Poor gas mileage help!

[96mazdaproteglx]

Hi, during the summer time since we've had our 96 Protege LX it's been doing fine but now I'm worried, getting around 17-20 mpg is an average now. This morning I hit 100miles on my trip and I'm already almost at half of a tank.

I have checked for fuel leaks, this was my first action, using my nose in and around the engine I didn't smell any gas, I checked the rear of the car for gas leaks dripping or anything, still nothing, all clean! Weird uh?

I'm not lead-footing the gas either or burning rubber, there are hills and bumper-to-bumper to and from work, just trying I guess to ask what the worst Cold gas mileage everyone else gets is all. I've replaced the spark plugs with expensive Bosch 3 point, checkd the air filter.... not clogged. Tires are good, it idles fine at say 800rpms, no pinging and runs great, it is an automatic though, edmunds.com says high stock is around 27mpg City. Just curious, didn't know if my Oxygen sensor was going out or anything, I was thinking could be a fuel filter leaking but again I didn't see or smell anything unusual other than the normal hot (rubber) smell a warm engine gets.

Thanks!
Todd

[vr4flyer]

Open your hood, make sure its very dark and start the car. See if the distributor and or plug wires are arcing. You will see the electricity if the cap is cracked, or wires are bad. In the light check points on the distributor, main hose from air cleaner to throttle body then coil. good luck.

[96mazdaproteglx]

Thanks, tried it this morning, no arcing, the wires and cap are in good shape, no cracking. It must just be very cold and since I'm in bumper-to-bumper traffic this may be normal, I'm learning to drive like a 'granny' and take it very, very, very easy and try to save as much gas as I possibly can. Filled up lastnight and am getting 27mpg. And just last week I probably had to wait a total of 30 mins with traffic/accidents and rain. This may be normal, seems like when I lead-foot the gas pedal I get really crappy mileage. I guess these cars aren't sports cars so we've got to take it easy on them. huh? Thanks for the info and tip!

[gybe]

I think it's the stop-and-go effect. My mileage is around 35-40 but only when driving long distances and warming the car all the way up and then you drive it for at least 30 mins. Anything shorter than that will mess MPG.

[Pro]

dunno about WA but in WI they go to a winter formula gas, that and the 10%ethanol usually causes 1-3 mpg drop. Also the colder air and extra warm up time hurts.

maybe that's a part of it....?

[hoss]

Really Bad Fuel Mileage

I have been having similar mileage (17-20) on my '91 DX with a DOHC under the hood. I was getting 27ish mpg during last summer. Since the cold has hit , it dropped from 300 miles per tank to struggling to break 200 per tank.
I have tried all the above. Checked for fuel leaks, looked for spark-in-the-dark, vacuum leaks, even swapped the MAF to experiment.

Please any help ??? Going Broke here in OHIO with buying too much fuel...

ALL highway miles by the way.

[themess]

My 95 with 1.5 liter engine and manual transmission gets 40 mpg on the highway at 70 MPH. Mid to high 20s makes sense with stop and go traffic and lots of short trips in town, especially with an automatic transmission.

If you're getting less than 20 mpg, here are several things to check:

stuck brakes rubbing against rotor or drum

very low air pressure in tires

not getting spark to at least one cylinder (super duper plugs will make almost no difference in either power or fuel consumption). That could be a bad plug wire or a bad distributor cap. Pull plugs and check for gas smell - if its there, the gas isn't burning.

Completely screwed up computer.

extremely clogged air filter

If you can't figure it out on your own, it will be worth your money to take it to a competent mechanic. None of these things are very difficult to check.

[Rustypro]

hey 96 mazdapro try changing ya plugs,wire, dis cap and rotor. fuel filter and drive normal. i have a turbo BF and i get about 30mph