Start checking your milage

RichP

RichP

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Effort, Pa
Alot of the locals here in PA have noticed radical decreases, talking 17mpg to 13 mpg, in MPG over the past two weeks for no aparent reason. I myself noticed a big increase but have been buying my gas in northern NJ where it's .15 cents a gallon cheaper and not in Pa. I also see mobil state testing done on a regular basis in NJ which I have never seen done in Pa. Just a heads up if you notice a sudden decrease in milage, it may not be your rides fault... For all intents and purposes the winter fuel should be ending this week, 01APR, and normal fuel being supplied so the winter mix/summer mix will no longer be an excuse.
 
Connecticut recently outlawed MBTE as an additive and is now selling 10% Ethanol as the winter mix. I put the '87 MJ back on the road about the time they made the change and was astonished that a stock truck with 3.07 gears was getting 12 to 15 MPG when it should be over 20.

Then I saw the stickers on the pumps. Mileage is getting a bit better now, and I hope after we get "summer" fuel (and I put summer air in the tires) things will revert to normal.
 
My saturn mileage has dropped noticeably....from 42-45mpg highway to 37-38 mpg

Havent driven the MJ since the new year so I couldnt tell ya how the mileage is on that....rediculous
 
Is this "winter gas" just something used in Northern states, or do they use it in the south too? I live in Georgia.
 
Not sure, its use is I think mandated by traffic, solves pollution problems ideling in heavy traffic in the winter. Wife and kids came back from Florida last week and when I checked her log book she got ~25mpg going down and coming back and running around down there, now its back down to ~18 or so, that in a 97ish oldsmobile with a new engine that was put in last year.
 
YEAH

this past week I lost about 40 miles to the tank of gas!!!!

I was getting worried....cuz my rig is WELL tuned up, and has relatively new O2 sensors and i keep it running mint. . . . .

hopefully we get a new round of good gas in SOON
 
Not me. Since it's gotten warmer here in Utah, I get between 20-40 more miles per tank.
 
So they are formulating fuel to burn cleaner,(probably at a higher cost) but at a substantial degradation in MPG? Sounds like a racket.

Wonder how my Mobil stock is doing? :)
 
i know this is a stupid question, but how do you check milage? i go by the tank...but never calculate it...is there a formula?
also is there winter gas in califonia? i know that they are trying to take out the mtbe because its polluting the water around here....and i think i read in the fsm that the ethanol is bad for your jeep...or is it methanol or something? ignor that if you will i'm just thinking out loud.
 
TC said:
Might be a good time to change out the winter air in the tires also. TC
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to be a smartass here, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Is that a northern thing, or a joke or something? :dunno:
 
Pardn me for being a chemistry-challenged maroon, but how exactly is this MTBE polluting the water? Is it some tailpipe-emitted condensate that effects runoff? Is it coming from maroons spilling their petrol at the pump? Is it leaching from the gas-station tanks?

If the effect is bad, I am sure there is a prospective cause. Clue me in.

<edit> Winter air is really bad for tires. I have 5 Jeeps (25 tires) needing the air changed out...<edit>
 
Last edited:
biscuitboy87 said:
i know this is a stupid question, but how do you check milage? i go by the tank...but never calculate it...is there a formula?
Click to expand...

Miles traveled divided by gallons used = MPG

Start with a full tank of gas and write down your odometer reading. The next time you fill up, write down your odometer reading again and the number of gallons you put in your tank. Figure the miles you traveled, then divide by the gallons used. This will give you MPG. If you are running oversize tires and not regeared, you'll need to compensate for this.

Les
 
woody said:
<edit> Winter air is really bad for tires. I have 5 Jeeps (25 tires) needing the air changed out...<edit>
Click to expand...

Yeah ... I have three vehicles right now with snotty valve stems from that winter air. :lickout:

Les
 
Okay, excuse my ingorance here, but I'm gathering that you would release the air from the tires and then refill them with fresh air. I still don't understand thid concept though. I don't air down my tires and I haven't added any air in like six months, I check them but they are always fine. So I don't know if I have winter or summer air. I'm seriously not trying to be smart here, I've just never heard this before. :anon:
 
You know what, I'm not stupid and I figured it was a joke thats why I specifically asked if it was or not. I figured that when the president of NAXJA replied with what sounded like a serious response maybe there was some truth to it. I can do without this shit and I don't have time for it. :flamemad:
 
I've lost about 6mpg myself (1988 4.0 5sp) for no good reason I can find - and my wife has dropped 4-5mpg, although I've not been able to do her tuneup lately. Smog numbers on both vehicles (just before the beginning of the year) were excellent, so I know they're running their fuel well.

Woody - for more info on MTBE, do a search. There's a lot out there, this stuff is mildly toxic in ppb, and is harder than the hinges of Hell to get out of groundwater. Contamination (IIRC) is caused by spills, seepage from ground tanks, and from exhaust from engines running MTBE-laced fuel.

MTBE was originally mandated for ReFormulated Gasoline (RFG) as an oxygenator to reduce winter emissions while engines were getting to operating temperature, but has been shown to have no beneficial effect of any sort - much less for its intended purpose. The addition of ethanol in its place is a compromise measure, butis an improvement, as ethanol is itself a fuel (though considerably less energetic than gasoline, unless engines are retuned to run on it.)

Frankly, start by going from a "methods-based" means of reducing tailpipe emissions to a "results-based" methodology, and allow gearheads to start deleting the devices that really don't help, and tune engines for peak efficiency, rather than stick with the useless, failure-prone parts. But I'm cranky...

5-90
 
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