Lousy gas mileage

[GSpreeman]

I filled up the tank last week, since then have driven 100 miles (according to both odometers), and my gas guage is barely above 1/4 tank right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If right now I have 3/8 of a tank left, this will put my gas mileage at 6.4mpg. (and no, I haven't left my car idling for hours on end).

Any ideas?

[dickster]

thats quite serious!

hole in the tank.

leaking fuel lines.

someones stealing it.

car needs a right good tune up/replacement bits.

i favour the last one

is your 02 sensor working?

clogged air filter.

knackered injectors.

binding brakes.

heavy right foot.

etc

etc

[Rot 911]

bad fuel guage/sender?

[dickster]

that was too obvious for me to think of.

they're not exactly accurate anyway. best thing to do is fill the tank, drive a couple of hundred miles then refill the tank - see how much you've used.

[tryan]

slipping odometer, winter fuel + sub zero temps running the enrichment circuits. i get about that mpg. 100 miles per 12 gallons of the fun stuff. run a few more tanks when it warms up and see what you average.

[Rick Lee]

My car recently sprung a leak just above the banjo fitting on the fuel line that goes to the fuel pump (which I replaced in August). It was spraying out from under the car and no one has been able to determine the cause of it. I thought we might just be able to cut the end off a new fuel line and graft or clamp it on the old one somehow without running the whole thing through the tunnel. WRONG. I just got a call from the shop that's doing it and they said the labor charge was gonna be a matter of days - not hours. I can't believe what a nightmare this seemingly tiny problem snowballed into.

[Jbabic]

Runing a few lin is easy..>I did mine from the fuel pump all the way back...mine was leaking as well...Don't let me snow you...if you or someone you know is handy...you can do this...the saved labour will pay for the part itself.

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by Jbabic
Runing a few lin is easy..>I did mine from the fuel pump all the way back...mine was leaking as well...Don't let me snow you...if you or someone you know is handy...you can do this...the saved labour will pay for the part itself.

Are you kidding me? The labor is gonna be a good 10x the cost of the line. What kind of car do you have? I doubt this shop would snow me and I doubt they'd waste even a fraction of the time doing what all they told me they had to do to R&R the fuel line, if it weren't necessary. Does someone else have a story like this on a Carrera fuel line? I'd like to gather some evidence.

[Superman]

I think I heard something about a fuel line at the rear of the Carrera engine that gives problems and is inaccessible and expensive. But I do not know why it would take THAT much time to replace fuel lines. I would expect a complete set of fuel lines to cost more than the labor to install them. But then, I'm pretty FOS sometimes.

[gaijinda]

Are you sure the tank was filled? NYC has been so cold lately, maybe that has something to do with it??

[Hetmann]

I had my fuel line replaced and I do not remember an excessive labor charge. Can't you just use the old line to pull the new one through?

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by Hetmann
I had my fuel line replaced and I do not remember an excessive labor charge. Can't you just use the old line to pull the new one through?

That was what we planned to do, but figured it was no biggie and the car was going to the shop anyway for an alignment. They said they had to pull my rack apart, shifter out, center console out and that it was a huge mess. He assured me it would have taken me a solid weekend if I knew what I was doing. Maybe Carreras are different.

[Jbabic]

I actually used duct tape and pulled the new one through with the old one....but I have a 77 Targa....I don't really know of the big difference.

[Bill Douglas]

Todd (NoStatic) had a similar problem with his car on the other coast and the general consensus was crummy petrol. Something like ethol (grain alcohol) alcohol added to the petrol by the fuel compaines to cheapen the product. Maybe do a NoStatic search.

[GSpreeman]

We can count out the slipping odometer, both the one that you can set to zero (whatever it's called) as well as the actual one are in sync and show the same amount of miles based on this tank of gas. This is city driving but, not sitting in traffic that much...just cruising along in 2nd gear doing 25-35mph. Here's my little plan of action:
1) test another tank of gas
2) check the air filter (I guess just replace the d@mned thing)
3) appeal to you guys in helping me put together a list of things I should do to do a good tune up.

Thanks everyone,

Greg

[nostatic]

yeah but Bill, I was getting a bit better than that. I think I was around 13-14mpg. If he's doing 100miles on 3/4 tank that works out to about 7mpg. Ouch!

[pwd72s]

Try a different place to buy "gas", a different brand as well.

[masraum]

As far as the Carrera engine line they are full of crud, yes it's tough, but no more than a few hour job. (not talking about Rich L's thing, but the thing that Superman mentioned) You can do it in a few hours. Part of the problem is that the line is $500 from the dealer, but you can get another made cheaper than that, or in a pinch just use highpressure line and the metal from the stock line.

Of course, that's a totally different deal than this thread is actually about.

[RANDY P]

How about the obvious? (back to Gspreeman)

How is the car running? Anything weird or new?

rjp

[GSpreeman]

Seems to be running fine. You would think if it were set too rich that the car would stall out when idling...but no problem there, idles along just fine.