Any ideas please on why I'm getting such poor mpg

[citytravelfotos]

I'm still trying to figure out why I get such poor MPG in the city (about 9 mpg) on a 2000 Ford E150 van (with a 5.4L V8 engine) that's rated at 13 mpg city / 18 mpg highway. The thing is that I do get about 17 to 18 mpg on the highway, so the highway mpg matches the ratings. My opinion is that there's too much gasoline being burned during acceleration, but I don't know what could be the cause. Trying to troubleshoot by changing thing after thing might be a wasteful use of money (changing fuel injectors for instance on an 8 cylinder 5.4L engine is really expensive) so if anyone else can figure out what might be going on would help me, thanks.

 

[SternWake]

Sitting at a traffic light, you get exactly 0 mpg. How much time do you spend sitting at traffic lights? You in LA? Do jack rabbit starts?

Also carrying a lot of weight causes city MPG to really take a dump.

HIghway MPG estimates are much more accurate than City MPG estimates, and driving style and the City layout have huge effects on fuel economy

 

[GotSmart]

Have you been using a product that keeps your fuel system clean? It sounds like clogged injectors to me. That would keep the fuel from not burning properly.

I use Lucas brand Fuel Injection Cleaner, and find it improves my mileage and performance in all my vehicles.

You can start with the quart bottle, (about $12) and it will give you four or five full tank treatments. That should tell you if you want to buy the gallon bottle $32. and use it all the time.

I have a gallon bottle that I dispense into the quarts, and then into the individual bottles for each tank full. It is used in all my cars at every fill up.

http://askville.amazon.com/Fuel-Injector-Cleaner-work-hurt/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2286881

http://www.lucasoil.com/products/display_products.sd?iid=26&catid=2

 

[citytravelfotos]

^ I've used that occasionally, I don't really see a difference in mpg.

I was driving a mix of highway and street and downtown streets in San Diego, got 10 mpg average. I was also in L.A, so having to deal with traffic drives the mpg way down. L.A. traffic lights don't usually have a left turn light, so that makes traffic lights more speedy.

Is idling that harsh on mpg?

 

[GotSmart]

You have to be consistent to clean things out at first.

Just my opinion.

 

[citytravelfotos]

^ Seems that the gallon is a better value at $25 online compared to the 32 oz bottles which could be $15 at truck stops.

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Also carrying a lot of weight causes city MPG to really take a dump.

I have a conversion van with a high top, my only guess is the weight of the high top, a marine battery, and possibly the bed as putting significant weight on the van.

HIghway MPG estimates are much more accurate than City MPG estimates, and driving style and the City layout have huge effects on fuel economy

Still, anyone else have this poor mpg in the city?

The last test I did, I got 17 mpg driving from Los Angeles to Sacramento (65 mph, with a little bit of city driving.)

In the last trip I did, I drove 1000 highway miles from Sacramento to San Diego and back, but I hanged around L.A. for awhile so I ended up driving another 1200 miles within San Diego and L.A. within 3 weeks (a mixture of city and highway driving.) So I can do hundreds of miles of city driving within a trip.

 

[GotSmart]

At 1:30 AM in Missouri, I had to go out to my daughters car and refill her empty quart bottle from my gallon jug. She is back to college tomorrow, and Dad has to take care of the details.

I am careful about my money, and I look at this as cheap insurance. When I started using it, I had an S10 that needed to be downshifted to go up one freeway hill. After the second tank, it was cruising up it without slowing or needing to downshift. The motor smoothed out and I did not have to replace the injectors like the mechanic told me needed to be done when I bought it.

I am convinced... Especially now when a full tank (30+ Gallons) will cost me $100.00. Any help is welcome. At 1 mpg, that is a $6+ savings per tank full. At just over $1 per tank, it is worth it in the extra power, not to mention savings on parts and fuel.

How much is shipping? I get mine at AutoZone which has a $20 back when you spend more than $20 five times. By spacing out my parts purchases, I can save lots. I think over the past couple years I have received perhaps $100 in "free" parts.

 

[Reducto]

Weight will have more of an impact on city driving than on highway driving. You're probably running at well over the amount they tested it at to come up with the ratings. Also, I assume you're charging your house batteries off the alternator, which takes power. It will suck up the most power when the battery is running low and you've just turned the engine on, so if your city driving consists of a couple of short trips per day with lots of idling that could be dropping your MPG significantly. On the long trips the battery probably gets topped off early and doesn't have a large impact after that. Basically I'm saying you'll have to live with some amount of poor city mileage.

It wouldn't hurt to check for codes - you might have a bad sensor somewhere. Auto parts stores will sometimes do this for you for free. Does the check engine light come on along with all the others with the key in the on position but before you start the van? It's supposed to. If it doesn't that might mean the bulb was disabled, which sellers sometimes do in order to sell a vehicle. I had someone do that with the airbag light on a car I bought once.

 

[Zil]

9 mpg city is about right for a conversion body ford V8 van. Every thing would have to be exactly right to get up around 13 mpg. Tire condition, air pressure, alignment, driver's habits, and yes engine maintenance.

 

[Patrick46]

One more thing to take into consideration, is this swill they're selling us called gas. There is so much crap in pump gasoline these days and things like water and ethanol are making things worse on all of our vehicles. I don't have a single rig that gets the same mpg's as it used to after they started running that crap though our tanks...and I don't believe the propaganda that this stuff is 'supposed to' help lower our emmissions. No wonder our injectors are loading up with garbage.
I think ethanol is something that burns in our engines, but is very cheap to produce, so they (the big gas companies) can make even more money with less cost to them. It's the same as GMO's for the food producers. Cheaper production/material costs = more profits for their stockholders. Doesn't matter if it's food for us, or fuel for our cars. (same thing actually)

I'm with GotSmart, in that in order to get the most out of your engines these days, a person needs to use a good fuel additive. Whether it's octaine booster, or injection cleaners. Our poor engines can use all the help they can get!!

Think of it this way...do you think olympic athletes eat at McDonalds?? NO....because it's crap and not real food. They have very concentrated diets because they need thier bodies to run at peak performance. Same thing for your van.
My chopper is so finiky, that I hafta run non-ethanol premium gas, AND use an octaine booster so it doesn't knock. (I'm actually de-tuning it so I can run better on pump gas.)

Another reason you get better gas mpg's on the highways is because you're maintaining a constant speed. You're not starting and stopping all the time. You get your van up to speed, and keep it there, so then it's just a matter of keeping it in pace.
Vehicle maintenance is ultra important, but also watch your driving habits. Smooth starts and stops will add miles of life to your rigs.

 

[dvdchris]

Also, you might want to get a real time OBDII readout. I got an UltraGauge. 70 bucks and you get access to every piece of data you can get from the engine, not the least of which is real time MPG, avg MPG, trip MPG and the ability to set alarms for every gauge it gets data for. The instant MPG info really lets you know how your driving habits affect your total MPG.
I got so used to having the MPG readout in my Astro I decided I had to have it in the Express.

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/

 

[dvdchris]

Also, you might want to get a real time OBDII readout. I got an UltraGauge. 70 bucks and you get access to every piece of data you can get from the engine, not the least of which is real time MPG, avg MPG, trip MPG and the ability to set alarms for every gauge it gets data for. The instant MPG info really lets you know how your driving habits affect your total MPG.
I got so used to having the MPG readout in my Astro I decided I had to have it in the Express.
Google ultra gauge and you'll find it.

 

[SternWake]

If you are getting what you should on the highway, then not much you can do for the around town stuff besides change the way you drive, and when.

Idling at traffic lights yields exactly 0 mpg.

I am not a fan of Lucas products. Their oil 'stabilizer' is a joke. All it does is thicken the regular motor oil and dilute the antiwear anti scuff and detergent additives as it does not contain ANY of its own. it also causes many oils to foam up. Do you want foamy oil cushioning your bearings? Answer, NO. You want better motor oil, buy better motor oil, and the better motor oils do not contain the words Lucas.

Many years ago I did run a few quarts of their fuel product through my gas tank on long highway only x country drives and saw no MPG benefit, much to my chagrin. I've read of many reports by those that say it helps, but I will remain skeptical.

Fuel system cleaners containing PEA( poly ether amines) are proven to clean injectors and combustion chambers without leaving deposits of their own when burned .

Techron, Gumout Regane, Redline SL-1, and several others contain a good percentage of PEA. But if the fuel system is not dirty then there will be little benefit. PEA based fuel system cleaners have a fishy type smell.

City driving MPG will always be lousy with a big heavy barn door of a vehicle.

 

[SoulRaven]

Greetings!

In the winter, the ethanol that they add to the gas will decrease your MPG's, I have heard rumors that they're going to make it a year round thing now too.

Just one more way for Big Oil to screw us to death.

Their costs get lowered, while they force us to buy more...

There is some hope on the horizon though, I am currently working with people on three different gas free, unlimited range technologies to power vehicles.

Two of them look very promising, the one I like the best involves baking soda and water, and can be a $100~$200 range upgrade to existing gas engines to make them gas free. Basically 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda, to 1 Gallon of water = ~100 miles. The system is obviously more involved than that, but that's what the driver would be doing. So my 35 gallon gas tank could take me 3500 miles using plain tap water, and just keeping baking soda in it's container. Tests are showing a 5-10% increase in horsepower, but there is currently a valve burning problem that has to be addressed. The test car wound up with burnt valves at 50k miles. The goal is 200k trouble free miles, with existing gas engines...

I think it's a mixture problem, and the horsepower increase may need to be sacrificed to solve the problem. Personally, I'd even be willing to give up a little of my existing horsepower to make it work.

I'm also on a team working on a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) project too, and it looks like it may have some promise too. If we can keep the engine RPM constant at it's "Sweet Spot", and use the CVT for acceleration and stopping, the results could be pretty amazing. No test models yet though.

If I can live long enough to see the fall of big oil, and big forced utilities, I can die a happy man. We the people need to take our lives back from big government, big oil, and the big greedy utility companies. While progress can be a GREAT thing, in the wrong hands it can be used to control us and diminish our quality of life. GREED will be the downfall of our society if we can't stop it dead in it's tracks. 20-30% profit is understandable, 3000++% profit is insanity!

Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

 

[Spirituallifetime]

There are many factors that can cause low mpg. The engine must be running good or fuel mpg will be lower. The engine needs air so if the air filter has not been changed for a while then change it for a new one. If the exhaust system is old the catalytic converter and muffler may not have the flow the engine needs, if the exhaust can't get out mpg goes down. New tires can improve mpg, some are better than others; the only web site I can find that shows fuel efficiency for their tires is Michelin

 

[crazy_dave]

Greetings!


Two of them look very promising, the one I like the best involves baking soda and water, and can be a $100~$200 range upgrade to existing gas engines to make them gas free. Basically 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda, to 1 Gallon of water = ~100 miles. The system is obviously more involved than that, but that's what the driver would be doing. So my 35 gallon gas tank could take me 3500 miles using plain tap water, and just keeping baking soda in it's container. Tests are showing a 5-10% increase in horsepower, but there is currently a valve burning problem that has to be addressed. The test car wound up with burnt valves at 50k miles. The goal is 200k trouble free miles, with existing gas engines...


Cheers!

The CamperVan_Man

Sounds like an interesting read. Do you have a link?

 

[user 423]

... the one I like the best involves baking soda and water, and can be a $100~$200 range upgrade to existing gas engines to make them gas free. Basically 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda, to 1 Gallon of water = ~100 miles. The system is obviously more involved than that, but that's what the driver would be doing. So my 35 gallon gas tank could take me 3500 miles using plain tap water, and just keeping baking soda in it's container. Tests are showing a 5-10% increase in horsepower, but there is currently a valve burning problem that has to be addressed. The test car wound up with burnt valves at 50k miles. The goal is 200k trouble free miles, with existing gas engines...

Driving 50,000 miles at 15MPG and $3.50/gallon you will spend about $11,700 on gas. If you had to spend say $2700 to get the heads replaced every 4-5 years, you would still save $9000. Most people would take that any day! So where can I get this upgrade?

 

[GotSmart]

Tinfoil.

 

[Jim_Rockford]

1 when is the last time you changed the plugs?
2, gas is crap.
3 the only real way to figure gas mileage is to fill the tank reset the tripometer, drive till almost empty and refill and divide the miles you drove by the gallons you put in, you will need to do this over a period of 7-10 fill ups to truly know your average, but its way more accurate per tank than watching a scan gauge.

 

[highdesertranger]

I bet you are kinda heavy. weigh your van, compare to factory specs. I believe when they do the mpg test they did them on a stock van(no addons) and yes the gas we get nowadays is c**p and good old kalifornia is the worse. this is not big oil it's "carb"(ca air resources board) and "aqmd"(air quality management district) both state agencies. I notice better mpg when I fill up out of state. highdesertranger