I know there are alot of posts about this.

Anyone know why i would get constant 32-33 mpg and slowly drop? The latest tank was 25mpg. All stock, oil changed on time, havent changed driving habits. Only thing I have changed is that I have been letting the car warm up in the mornings before I leave for work. I would think that driving when the blue light is still on, wouldnt that make the mpg drop?

I'm in an auto '06, 66,000 miles

 

I don't know how long you've had your car, but mine always gets worse mileage in the winter when it's cold, usually by a good 3 or 4 MPG.
I'm not familiar enough with these engines, but I've also had the same experience with dirty/bad oxygen sensors...

 

I live in Montana and have had the same experience in terms of MPG drop in the winter months. I typically give it 15 min or more so it's nice and warm on the inside when we head to work. The trade off for the warm car is that warming it up burns gas which leads to a slight (at least for me) MPG drop through the winter.

 

well, when your letting the engine warm up, your comsuming gas, but you aren't going anywhere, so your getting ZERO MPG, and then since the air is colder and denser, the car has to use more fuel to prevent running lean, and also, until the engine warms up, it will idle higher, and if you have an auto, it will stay in lower gears longer before upshifting into higher gears.

so yeah, your mpg would go down.

that your you need to run some fuel system cleaner thru your engine.

 

i have also noticed a MPG drop in the winter.

be carfull bringing up the hole MPG topic, alot of people get crazy and stupid mad over this issue.

have you changed you spark plugs?
the book said every 30k, ive only got 14k right now so i havent even thaught about toucking them yet.

 

the plugs have been changed twice now, at 30k and 60k.

Also jsut changed the air filter about a month ago, but was after i noticed the mpg drop. tires are all aired up.

sounds like you need to drive more swartz

 

its a 06.5 i got new in 3/07
belive me i drive it every chance i get.

 

careful, its pretty bad on an engine to let it sit and idle for that long repeatedly.

 

ive never herd that befor,
why do you think its bad on the engine?

 

I have dropped from a "very" consistent 34 down to 31 the last few tanks. Several reasons: Cold climate means longer time to reach operating temperature, therefore burning richer for longer periods of time. Also, colder inlet air = more fuel. Plus, the fuels are re-formulated for colder weather by the refiners and they produce less energy than do the fuels formulated for warmer months. Those longer warm ups kill fuel mileage as well.

All of this could be contributing to your mileage drop. I live in SC so the climate may not be quite as cold as where you are which may explain your drop being larger than mine.

 

i forget where i've heard it before and why its bad. but idling is bad. perhaps i can find a source for you to back it up....

 

The colder weather would allow your car to burn more fuel because the air is denser leading to a larger fuel charge to balance it.

I also thought I wasn't getting the best mileage compared to others until I realized that the tires I am running are over 5% larger than stock, once I corrected for that it worked out to between 29-31 MPG

Another possibility is that if it's slick where you are in addition to being colder than the tires might be doing some time spinning which equates to more miles (the tires think so at least) that the engine has to push for

There is also the fact that the grease, oil, etc is all stiffer and so the car is essentially pushing a higher friction force to get and keep it rolling.

Who knows-at least it isn't getting like 11 MPG like a bigger SUV with less room and a whole less coolness

 

If i remember correctly, the manual specifically tells you not to warm up the engine at idle.

 

i wasn't tring to knock, i had just never herd that befor.
but sure, id like to read up on it.

at least it isn't getting like 11 MPG like a bigger SUV with less room and a whole less coolness
YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN

 

Here's some info from an Australian native:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s2044311.htm

Here's some more info from Canada (USA's hat):
http://www.life.ca/nl/117/idling.html

 

wow i realy had no idea.
one problem i see with that is: on my old chevy i took the oil cap off (after it sat all night) and started the truck.
i waited to see how long it took oil to flow accross the head.
it took a good 1 1/2 minets.
well i guess if i was driving it the oil press. would be higher and get to the top of the engine faster. IDK ....thats why ive always let my car worm up a bit was so that the oil had time to get up top.
i don't know that id trust what a Ford engineer said anyway, ford doesn't real build all that good of cars.

 

if it is the warm ups in the mornings, why didnt this happen this time last year? it wasnt this bad at all, not mid 20s, i was still getting 29-31

 

I agree with you for the most part about Ford vehicles, but have you ever seen the Ford Cosworth in action??? It's amazing! Turbo'd/AWD monster, yet not that attractive. We will probably never see the engine/transmission combo of that kind in America because of the EPA, but don't put down Ford for their American line of vehicles until you research the vehicles that they have overseas due to their relaxed standards.

Check out this video of 10 tuned Ford Cosworths: here.

If you are still interested try to find some footage of Getaway in Stockholm 2. The only reason the Supra wins in the end is because there is a straight-a-way that it can dominate on at the end of the race.

 

another thing

anyone know where the fuel filter is located?

 

It's an in-tank fuel filter. It is integrated with the fuel pump. This requires removing the gas tank and disassembly of the fuel pump assembly to service the fuel filter.