Gas Mileage

Post by **occasional demons** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:53 am

Exactly. The GF got about 10 mpg out of her Sundance Duster, when she was working close to home. It was all city driving, never really getting up to temp.

I could take it out for a drive and get close to the rated 24 mpg, with both of us in the car and whatever we went to get.

I could never convince her to take it around the bypass to work instead of going through town.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:44 am

yes, i pushed it maybe once or twice this tank, and yes the A/C is always on, it's a must here in Texas lol

eveything is up to date on the car as well, as far as maintenance (filters etc.......)

renegade83 · Post by **renegade83** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:45 am

That explains it all, you texas people drive fast lol, jk.

FAC3L3SS · Post by **FAC3L3SS** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:17 pm

renegade83 wrote:That explains it all, you texas people drive fast lol, jk.

No need for the JK! While most everyone down there is friendly, will wave you ahead, etc. . . it's ALWAYS moving and it's always moving 3x faster than it should be!

I sure couldn't do it in a Neon. Not enough room to get up to speed.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:54 pm

Meh, it just sounds like I-65 north of Indy.

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:18 pm

renegade83 wrote:That explains it all, you texas people drive fast lol, jk.

Yes, Yes we do

. But I have no A/C in my neon and I drive 20mi to work in arlington and 20mi back to dallas. I'm rarely under 75mph so mpg isn't really accurate for me

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:30 pm

akirony wrote:
renegade83 wrote:That explains it all, you texas people drive fast lol, jk.
Yes, Yes we do . But I have no A/C in my neon and I drive 20mi to work in arlington and 20mi back to dallas. I'm rarely under 75mph so mpg isn't really accurate for me

wow, no A/C is a killer! especially traffic on 30, 360 etc.......

but yes lol sign says 60 is the limit but we all do 70+ lol

i'm just going to keep logging my miles and see what i can do

blueneo03 · Post by **blueneo03** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:51 am

with your ac going it will kill it.. i normally shoot for 250 miles to a tank as a good goal.. some weeks my foot is heavy but the main thing you want to watch is your acceleration.... dont gun it form the light every time... and if you are sitting in traffic daily that can be a drop in mileage as well.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 5:49 pm

blueneo03 wrote:with your ac going it will kill it.. i normally shoot for 250 miles to a tank as a good goal.. some weeks my foot is heavy but the main thing you want to watch is your acceleration.... dont gun it form the light every time... and if you are sitting in traffic daily that can be a drop in mileage as well.

Well i guess ill have to keep putting gas at 180 lol because the AC is staying on full blast

And ill try to be easy on her too lol =)

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:57 am

Just got 357mi to a tank. Before the gas light started binging. This is srt wheels and R/T drivetrain too so highway mileage shoulda took a hit. So it might be time for you to get a fuel service/seafoamed/tune up'd/pcm reflashed and transmission fluid changed. If not done. Just to name a few lol.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 7:21 pm

akirony wrote:Just got 357mi to a tank. Before the gas light started binging. This is srt wheels and R/T drivetrain too so highway mileage shoulda took a hit. So it might be time for you to get a fuel service/seafoamed/tune up'd/pcm reflashed and transmission fluid changed. If not done. Just to name a few lol.

357!

wow, i only drive about 15-20 miles daily, so 180 doesn't make sense =/

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 8:21 pm

Yeah I drive 40+mi everyday. And I'm rarely grandpa-ing. Car is too fun so I was surprised I got that much. Drove to mineral wells and back sunday with some friends on a little less than half a tank. And it's 80+ miles one way.

Michael7 · Post by **Michael7** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:42 am

I have a 2002 Chrysler Neon LX (automatic), 70000 miles. My in-town mileage is about 15-16L per 100km (15 miles per american gallon), but normal 9L per 100km (26-27 MPG) on a highway. I don't experience any problems with my engine, like starting or warning codes. But my in-town driving style is awful - basically stop and go style when engine sometimes not even warms enough during short journey and automatic transmission as well, so it stays on lower gear longer than when it's warm.
In spite of my driving style I always suspect that there is something wrong, because MPG shouldn't be so much different.
I'd like to know what MPG other neon owners have when driving in town?

thomas_w · Post by **thomas_w** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:15 pm

Did not know that people in the UK use metric units for gas mileage. But to answer your question, I am getting 25-28 mpg when driving around town and low thirties on the highway. This is in a 99 DOHC automatic. 15 mpg seems pretty low; I do not remember it getting that bad even when driving around town in the winter. I think low twenties was as low as it got then.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:15 pm

If the engine is not getting to temp, 15 mpg is going to be pretty average for short stop and go trips. the 41te won't go into overdrive until the engine is warm.

The GF's Sundance Duster (3.0 V6) only averaged 9 to 10 mpg when she worked local. I kept telling her to take the bypass to work, so it would at least get up to highway speeds, and probably up to temp.

thomas_w · Post by **thomas_w** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:19 pm

Bill beat me too it

Neons warm up pretty quickky though. When I bought mine the temperature sensor had to be replaced as it never appeared to warm up. I did see an increase in gas mileage of a few mpgs afterwards.

renegade83 · Post by **renegade83** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:21 pm

Yeah I'm still amazed at how fast my neon warms up.

Michael7 · Post by **Michael7** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:31 pm

I'm sure I don't have a problem with temperature sensor and car really warms up quickly, but my way to work is about 1 mile, so I'm talking about 2-3 minutes drives.
P.S. Please don't ask why I'm driving instead of walking

I'm getting too lazy

MichNeon · Post by **MichNeon** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:10 pm

One mile to work gets the engine warm, but not fully warmed up.
Temp plays a big part in the pcm's fuel strategy. The colder the temp, the richer the fuel mixture will be.
I noticed that when i have fewer short trips around town, my mileage gets better. Also, taking a long distance trip on the freeway helps the fuel mileage. Note that the trips are not during rush hour. Rush hour traffic is one of the biggest killers of fuel mileage.
I can understand having to keep the a/c on during very hot weather, we've just had a week of 80's and 90's here in Michigan. As i type this post, it has dropped to 66F, is expected to drop down to 55F tonight. The high today was about 73F, tomorrow is expected to be about 76F.
Funny how England uses a mixture of standard and metric. Speed is in mph, yet measuring fuel dispension and consumption is in metric. Here in the states, we are still using standard, but are slowly moving to metric. They're starting to teach the metric system in the schools. Most of the products we buy are marked in standard and metric.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:48 pm

MichNeon wrote:Funny how England uses a mixture of standard and metric. Speed is in mph, yet measuring fuel dispension and consumption is in metric. Here in the states, we are still using standard, but are slowly moving to metric. They're starting to teach the metric system in the schools. Most of the products we buy are marked in standard and metric.

Off-topic but, when I was in seventh grade (1971), we were told in science class that the US would be going metric soon so we learned how to convert standard to metric and vice versa. I can't remember how to do it now.

thomas_w · Post by **thomas_w** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 9:39 am

Off-topic as well: The US is technically still in the transition phase. Metric units are just not that accepted by the general public. There are actually some road signs that show distances in km. The military and sciences are typically metric. The metric system is actually a lot easier than imperial as you only have to deal with factors of ten (since we typically have ten fingers) instead of 8, 12, or 16. I always have a hard time when using tape measures over here with 1/8, 1/16 etc. I actually pulled out my old measure the other day to get the distance in mm just so I did not have to think about it. Fun fact though: we use foldable sticks for measurements in Germany and call them inch sticks, even though it is metric.

Michael7 · Post by **Michael7** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:45 am

MichNeon wrote:...Funny how England uses a mixture of standard and metric. Speed is in mph, yet measuring fuel dispension and consumption is in metric. Here in the states, we are still using standard, but are slowly moving to metric. They're starting to teach the metric system in the schools. Most of the products we buy are marked in standard and metric.

There are a few things to consider:
1. Originally I'm from continental Europe, although live in UK for almost 5 years. I just used to metric system.
2. Distance is measured in miles in UK, speed is in MPH, but fuel is sold in litres, not in gallons.
3. US gallon is considerably smaller than imperial one, that is still sometimes used in UK (3.78L vs 4.55L). So if MPG term is used between US and UK speakers, it should be specified which gallon.
4. UK is a part of EU, so metric based standards are introduced quicker than in US.

By the way, I'm just wondering if it is solely a cold engine or cold engine with cold automatic transmission that causes such a high fuel consumption in short trips. Does anybody with mechanical transmission noticed their MPG in short trips?

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:44 pm

Michael7 wrote: By the way, I'm just wondering if it is solely a cold engine or cold engine with cold automatic transmission that causes such a high fuel consumption in short trips. Does anybody with mechanical transmission noticed their MPG in short trips?

It's mostly due to the cold engine.
Fuel trims are different, and the engine runs 'richer' until it reaches operating temperature.

- Nick

abarguy · Post by **abarguy** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:29 am

So, back to the topic, I have a 2003 R/T with about 180K miles on it. I swapped out the trans for a SXT trans just for gas mileage.
My job takes me several hundred miles a day at times, so this was important to me. I've lowered the car, not as much for looks as for improved gas mileage and keep my tires up to max pressure (printed on the tire sidewall).
I take mileage reading every fillup. I have gotten as high as 42.8 MPG for long highway runs. If I'm not trying, I still get about 39. Odd thing is it seems to get better mileage above 70 MPH. Must be because of the R/T engine. Needs to just start getting into it's power band for better efficiency.

MichNeon · Post by **MichNeon** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:23 am

abarguy wrote:So, back to the topic, I have a 2003 R/T with about 180K miles on it. I swapped out the trans for a SXT trans just for gas mileage.
My job takes me several hundred miles a day at times, so this was important to me. I've lowered the car, not as much for looks as for improved gas mileage and keep my tires up to max pressure (printed on the tire sidewall).
I take mileage reading every fillup. I have gotten as high as 42.8 MPG for long highway runs. If I'm not trying, I still get about 39. Odd thing is it seems to get better mileage above 70 MPH. Must be because of the R/T engine. Needs to just start getting into it's power band for better efficiency.

Just an fyi, the max pressure on the tire is for when the car is loaded to the max, and/or when towing a trailer. If you read the block of text next to the pressure, it states that it is at max load. The label on the door has the pressure specs that are recommended by the engineers.
I run mine at 36, the car seems happy with that.

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:33 am

With the 3.55/.74 fifth gear, probably. Those larger exhaust ports lose velocity compared to the normal ports at lower RPM.

Out of everything I've done to my '01, the Magnum head is what really impacted fuel economy.

I have the 3.55/.81 fifth gear, and it begins to lose fuel economy above 65 to 70 MPH. But I think it is more suited to the 2.0.

I have the 3.55/.74 in my 2.4 swapped '99, and I really like it. The added torque really makes use of the taller overdrive. 2600 rpm@70MPH, and it has ample pull.

IIRC, the .81 fifth in my '01 runs around 3000 rpm@70 MPH.

Edit:
As far as tire pressure, go by how much of the edges are hitting the pavement. if it is running into the sidewall edge, obviously too low. more than 1/16th to 1/8" away it is too high.

Some tires just sag way too much using the placard on the door. I would rather run a bit more air pressure than have them squirming around. I always run relatively less pressure on the rears also. They seem just fine with under 30 psi.

For that matter, you can have one rear tire be nearly flat, and you would never know it with normal driving. There just isn't a lot of weight on them compared to the front.

If you had a set of scales, you could weigh each corner, and figure the percentage that weight is of the max rated load. Say it is 40% of the max load rating. You then want to inflate the air pressure to 40% of the max pressure to be closer to correct. I find going by the edges' contact to be easier, as I don't have portable scales at my disposal.

MichNeon wrote:Just an fyi, the max pressure on the tire is for when the car is loaded to the max, and/or when towing a trailer. If you read the block of text next to the pressure, it states that it is at max load.

It is actually the max load for the tire, which could be much more than the combined weight of the car and it's load at that corner.

MichNeon · Post by **MichNeon** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:10 pm

occasional demons wrote: It is actually the max load for the tire, which could be much more than the combined weight of the car and it's load at that corner.

Yea, that's what i meant, i just wrote it wrong. Thanks.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:22 am

Well, My Neon Is Still Only Giving Me 150 Miles Per Tank =/ It Runs Great But IDK What Else I Can Do

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:31 am

neongirl87 wrote:Well, My Neon Is Still Only Giving Me 150 Miles Per Tank =/ It Runs Great But IDK What Else I Can Do

That's lousy MPG for a Neon.

My guess is that you have a combination of factors, "stacking up".

- Tire pressures
- Dirty spark plugs
- O2 sensors are 'marginal' (but not bad enough to set a code)
- Catalytic Converter - might be starting to plug up
- Brakes - might be starting to drag due to deteriorating hoses
- Running the A/C all the time, will sap power and MPG.

If you have not already given the engine a 'seafoam treatment', you may want to consider doing this.

- Nick

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:25 pm

NickKo wrote:
neongirl87 wrote:Well, My Neon Is Still Only Giving Me 150 Miles Per Tank =/ It Runs Great But IDK What Else I Can Do
That's lousy MPG for a Neon.

My guess is that you have a combination of factors, "stacking up".

- Tire pressures
- Dirty spark plugs
- O2 sensors are 'marginal' (but not bad enough to set a code)
- Catalytic Converter - might be starting to plug up
- Brakes - might be starting to drag due to deteriorating hoses
- Running the A/C all the time, will sap power and MPG.

If you have not already given the engine a 'seafoam treatment', you may want to consider doing this.

That's beyond lousy. Besides the Cat/Brakes/Tire pressures/and A/C, Everything else should be cleaned or helped by the Seafoam treatment. I used a full bottle of the tank pour in with a full tank. Added with a full can of the spray intake treatment. I let it sit for a little over an hour. I made my neighborhood block have 0 visibility . Smoked for 12 miles too. I'd definitely start there.
- Nick