Poor gas mileage

[01RDSLE]

Missay,

regarding your mileage (not sure the miles on your car, nor the age) nevertheless. . . 11mpg is way too low. If your car doesn't have all the cool peripherals like some of the other writers in Solaraguy (Superchargers etc) I would have the dealer check . . .

1) it's possible your vehilce needs a tuneup
2) your car may have a bad PVC valve
3) your Cat. convertor may be plugged
4) Timing may be off (timing belt jumped a tooth etc.)
5) Dirty Fuel injectors
6) Vacuum leak

and, you should refrain from buying gas from stations you believe are watering down gas (good way to ruin a cars engine). Anyway, that being beside the point, if water was in the gas, the Body Computer would compensate and adjust the timing to keep the engine from detonating. This will reduce performance and gas mileage.

hope this helps and good luck.

[NASTY]

gas mileage again?
lets try not to get this one locked!

[01RDSLE]

yea your right Nasty

the other one locked, bummer man, cause i just needed to get in my .02 worth . . . isn't that the purpose for this column. Missay probably did everything mentioned but maybe not.

[Missay]

hey, thanks!! i'm gonna have to check that out. yea, i actually still had a lotta questions bout why i had low gas mileage, so i wanted to compare my car w/ other solaras to see how it match up..but u know

after i get a couple more readings, if the mpg is still 11ish, i'll print out yur list of suggestions and make a trip to my mechanic! (although..i might make my dad take it cause the mechanics son thinks he's marrying me ..lmao...sorry..ot, but i couldn't resist! gotta have a little humor for the day before work!)

i filled up on..ummm..friday..and i've only used about a 1/8tank so far cause i have so low mileage..so it might take a while to get a reading.

oh yea..this reminds me..i remember some guys in work telling me bout this..is it ac doesn't use fuel and heat does? this doesn't seem right to me, i would think that you use up some of yur gas either way.

[20SoLaRa02]

other way around.... a/c uses ur gas and heat doesn't.....heat can be drawn in from the engine so its FREE!!!!

[01RDSLE]

Hey Missay,

been out on vacation but am reporting that my mpg = 25. mostly city driving.

note:

01MY
SLE V6 with 30k

later

[Missay]

thanks for all the info and comparisions guys...there's gotta be something wrong w/ my car. it's almost time to fill up again (yes it took me like 3weeks to go thru a tank ) and i'm averaging roughly the same again..maybe a tid bit higher (like 13mpg! woo hoo!)

u know, i'm worrying bout the car. when i bought it, it was whisper quiet..like i couldn't tell the difference between it being off or on unless i was standing right next to it, straining to hear it.

now, i know it's started! it sounds horrible. i had a guy at work take a look at it and when we had my hood popped w/ the engine running we had to yell at each other just to hear over the engine..it's that loud.

the sound is coming from the left side under the hood, to the left of the engine..sorta in the middle..maybe closer towards the front of the car. they guy who looked at it said it almost sounds like it's coming from the alternator. my lights do dim every now and then, and he explained when you turn the car off the alternator charges the battery..etc etc (something like that) so if my alternator is going, would it make sense that the car is noisy and the lights occasionally dim at a red light? (the light dimming isn't that bad..it hasn't done it for a while..but the car has sounded horrible since a couple of weeks before the accident at the end of july)

my mother thinks it might be a loose band or something that's making the noise.

any ideas?? (i did have my mechanic look at it once a couple months ago and he told me i was crazy and i'm just like my mother who freaks out at every little sound in the car he said the car was suppose to sound like that..well, it didn't sound like that in april when i got the car!)

[Missay]

oh yea..and i only have like 42,300ish miles and no mods under the hood. i'm due for an oil change end of the month, but i just changed it around oct w/ like 41k on the car.

[Guest]

Sounds like it's ready to blow! I 'll take it off your hands for say $500.
Seriously, get it back to your mechanic. You are right, it should be whisper quiet. My car is very quiet and my wifes 95 Camry is so quiet it is amazing. There is a good Toyota mechanic near the Medford area if your interested.

[Missay]

make it $525 and u got yurself a deal

is the guy in medford expensive?? where's he located?

if it is the alternator, is that part of the powertrain 5yr/70k warranty?

[ToyGuy]

Melissa, mileage usually goes down in the winter, all that slow going, warming up, etc. Surely not 11-13 in one of these cars though. Are you doing an accurate check or estimating? It's easy to get real accurate mileage readings. Fill up the tank and remember how you top the tank. I think it's maybe best if you can put the filler on one of the notches so it clicks off automatically. Zero your tripmeter. Run the tank down pretty low and go to the same pump you filled up at and do exactly the same thing to fill up again. Divide the miles driven by the gallons used for an accurate reading. I just got 16mpg on the last tank in my V8 silverado on combined winter driving..you Solara sounds really ill if it's at 11mpg!!

[Yanks0114]

if it is the alternator, is that part of the powertrain 5yr/70k warranty?

5yr/70k mile???

do you mean 60k or do you have an extended warranty?

[Missay]

oppss..typo..yea..5/60

unless i'm losing it, i think i'm doing it right. i reset the odo to 0 and pay attention to the gallons i get on the gas pump. then i divide the miles by the gallons.

195miles/16.5gallons=11.82miles/gallon

the time before that i got (same gas station)
175miles/15.5gallons=11.29miles/gallon

sooo...two times in a row now i've gotten 11mpg.

i filled up at a different place this time, and put in 16.5gallons, and i reset the odo, so i'll check it again (of course it might take me about 3weeks )

[Yanks0114]

I'd definately try a different station, if that doesn't fix it then something is definately wrong. The lowest i have ever gotten was 12mpg and that was down the shore because there is a traffic light every 500 feet

[Optimus]

Missay - try driving long distances.... good excuse for a roadtrip. fill up, drive for 50 - 100 miles and then fill up again. see what kind of mileage you get. with these short trips, its hard to tell. perhaps the fuel is injected too heavy on startups.

you know it also could be that your odometer is messed up. you can check that by driving on an interstate with mile markers.
the brand of gas won't cause 11mpg.

i am getting almost twice what you get on a full tank (320+ miles)