Mileage per tank dwindling fast. Thoughts?

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Jan 7, 2007 | 07:54 PM
  #1  
Well, I was managing to get about 420-450 miles per tank (more on long trips) with my regular city driving. Well, I've not changed my driving habits, and I've only been getting a little over 325 per tank. The car has about 59,000 miles on it now. It's likely time for a tune-up...I keep putting that off since I do that stuff myself. Fuel filter? Any other ideas?
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Jan 7, 2007 | 09:18 PM
  #2  
So 60K mark is coming ! The fuel filter is in the tank, so forget about it. But make sure you flush the transmission, the radiator and change the air filter.
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Jan 7, 2007 | 09:24 PM
  #3  
holly s***! 450?!?!?! I'm lucky to get 350
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Jan 7, 2007 | 09:33 PM
  #4  
yo really i'm with project on that...maybe cause i'm in NY i'll be lucky to hit 300 miles on a full tank...buh on the highway i think i can push it to about 4-500 miles on one tank...lolxz love the highway...
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Jan 7, 2007 | 10:35 PM
  #5  
That's pretty good, 400+ in town. The 60k service should help. When was the last time you changed the air filter?
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Jan 8, 2007 | 06:37 AM
  #6  
With the intake, I get 20-22 city. Highway is about 32-34mpg. I have yet to have a full tank of gas and not jump on the Fujita. I wondered what it would be if I didn't.
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Jan 8, 2007 | 06:46 AM
  #7  
Quote: Any other ideas?
Winter fuel?
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Jan 8, 2007 | 06:49 AM
  #8  
Quote: So 60K mark is coming ! The fuel filter is in the tank, so forget about it. But make sure you flush the transmission, the radiator and change the air filter.
I've heard that it can be bad to have your transmission flushed as you get higher in miles. I was told that the high pressure system that they use when flushing it can cause small particles left over in the system to get lodged in places you don't want them. Anyone else hear this? I think I'll be just changing the fluid rather than getting it flushed.
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Jan 8, 2007 | 07:01 AM
  #9  
Quote: So 60K mark is coming ! The fuel filter is in the tank, so forget about it. But make sure you flush the transmission, the radiator and change the air filter.
Quote: That's pretty good, 400+ in town. The 60k service should help. When was the last time you changed the air filter?
Getting ready to do 2 of those 3 this week. Just added a K&N drop-in about 2 months ago. And I've got no problemo going into the tank. I just hope it's as easy (relatively easy) as my GTP was. You guys know if there's a "trap door" in the trunk? (I need to read my owner's manual. This hectic year at work has taken a toll on my shadetree mechanicness).

Quote: holly s***! 450?!?!?! I'm lucky to get 350
Well, I use cruise control as often as I can. That helps alot. But don't get me wrong...I get busy often enough.

Quote: Winter fuel?
What's winter?
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Jan 8, 2007 | 09:02 AM
  #10  
Thats some impressive gas mileage. I only get around 26 mpg on the hwy (under 70mph). About 18-20 in the city. And I have never seen the remaining mileage display more than 405 maybe. I think mine has already dwindled compared to some of you.
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Jan 8, 2007 | 09:43 AM
  #11  
I'd be happy to even get close to those numbers. With fujita and costant lound noise I am hearing, my average city (NY) is at 15.4 MPG constantly.
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Jan 8, 2007 | 10:18 AM
  #12  
im lucky to see just over 325 miles on a full tank and that is drivin like granny
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Jan 8, 2007 | 03:25 PM
  #13  
I average around 260-280 miles with a full tank...maybe because of my 20's?
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Jan 8, 2007 | 07:59 PM
  #14  
I am also now getting poor mileage. I use to get around 20-22 average with highway and city and now I am only getting about 15.
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Jan 8, 2007 | 11:13 PM
  #15  
Takin' it in tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find. Oh...and I plan on changing the plugs even though its not recommended until 100k (right?).
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Jan 9, 2007 | 12:54 AM
  #16  
Just put in my very first tank of gas. Fuel light came on at 15 gallons. If I remember correctly, the tank is 20 gallons. I had driven 260 miles or so. Computer said 18.6mpg. Coming from a 7 series BMW, I expected better.
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Jan 9, 2007 | 06:42 AM
  #17  
I usually get 16Gs at the pump and about 300miles each trip.
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Jan 9, 2007 | 07:44 AM
  #18  
Quote: Just put in my very first tank of gas. Fuel light came on at 15 gallons. If I remember correctly, the tank is 20 gallons. I had driven 260 miles or so. Computer said 18.6mpg. Coming from a 7 series BMW, I expected better.
And you should coming from a 7-series. No way on earth ANY 7-series gets better gas mileage than a Maxima. 18.6 is pretty normal for city driving unless you like to use cruise...you could raise that to over 20 easily. Getting used to driving with CC is hard at first since you're so used to using your foot. Its worth the difference in mpg...IMHO. My goals are 100 miles at each tick mark on the fuel gauge.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 05:39 AM
  #19  
Wow!!
I don't feel so bad. I get about 21-22 mpg in city about 360-380 a tank and all highway may 420. highway I do 80+ on cc, city cc every chance I get. AC on highway, city under 50mph no AC.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 07:09 AM
  #20  
Well, I got the car back from the shop. Their troubleshooting wasn't any better than mine. But I did learn two things:

[1] Clean your air filter often. I'm not sure if this is discussed in other threads already, but when I first got my car, I checked that and it was filthy. So I bought I new one (paper filter) and installed it. About a month after that, I bought a K&N drop-in. Well, that was about a month and a half ago. Mechanic said it was filthy. What gives? Its like a vacuum cleaner for the street or something.

[2] I got the transmission flush. My car shifts completely different now...in a good way. I highly recommend that, and so does Nissan every 30,000 miles, I think.

Just some thoughts I wanted to throw out there...prolly stuff you guys already know.

They are also going to replace my CD player (no questions asked). I just told them it was skipping, and the service advisor's first response was basically "when that happens, we just replace the whole thing". They also installed my Brembo rotors for about $60, which is nice since I had horribly warped OEMs.

I plan on changing spark plugs this weekend. Any recommendations? I suppose I could do a search too. Ok...I think I'm done.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 11:15 AM
  #21  
So, how's the mileage looking now? (After you got it back from the shop)
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Jan 10, 2007 | 12:55 PM
  #22  
Quote: So, how's the mileage looking now? (After you got it back from the shop)
Have yet to find out. They didn't really do a whole lot to fix that. So far, so good though. At the first tick mark, I'm at 131 miles. That's about right. Once I clean the injectors, I'll have a better idea. I got an overdue (which never happens) oil change too. I was 5,500 over.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 01:13 PM
  #23  
I have yet to get over 320 with my 2007. Even during my initial breakin period when I was taking it easy on the acceleration. Any 07 owners out there experiencing the same thing? I thought the CVT was supposed to help with mileage.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 05:14 PM
  #24  
Quote: Have yet to find out. They didn't really do a whole lot to fix that. So far, so good though. At the first tick mark, I'm at 131 miles. That's about right. Once I clean the injectors, I'll have a better idea. I got an overdue (which never happens) oil change too. I was 5,500 over.
5,500 over???
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Jan 10, 2007 | 07:29 PM
  #25  
Quote: Just put in my very first tank of gas. Fuel light came on at 15 gallons. If I remember correctly, the tank is 20 gallons. I had driven 260 miles or so. Computer said 18.6mpg. Coming from a 7 series BMW, I expected better.

First of all, you should know that since this is your first fill up, your engine is obviously not broken in yet. For the first 3000 miles or so you will be getting poor mileage and as you engine starts to wear and break in, it will get better. As the engine breaks in, the pistons and piston walls start to fit better together as you put more miles on it and after a while, your engine will be giving you better mileage.

Second of all, the reason your fuel light came on at about 15 gallons is because our cars have about 4 gallons that are kept as reserve fuel. This way when people keep ignoring their gas light, they still have fuel to get around to a gas station.

Third of all, RELAX! Your car is fine and dandy!!! lol
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Jan 10, 2007 | 08:14 PM
  #26  
Quote: First of all, you should know that since this is your first fill up, your engine is obviously not broken in yet. For the first 3000 miles or so you will be getting poor mileage and as you engine starts to wear and break in, it will get better. As the engine breaks in, the pistons and piston walls start to fit better together as you put more miles on it and after a while, your engine will be giving you better mileage.

Second of all, the reason your fuel light came on at about 15 gallons is because our cars have about 4 gallons that are kept as reserve fuel. This way when people keep ignoring their gas light, they still have fuel to get around to a gas station.

Third of all, RELAX! Your car is fine and dandy!!! lol
Couldn't have said it better myself, especially the part about break in period.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 08:34 PM
  #27  
Quote: I have yet to get over 320 with my 2007. Even during my initial breakin period when I was taking it easy on the acceleration. Any 07 owners out there experiencing the same thing? I thought the CVT was supposed to help with mileage.
.

How many miles on her? Mine was dismal till 4,500, then kept improving steadily until recently (now just over 10K). In Charlotte's miserable traffic she now averages about 21mpg, which is about 1 mpg better than my '03 with same engine & same general driving conditions.

If your doing 320 miles on a typical 15-16 gallon fill-up, that's not too bad, especially if you have fewer miles on yours than I have on mine.
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Jan 10, 2007 | 11:57 PM
  #28  
Quote: So 60K mark is coming ! The fuel filter is in the tank, so forget about it. . .
The fuel filter is accessable under the rear passenger seat -- so I don't believe it's actually located inside of the fuel tank. There is a thread on this topic in the Fluids & Lubes section of this site. I'll try to find it and post a link below.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=260358
Because there are other generations of Maximas covered, you need to be certain that you are dealing with the 6th Gen when reading the advice here. There is also a link with pictures. Check it all out.

On another question raised on this thread: Winter gasoline has a higher vapor pressure to allow it to better vaporize in cold weather. The blending component that gives a higher vapor pressure (butane) has less energy than other gasoline blending components, and so your winter mileage tends to be less than your summer mileage. You may also be in a location that just started requiring the blending of 10% ethanol in all gasolines. Ethanol has less energy than gasoline, and using that blend will reduce your gas mileage, too.

Before you change your spark plugs early (before about 100 K miles), I would run some Techron through the fuel system (follow instructions on the bottle). The need to more frequently change spark plugs has been reduced substantially due to better gasoline (much lower sulfur content) along with the use of a good fuel system cleaner like Techron.
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Jan 13, 2007 | 01:14 AM
  #29  
Quote: First of all, you should know that since this is your first fill up, your engine is obviously not broken in yet. For the first 3000 miles or so you will be getting poor mileage and as you engine starts to wear and break in, it will get better. As the engine breaks in, the pistons and piston walls start to fit better together as you put more miles on it and after a while, your engine will be giving you better mileage.

Second of all, the reason your fuel light came on at about 15 gallons is because our cars have about 4 gallons that are kept as reserve fuel. This way when people keep ignoring their gas light, they still have fuel to get around to a gas station.

Third of all, RELAX! Your car is fine and dandy!!! lol
Whew! Thanks. Although, at first I read 30,000 miles, lol I can't wait THAT long

I kinda figured it had something to do with the break-in period. I just hit 500 on the highway today I reset the computer when I hit cruising speed on the freeway, and at the end of the trip I checked it. 25.3 mpg I kept the cruise at 70 the entire way. I hope you're right, I can't live with this gas mileage...well, I can, but I don't want to Thanks!
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Jan 13, 2007 | 03:13 AM
  #30  
I had the same problem 3 months ago at 38,000 miles. Then i had the CEL on, took the max to Nissan and they replaced the air/fuel sensor on the left/right banks and cleaned the MAF. Before this started i got 22city/37hwy. Before the CEL started coming on i was at 17mpg city & highway. I could tell something was definately wrong. After the bank sensors were replaced i'm back up to normal mpg. Also, I have a turbonator installed. It gives me about 4+ mpg city/ 6+ hwy. Get one from autobarn.com if you don't have one.
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Jan 13, 2007 | 09:17 AM
  #31  
How do people come up with #s such as 37MPG/HWY ??? Do you reset the computer then make a reading a couple miles later down the road ? There are #s that are not real. What really counts is how many miles traveled and how much gas taken between fillups. About the Turbonator, is it a joke right !?
http://www.turbonator.com/
Anyboby wanna waste $49 ?!
Somebody should call GM and FORD, ask them to replace the big V8s with smaller V6, throw in a couple of Turbonators and we have a 37MPG SUVs with 300HPs. Problems solved ! How come nobody knew about this before ?
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Jan 13, 2007 | 09:41 AM
  #32  
Maxfan, well considering that a good friend of mine and I bought out Maximas within 2 weeks of each other. (2004) if we swap cars and drive our usual way my car still has at least 6+ mpg than his car. I've recommended the turbonator to others at work. The 3 guys who each got one have improved range per tank now(they don't have onboard cpu to read specific values of mpg) BTW do you know what the function of a turbo does or better said what results when increasing air to the engine any higher than being naturally aspirated? Better power/fuel economy.

Also, these readings are usual on highway cruising at about 65 at more than 30 mile drive. Of course when I do > 90 mph my reading is about 24 mpg. Still great for such high speeds.
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Jan 13, 2007 | 10:25 AM
  #33  
I will be looking out for it on Discovery Channel. The turbonator should be the best invention of the modern world, forget the sliced bread.
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Jan 13, 2007 | 11:32 AM
  #34  
I get 99.9 MPG Hwy .... but thats only when I'm coasting down this 2 mile long hill near my place

I used to get better mpg and mine has started going down too.
28-29 vs 25-26 HWY on the same trip,before winter gas .... not sure if they started using ethanol blends around my area,if so that would account for the 10-15% loss in mpg they talk about.
I've had new plugs,air filter installed (60 K) seemed to help a little.I want to check into that MAF cleaner thats out and see if that helps any.I'm also wondering about the O2 sensors .... any chance after so many miles that they can affect your mileage?

TURBONATOR a few magazines have already tested that and a few other devices and called bullsh*t on them .... so I'm with the camp that sez if it was that easy wouldn't the big 3 have it in their cars...ya know
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Jan 14, 2007 | 03:11 PM
  #35  
Quote: I will be looking out for it on Discovery Channel. The turbonator should be the best invention of the modern world, forget the sliced bread.

This thing seems like that thing that came out called the "Tornado"....biggest waste of money, I noticed no benefits and in fact, I think I got worse gas mileage after I installed it.
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Jan 15, 2007 | 05:52 AM
  #36  
I agree 100%. I had the turbonator on my 4th gen, and I noticed no benefits at all. It's a complete waste of money.
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Jan 16, 2007 | 08:26 PM
  #37  
Quote: .

How many miles on her? Mine was dismal till 4,500, then kept improving steadily until recently (now just over 10K). In Charlotte's miserable traffic she now averages about 21mpg, which is about 1 mpg better than my '03 with same engine & same general driving conditions.

If your doing 320 miles on a typical 15-16 gallon fill-up, that's not too bad, especially if you have fewer miles on yours than I have on mine.
I only have 3K on her. So, hopefully I'll se an improvement as I get up in miles. I'm in Charlotte as well. Where did you purchase your '07. I drove up to the lake and purchased it at Modern Nissan.
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Jan 16, 2007 | 09:11 PM
  #38  
Quote: I only have 3K on her. So, hopefully I'll se an improvement as I get up in miles. I'm in Charlotte as well. Where did you purchase your '07. I drove up to the lake and purchased it at Modern Nissan.
Yeah... you've got a way to go yet. I was getting 12-13 mpg tank averages then - I knew it would get better but those kind of numbers still make you queasy, especially at the price gas was this summer.

I got mine at East Charlotte. The '95 and the '03 came from there when they were still Independence Nissan - the '00 came from Superior. Mine was the first '07 sold in the Charlotte area. East Charlotte got the first two area shipments - Modern (Cornelius or Concord), Superior and Harrelson had no '07 stock at all at the time. Despite that, got mine for $300 under invoice... salesman called me at home at 8pm on June 30th desperate to make month-end quota.

I really wanted Precision Gray, but the only two SEs equipped the way I wanted (DPP + sunroof) were Sonoma Sunset and Dark Slate. Couldn't wait cause the '03 lease was up on July 5th. I liked the red but just couldn't break my black/charcoal/silver habit.

It was at least a month before I saw another '07 in Charlotte... still don't see a huge number of them. East Charlotte was hiding the '07s for a while... they had 50+ '06s still in inventory and the GM was afraid they wouldn't sell them without giving them away if customers had a choice. We were specifically looking for an '07. My wife and I drove through the lot at least twice a day looking for the first shipments that I knew were due because they showed up on the on-line inventory about a week before. My wife actually was there when the first cars were pulled off the carrier.
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Jan 17, 2007 | 05:19 AM
  #39  
Quote: This thing seems like that thing that came out called the "Tornado"....biggest waste of money, I noticed no benefits and in fact, I think I got worse gas mileage after I installed it.
Ahhh, the Tornado. I am guessing you are referring to the circular metal cutout/contraption that you'd install in your intake.

I can attest to the fact that it is useless. My cousin used it on his vehicle to no advantage whatsoever.
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Jan 17, 2007 | 06:15 PM
  #40  
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/89-06...QQcmdZViewItem

LOL.
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