Gas milage changed bigtime

RichP

RichP

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Effort, Pa
Anybody notice that about 2 months ago their gas milage went down ?? Just curious as ALL our vehicles suffered almost a 20% decrease in milage across the board. Wife noticed it first when she almost ran out of gas at a light and according to her log still had over 80mi left on the tank, 96 Olds. Sons 89YJ took a similar hit only he ran out and I needed to drop the 5 gallon blitz can off to him, he still had another 50+ miles to go from his log and on mine my milage went from 22 to less than 18. Noticed that this past two weeks the milage is back up on all the vehicles to normal and the new TJ is getting 20.5mpg. Mentioned this on the bmja board and got alot of reponses that alot of them noticed a big drop like ours. Anybody else in the other parts of the country notice this.
Oh, it was not just from one brand either, it was from Mobil, Amaco, Sunoco and a cheapie station that I used when I get down out of the poconos called Sheetz which is 10-15 cents a gallon cheaper than here in tourist country where they gouge locals and tourists equally.
This wasn't the usual 'winter fuel thing' either, we're used to that...
 
so maybe I'm not crazy?

when I was back in PA about 2 weeks ago, I filled up the XJ. the gas lasted for one wheelin trip. I got 54 miles to a TANK!!!

damn thing ran rough too.

I filled the MJ to go on the way back up to RI, again, my gas mileage was rediculously low, filled up again in NJ, and I'm STILL driving around on the gas I got in NJ!

something is up!:scared:
 
PNW i havent noticed it yet. Gas is still fairly cheap to. 1.50 a gallon the cheap stuff which runs fine in my xj. For some reason tho in the last 6 months i go around 80-90 km to have a tank from full, but then only 50-60 the rest of the way down.
 
i dropped from about 19mpg to about 16mpg in my 00 XJ and thopugh it was odd. I will check today and see if it's gone back up recently.

The government is controlling you!!!! Go put you r tin foil hat on. :greensmok
 
No noticible change out here in L.A., still getting roughly 16 mpg in my '89
 
don't know about your states but CO forces us to use blended fuel during the winter months. Chiefly to help the smog problem I beleive. I think it is either a methanol or ethanol blend. In the region of 20%.

Yup gas mileage suffers but emmissions are meant to be improved.
 
Yep, my mileage dropped about 20% -- same source as always, Sunoco.

I just thought it was my O2 sensor. I've just replaced it. We shall see.
 
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Fact: auto manufactures have been known to buy "gas efficient fuel injectors rights" from auto mechanics.
I know of one such instance in my area, there's a mechanic in our area that speciallizes in rebuilding/repairing diseasal fuel injectors. He was paid $500 thousand dollars for a recent invention this man had made, I'm not mentioning the auto manufacturing companies or the man's name, but he said its not the first time. The engine this man had built was a 6.2 L diesal engine that got 60-70 mpg on a 7400lb truck! Believe it,...or not?
To each his own I guess.
This man is now currently living rich, and is current planning on improving the exsisting design.
Now my question is, why don't the Auto manufacturing companies uses these? I just don't know.
What do y'll think?
-John
 
It is always a case of follow the money, the big money investors can no longer make big bucks on T bills, high interest and historically high paying investments. That leaves oil, to an american it is a lifeblood and people will reduce their food budgets before driving less or figuring out other ways to commute to work.
I do not doubt the milage, when we first got our hummers in our unit the first real trip we took was to Ft Drum NY, about 380 odd miles away. My H1, I filled up off the tanker at the armory, did not fill up again till we hit drum. I used ~9 gallons of diesel. Granted we were an advance and did not drive in convoy but basically hauled butt from NJ to Ft drum. All of us got pretty much the same milage during AT and back to home station. Then they were 'fixed' by the division and milage dropped to ~25mpg.
 
I noticed the exact same thing. I lost about 60-80 miles per tank. I know it was just about two months ago because I had just started seeing my woman when I first noticed the drop. That was 2 months and a few days ago. I was fully expecting to not see it go back up, but it has in the past few weeks.
 
People have been coming up with very fuel efficient engines for many years, but you never see them being utilized. It all comes down to control from power players in the business world and politics. Every now and then someone comes up with a great new product which soon disappears, replaced by that person having plenty of money. Well that's my short .02......

Now, where did I leave that V8 that got 60 mpg? :laugh3:
 
Yup, I upped the pressure in my AT/KO's to ~40PSI, did the same on the kids TJ's. The annoying part is that between the kids going to school and work [in this area everything is 15mi away], wife working and me averaging about 500-600mi a week it becomes evident pretty quick. Bought gas locally, got 15-17mpg, bought gas in NJ [winter fuel too] and milage went back up to 20-22mpg. Fill up here and it goes down again, back to NJ and a fill up and the milage goes back up. It drives me crazy...
 
RichP said:
Yup, I upped the pressure in my AT/KO's to ~40PSI, did the same on the kids TJ's. The annoying part is that between the kids going to school and work [in this area everything is 15mi away], wife working and me averaging about 500-600mi a week it becomes evident pretty quick. Bought gas locally, got 15-17mpg, bought gas in NJ [winter fuel too] and milage went back up to 20-22mpg. Fill up here and it goes down again, back to NJ and a fill up and the milage goes back up. It drives me crazy...
Click to expand...

I think you're onto something. The fuel economy has changed for me about two weeks ago. I got close to 40mpg! It stopped raining so I started to drive my electric hybrid gokart to work. Now since it's supposed to start raining sometime tomorrow I am driving the jeep again :D and I'm going to be getting about 16mpg again :( (although it does get better if there is some traffic on the freeway and I don't speed on the way to work)
 
RichP said:
Anybody notice that about 2 months ago their gas milage went down ?? Just curious as ALL our vehicles suffered almost a 20% decrease in milage across the board....
Click to expand...

YES! Her Cutlass went from 19-20, to 16, to 13.5! (It has since recovered to about 17) Still ran fine, but I thought something must be wrong. Asked a mechanic friend at work, his face lit up and said his Corsica was doing the same thing.

His theory (that I can buy) is that when the gas prices drop, the suppliers with decent product just sit on it, waiting for the prices to recover. The guys selling crap are willing to let it go cheap. The gas stations just buy what's available...

Robert
 
i noticed the same thing...
but i realised that the way there is uphill and the way back is downhill...
which makes a 50 mile difference per tank...
the 76 gas doesn't seem to vary in quality mych here...IMHO
i hope you find the culprit rich...
 
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