So I filled up my gas tank not that long ago and the other day I was driving around an noticed it was getting pretty low for how much driving I had done. So I stopped by the gas station and filled it up again. I had only driven 156 miles and it took 8.156 gallons to fill it up! That a horrendous 19.1 mpg! Help!! I have a 2006 xb with only 11700 miles on it as of today. the only maintaince i have done lately is a new air filter and i did it after I got the 19 mpg, but right now I have 97 miles on my trip meter and I am sitting at half a tank of fuel! So it doesn't seem to be helping! Please Help!

 

are you gunning it? has the weather been extreamly cold where you are? auto or manual? tire pressure low? carrying some extra weight? spark plugs in good condition? Do you do a lot of stop and go driving or hightway, are you passing people constantly or getting passed? Driving into the wind, or uphill? all these things are factors..

 

Weather has been cold. it is an auto. tire pressures are good. don't carry much weight. I haven't checked spark plugs but they should be fine at only 11700 miles. and I do speed but i wouldn't think that any of my bad driving habits would take a car that should average 30mpg down into the teens.

 

i can tell you, mpg drastically decreases over 65mph.. according to myb scanguage, i get an average of 29mpg at 65... at 75 i am about 22... in cold weather, you are getting denser air = using more fuel to balance out the mixture..

 

Not to mention, the midwest gets crappy winter gas. Mine goes down in the winter also. Make sure your car warms up a bit in the morning, that'll help, but it does seem a bit too low.

I've never gone below 23mpg, and I generally get about 26 with I/H/E

 

Just drive it the way you like to. Consider getting a scangauge if you really want to pinpoint the habits that are killing your MPG the most.

If you do mostly city driving and don't drive like a grandma, low 20s or even your 19 doesn't sound that off.

 

I am having a similar problem.. I am getting 24-25 on HIGHWAY ONLY tanks. What makes it more bizarre.. is I get 30+ in the city. And all of the typical, common sense questions you ask when someone is having poor gas mileage are NOT a factor.. TRUST ME. I road trip a lot. I record mpg on every tank. I experiment with driving habits. I've been in warm weather, cold weather, uphill, downhill, always check t/p, always change oil on time, spark plugs are new, air filter is new, etc, etc, blah, blah.. Oh it's a stick. It's stock. And I drive pretty conservatively (usually).

This car is very disappointing.

 

im a conservative driver in ohio and during the summer months with mixed highway city i get 33-36 mpg. My only mod is a cold air intake.

I did on road trip this summer in it all highway to chicago and got 32mpg. So i do get better around town but up to chicago i was busting 75-80 mph so my 5 speed was taching 3500-4000 rpms

Now in the winter around town it drops to about 29-30. I love this car and havent found anything that gets better mileage. My focus got 24-26 around town but on the highway you could get 37 out of it but it never got above 3k rpms even at 75mph.

 

Do you have bigger, heavier rims or wider tires?

 

I'm averaging 32MPG on my manual '04. But I have to watch what I'm doing to get that. Like was said above, a Scangauge can help pinpoint bad driving habits.

Stuff I've done to help:
-Boosted tire pressure to 38PSI (you can go all the way to the max sidewall pressure with no worries)
-kept it around 60-65 on the highway.
-coasted in gear as much as possible (with a manual, when coasting in gear it shuts the fuel off so you get infinite MPG, which can help boost your average). On most highway exit ramps I can up my average MPG for the trip by 1-2MPG by coasting in gear to the end of the ramp.

Hey whitewolf, I see you got yourself a Box. Dunno if you remember me, but this is Pixel from CT.

 

Lol.. hay Pixel. Didn't know you got yourself a box.

I think I'll pump up my tires a bit.. that sounds like a good idea. I coast wherever possible, too. :/


See you still got 32mpg. I bought my car in NC.. drove to PA, and then AR. I've since driven it from AR to MA and back, and AR to GA and back. RARELY ever got above 25mpg. Yet I always get anywhere from 31-33 city.

 

im with improbcat. coasting in gear, keeping it at 65 or below, tire pressure to at least 40psi all around... that's the best setup for gas mileage.

unless you are willing to shut your car on and off while driving to "hypermile" (very unsmart to do) that's the best way to get the highest gas mileage possible.

 

sorry to hear that your box disappoints you

i'm getting 26-30mpg (mixed driving) right now in the winter. the highest i've gotten is 37, with 30-32 during the warmer months.

are you doing lots of short trips? i know someone that has 06 honda civic which should get at least 30 but she only get 23 or so, but she drives lots of short distances.

 

NO.. short trips is what's getting me BETTER mileage.

It's only highway (fillup, and don't stop till I need to fill up again) that it gets really bad.

 

I had a crazy drop in mileage lately and I think it's the gas station I went to. My parents bought me a gas card for Christmas and it's to a station I don't normally use. I was getting 33-34 mpg til I went to this place, and my first tank from there was only 27. I'd NEVER gotten below 30 before this. I went ahead and got another tank from 'em, thinking it was a fluke. This one was back up to 34 so I thought I was okay. Now I'm on my 3rd tank and it looks like I'll be back into the 20s. Screw it, I'm not going to that station anymore. The last $10 or so on the card will go to waste, I guess. No way should my mileage be fluctuating like that when I haven't done anything to my car.

 

whitewolf, when are you shifting? If you are too low in the power band it can hurt your MPG. If you aren't already try shifting near 3000 rpm.

 

The highway is a MPG killer for Boxes because they aren't as aerodynamic so the higher highway speeds work against us.

 

Well seeing as how my problem is highway driving, I'm not shifting at all. Getting up there initially though, I always shift at 3k.

Oddly, a friend of mine drove through a couple tanks. And he likes to shift closer to 4k, and also downshift to pass cars on the highway, and that didn't make it any worse.

 

This is just a wild shot in the dark, but if this is a drastic sudden change from your usual mileage, I'm guessing you didn't get the tank full enough on your previous fill-up, which made this tank seem like it was going too fast (and then verified by your MPG). If this is the case, your MPG on the next tank should look A+ !

Other than that, since you just changed your air filter, did you take the plastic wrapping off it first???

 

my mileage always drops in the cold months, not as low as yours, but usually stays around 24....I wouldn't worry too much...when it warms up and the temp stays in the 30-40s it should improve.