[matt4matt]

Ever since I bought this car a couple of months ago I been getting bad gas mileage. The car has just about 103000 miles on it now. The last time before I filled it up, I tried to ride it out as long as I could and it did something weird. The "Low Fuel" light went on and the meter was nearly on empty, I was on a side street at the time but after I turned onto a main street (from 25 to 40) the meter went back up very slightly and the Low Fuel light went off. The time I went to fill it up, it had around 160 miles (off a full tank). That's something like 10 mpg and I'm thinking I should at least be getting 5 more miles per gallon. It's a '99 V6 Automatic. The previous owner told me he only filled it up with premium gas while I've only been using regular (if that I has anything to do with it). I'm not a car expert and was wondering if I could do anything to fix this. Thanks in advance.

 

[slorydn1]

How many gallons did it take to fill it back up? What size fuel tank do you have? Could you possibly having a problem with the gas gauge?

 

[matt4matt]

It's a 15.7 gallon tank. I'm thinking there might be a problem with the gauge, but I am not sure about that.

 

[slorydn1]

Ok.....well lets do the math. for you to go completely empty in 160 miles you would have needed 15.7 gallons, which would be 10.19mpg. I can't see any V6 getting only a little over 10mpg unless it was either leaking fuel somewhere (and you most certainly would have noticed that either by puddling on the ground or by the smell) or if you spent pretty much the entire tank driving at WOT, which I doubt. Do you remember how many gallons you put in the car when you filled it up again? Was it completely full when you filled up the previous time?

 

[9secV6rsteve]

my v6 is procharged and i get way further than you man.. something is def wrong with your car man.. or next time if it says low fuel check how many gallons you put in. if the numbers don't add up you might have a bad sending unit. before you do that, make sure one of your fuel lines isn't being burned by exhaust, not necessarily on fire, i mean touching your exhaust which would cause your fuel to evaporate. going slow isn't always the best in my opinion.
PS your vehicle should AT LEAST 20 mpg :kooky:

 

[Markstang]

my v6 is procharged and i get way further than you man.. something is def wrong with your car man.. or next time if it says low fuel check how many gallons you put in. if the numbers don't add up you might have a bad sending unit. before you do that, make sure one of your fuel lines isn't being burned by exhaust, not necessarily on fire, i mean touching your exhaust which would cause your fuel to evaporate. going slow isn't always the best in my opinion.
PS your vehicle should AT LEAST 20 mpg :kooky:

you must have a manual transmission.. autos are around 3 mpg worse on average around town than the manuals.

 

[trooplewis]

I'm getting 22mpg freeway with my V6 and I am not happy with that. My Procharged V8 gets the same mileage. With 78,000 miles on the V6 it should be doing better than that.

 

[Redlyr]

I'm getting 22mpg freeway with my V6 and I am not happy with that. My Procharged V8 gets the same mileage. With 78,000 miles on the V6 it should be doing better than that.

My '01 5-speed got between 28-33mpg highway.

As others have said, actually note down how many gallons of gas you are fill up with. Just because the gauge is on empty doesn't mean you used up 15.7 gallons. Most of the time my '01 was on E when I has used 12.5-12.8 gallons. My Mark VII has a 22 gallon tank and on E I have used 18 gallons.

Another note, you might want to have a backpressure test on the cats. Using premium fuel in the car for long periods of time without having the car tuned for it can cause the cats to be damaged from the incomplete burning of fuel.

 

[trooplewis]

I calculate my mileage every fill-up, based on actual gallons pumped, then I reset my Tripmeter. It has been 22-23mpg for the last 2 months, and I do 95% freeway driving. My last fillup I put a can of Berryman's into 1/2 tank of gas. Maybe that will help. The car is running great, idles smooth, no issues with codes.

I'll check the brake temp this weekend after a long drive. Maybe one of my calipers is a little stuck.

 

[davidcseifert]

9secV6rsteve, is that really your track time of 9 seconds?

 

[stlbzmustang]

Well my 99 v6 vert auto got about 12-13 mpg while im only driving city my light comes on about 160-190 miles but highway i can get up to 25 im a little over 300 miles and im still on the same tank of gas but i drove 210 just high way coming home from college.
ive wanted to try berrymans because its so much cheaper than sea foam let me know how you like it troop

 

[Roushstang2004]

try buying some fuel injector cleaner, or get your car checked for any leaks because that is not right you should be getting alot more than that

 

[Redlyr]

try buying some fuel injector cleaner, or get your car checked for any leaks because that is not right you should be getting alot more than that

If you want fuel injectors cleaned, take them out and clean them. No amount of snake oil in the gas tank is going to clean them.

 

[davidcseifert]

+1 on the injector cleaner is snake oil lol never does anything but gum up the fuel filter