My mileage s*cks

[superj]

did anything get figured out? i get 18.5 in my 03 3.0 powered ranger and thats doing 85mph on the highway when going out of town and in town is driving with a normal 20-30mph wind (half into, half being pushed by)

 

[James Morse]

Yeah for a while I was leadfoot, because the thing actually goes pretty good, then recently I'm more gingerly with it and seems to make quite a diff.
Lot of good info in this thread.
It won't hurt anything to throw in a pint of Seafoam in a full tank of gas, right? I've seen it mentioned.

 

[superj]

no, it won't hurt anything. you can also run it into the intake via a vacuum line and let it clean the combustion chamber. but using the water hose does the same thing, when using to clean the combustion chamber.

 

[James Morse]

Well I never heard of putting water in the engine, but ok. I've heard of water injection, have no idea what it is.
As to running Seafoam into the intake, would a good vacuum line to use be the one that comes off the brake assist? It's nice and big and it looks like it goes right into the intake manifold. Since it would be stationary I wouldn't care about no brake assist when doing it. If that's not a good place, then where?
And would I just use a funnel and dump a few oz in there?
THANKS.

 

[superj]

the way i have always done seafoam is to find a smaller line off the intake and stick it into the bottle after the truck is running. let it suck some in until the smoke starts coming out the exhaust and shut the truck down. let it sit for a minute or two with the seafoam in the engine and then restart the truck. it will smoke like you are a mosquito truck for a few minutes and maybe the neighbors will call the fire department but the smoke will clear and the truck will be good to go.


similar to using the water hose but i would just stick it in the intake. start the truck, turn the hose onto a small amount coming out, not a drippy dribble but not like you are going to wash your hands, a small amount. put the hose into the tb and make sure to be ready to raise the rpms because the engine wil ltry and die. let it run on the hose for a while and then turn it off and let it sit. after a minute or two, start the vehicle and it will smoke like you are fogging hte neighborhood for mosquitos and after a while it will go back to normal.

the water way, you need to start with a very small flow of water and test it to make sure you aren't running to much to cause serious engine damage. but what you are basically doing in both scenarios is steam cleaning the combustion chamber.

most people are scared to do the water hose way though because of thinking they are going to hydro lock their motors. you can for sure do it if you just put the hose on full blast and stick it in the intake so don't do that. even half blast will probably do it. my dad used to work at a gas station in the late 60s, early 70s and he said thats how they would do some combustion chamber cleanings back in the day. thats what made me think of trying it when trying to decide to try seafoam or not. so i have done both and they work the same to me

 

[fixizin]

The OP has the lame A4LD auto trans... perhaps it's slipping??

 

[James Morse]

How would I know if it's slipping?
Last between-fill mileage 13.3 and that's going real easy on it no jackrabbit starts etc.
Haven't cleaned combustion chambers yet.

 

[RonD]

If you press a bit more on the gas pedal when above 35MPH then vehicle should speed up instantly
If engine RPMs go up first and then vehicle accelerates torque converter is slipping or transmission is

Automatics lose MPG vs manuals because they HAVE TO SLIP, or you couldn't stop the vehicle when "in gear"
But above a certain speed the torque converter should Lock, direct drive, like a manual trans, no slipping

And automatics should lock into each gear as well, they change gears "automatically" based on RPMs, internal pressure and speed,(solenoids have been used since 1986 for some of this)
But transmission should lock into that "gear/ratio" once it shifts
If clutches, bands or valves have issues then transmission slipping occurs

Can be hard to tell where the slipping is occurring

 

[James Morse]

At 35 if I just slightly depress the throttle pedal it goes right away to 40 so I kind of doubt it's slipping. Small movement of the pedal results in immediate increase in speed.
Obviously you can't give too much throttle because I *think* it's probably in 2nd at that point and it would downshift.

 

[superj]

I got 17.5 doing 92 for about 80 miles and my normal 80ish for a half a tank with the rest being in town driving.


And you are sure your rear brakes aren't dragging?

 

[superj]

Or brake isn't dragging?

 

[Sloryd66]

I’ll chime in because I’m chasing the same problem on my 2.5l 4. Just did the following below last weekend.
New MAF - no difference
New Autolite Plugs - no difference
New wires - no difference
Drove it this past week with a bottle of Techron FI cleaner. No difference.

Yesterday I changed out all 4 injectors, temp sensor* and replaced my K&N with a regular paper filter.

*My gauge now reads right in the middle whereas it never went above 1/4 before.
There are 2 sensors but the ecm sensor reads 89c through my OBD reader so that one appears to be working properly.

I’ll see what I get out of this tank for average. It’s been around 14-15mpg and I literally baby it and do 80% highway miles daily when I drive it to work. My commute is 52 miles round trip with the majority being on the highway and it’s been using just over a quarter tank per day.
I don’t think I mentioned I got this truck for free with 130k last August and have recently put about $350 or so in the new parts trying to improve the poor fuel mileage which I don’t mind. Truck runs and drives perfect otherwise with no codes present or pending. My LTFT is running at -18 to -20 so it definitely running rich for whatever reason and I’m sure that’s why I’m getting the less than ideal fuel economy and the ecm is telling the injectors to cut fuel. I thought perhaps a sticking injector so this upcoming drive cycle will rule that out if the mileage doesn’t improve. The LTFT should point it out as well.
I have a new upstream O2 sensor on the bench…I’ve been trying one thing at a time to eliminate the problem…this way once I notice the change, I’ll be better able to pinpoint what it was and can share that if another member is having the same issue.

 

[James Morse]

Rear brakes at least one might be dragging I have to do brake job other thread on it. Sometimes when I release park brake the left rear grabs up with almost no pedal pressure, then it goes away, but it's clearly not right.
FYI all my driving is under 50mpg with rare exception. Much of it under 40mph. If that matters.
I'll be interested to know effect if any from replacing injectors. At price of gas these days it wouldn't take long to pay for them. Filling 16 gal for $62 is getting ridiculous.
At time I bought truck gas was what, 2.39 or something, so I was like who cares about mileage but now it's a concern.

 

[Sloryd66]

I'll be interested to know effect if any from replacing injectors. At price of gas these days it wouldn't take long to pay for them.

If your budget isn’t tight, you can get a set on Rockauto for $115 or so with shipping. I went with Ultrapower. I was bored this morning and decided to throw the upstream 02 in there after agreeing with posts I’ve seen that at 100k they’re probably not as effective at reading optimally. Go run some errands and get a check engine light. I’m like, wtf. Throw my OBD reader on there P0172 bank 1 too rich. Hmmm, am I onto something? I run the real time data and notice my MAF is reading 7-9g at idle and soaring to 29 when pulling away from lights. B1 O2 is up around 0.8v…definitely a rich condition. B2 is 0.5v. I check local auto part stores and Autozone has a complete MAF with the complete aluminum body and a lifetime warranty for $91.99. Just put that in and my MAF is now at 2.6g. Exactly where it should be at idle for my 2.5L. STFT is bouncing between -2 to +1.5 which is great and LTFT is -1.6. I disconnected the battery to reset the fuel trims as I’ve done after each step of throwing new parts at it one by one.
How a new O2 was masking what the MAF sensor was doing puzzles me or perhaps it was a fluke and mine happened to stb this morning but I honestly don’t think that’s the case. Now that I think of it my Walker MAF that was replaced recently was around 4.7 at idle all along and I completely forgot the general rule of 1g per liter of displacement at idle. So I’ve thrown about $450 at this point and it may have been a faulty MAF all along. But no harm no foul because honestly, I’m okay with what I’ve spent so far because now everything is new and it’s one less thing as a preventative maintenance I need to worry about.
Here’s to hoping my mpg shows improvement this week back and forth to work.
Someone here said it before…it’s always the MAF, lol.Throw an OBD reader on there and double check yours at idle and cruising etc. it shouldn’t skyrocket like I noticed mine was doing.

 

[cbxer55]

At 35 if I just slightly depress the throttle pedal it goes right away to 40 so I kind of doubt it's slipping. Small movement of the pedal results in immediate increase in speed.
Obviously you can't give too much throttle because I *think* it's probably in 2nd at that point and it would downshift.

I don't know about the Ranger, but I know my 07 Mustang got a default code when the torque converter clutch was locked off. P0741 I believe. But unlike the other codes, it goes away every time you turn the vehicle off, and returns when you restart it and get it warmed up. I had to have the transmission rebuilt, as the torque converter itself was bad. We tried all the solenoids and sh-t, nothing worked. After a new converter, the problem vanished.