving I get 25-26. I use 93.

I agree about the gearing being dumb for mileage. First, second, and third are right on. I use all of them. I rarely if ever use fourth gear; it's just not a convenient gear since the revs aren't that high at ~50-60 in third and fifth isn't tall enough to merit downshifting for gentle highway acceleration. So I usually go 1-2-3-5 or sometimes 1-3-5. It all depends on what I see ahead of me, of course, and where I feel like I need the engine to be, but I rarely find myself in fourth when I couldn't be in fifth. Unless you're a highway racer, it's useless. Nissan should have made fourth like fifth is now and made fifth considerably higher - I am at about 2950-3000 at 70mph which is too much.

 

3000 at 70? That's ridiculous! Sometimes I wish there were 2 choices for 5 speeds, one for the speed freaks and one for the fuel misers. My auto doesn't rev quite that high at 70 but I still wold love to change out the final drive ratio to something a bit more long legged. I had a 90 LeSabre that didn't touch 2000 rpms until I got around 90 mph (in 4th gear of course) and I'm sure it was a heavier car.

Luckily we don't have to deal with traffic congestion much which may be helping the MPG figures. Of course, while my wife was doing great, she got pissed off when someone passed her and tried to catch up with them, I guess to give her a piece of her mind. Our mpg dropped to something around 24 after that. These cars can sure gulp down the gas when prompted to!

 

I could use some help cause even when on the trips i might get 25 tops...Its a 97 5sp with about 240K. Granted i do have a short ram and a Dynomax muffler. (no name but sounds really good) and my wheels are kinda heavy. I have 18" with 245/45/18 tires. it is about a 1/4 inch bigger around than stock. my gas is 87 wiegels gas... Local gas station chain.

 

well sorry for bringin this thread back but... i just ended up babyin my car for a bout two weeks now just to make sure my numbers were right and i ended up with 25 mpg?!!! WHOLY CRAP!!!!

 

On my 97 MT I use 93 and get about 25 on a good day with mixed driving. I do tend to have a bit of a heavy foot... Awhile back I had a coil pack go bad and was getting like 16 or less mpg! Once I fixed the problem I was right back to roughly 25.

 

do you have any mods?

 

I have a 99SEL Auto,154k, with CAI, 00VI, Y-Pipe and exhaust, 17 inch rims 245/45/17, the last trip i took to Texas i filled up all the way with 91 octane - had 3 riders, 2 full suitcases and was cruising about 80mph all the way. When i needed to fill up the odo read 455 - so if i'm doing the math right i'm getting 26.76mpg.

 

You were getting 21 mpg, correct? then you went up to 25 mpg, which is roughly a 20% increase in fuel mileage! That's not too shabby to be quite honest! Is that still city driving? 21 mpg is VERY good for city driving I think!

 

How many gallons did you put in? on empty in my car i still have about 3 gallons left in the tank, ie I only manage to get 15 gallons in when filling up from "empty".

The generally accepted, and fairly accurate, procedure is to fill the tank up, reset your tripometer, drive tank nearly to empty, refill, and take the miles on the tripometer and divide it by the gallons you put back in. Due to any number of variables, you can end up with an artificially low or high number, so you do 2-3 tanks to get a good round average.

 

yup thats still all city looks like if im strapped for cash i should just be nice to my old lady

 

So replace o2 sensor that was making my system lean and I'm still getting the same 21-22 mpg.

 

^^ thats what these cars are sposta get from the factory so dont feel bad your car is prolly runnin great

 

1996 GLE - Stock. 350-380 Miles / tank.. 70% highway. Best mileage ever - 410 / tank.

 

yeah I was just expecting to be up around 25 mpg with a new o2

 

did you mod your car at all? i know if you put a cold air intake you get some pretty good gains

 

i don't recall how many gallons i put in the car, but when the light comes on i fill up. i may have done the math wrong but sounded good to me.

 

99 GXE stock. averaging 27 to 29mpg after seafoaming. I was getting was averaging 22 to 24 before. I still need to change one O2 sensor so we will see what happens after that.