***Bad Gas Milage, Dealer Claims Helpless!***

[liquid_dj]

hi gals, and guys,
I'm a young dj from canada, and i would like to ask fellow PT Cruiser owners to help me out. I use my vehicle for business purposes and while it does great deal of advertising for me, it's been burning a deep hole in my pocket.

It's '01 "Classic" with an automatic transmission and I get about 440km/tank (275mi). After calculating my gas milage, i'm getting estimated 22mpg. (80% hwy driving!). After long discussions with my "friendly" dealership, i've been told to expect that sort of performance.

My questions are:

What are the official EPA milage figures?
What have most of you been getting "in real world" conditions?
How do i convince my dealer that a $250 "spark plug change" will not cure the problem?

I was also wondering if and how many of you had similar problems with your Cruisers? any horror DEALER stories?

Thanks for all possible help on this matter!

P.S. My PT has about 45,000km... in case youre wondering

Pat, Liquid DJ
www.liquidentertainment.ca
The Ultimate Entertainment Experience!
'01 PT Cruiser "Classic"

[Mean Green]

My wife's '01 auto (used to be mine) gets around 26 mpg (my wife driving it, me 24 mpg) with a combination of town, country highway, and freeway driving. It has 35,000 miles on it. My plugs were changed at the 30,000 mile checkup ($281.88 US). The mods on it are an Airaid intake, a PowerAid throttle body spacer, JBA header,a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler and it is lowered with Eibach springs. The mod that made the biggest difference to my mpg was the PowerAid throttle body spacer. My mpg went up 2-4 mpg, depending on who was driving, me or my wife. When I bought my PT new I was getting 17-19 mpg.

'03 Onyx Green GT 5-Speed

'01 Bright Silver Metallic Automatic

[PTRON]

I have an 03 Limited Edition. Stock motor, automatic trans. I get 22-24 mpg in mixed driving.

Enjoy Life...This is Not a Dress Rehearsal

[Sci-Fi]

Some suggestions for you. Have the dealer flash your computer to the latest version (tell them you are experiencing highway surge and want TSB#18-027-01 performed), or have them reset the computer, or disconnect the battery for about 2-5 minutes. This will reset the computer back to the default settings, and the PT will then relearn your driving style. Some people do this periodically and feel the car performs a lot better and gets better gas mileage, especially before a trip or a lot of highway driving. Changing spark plugs and wires is another popular solution as well as cleaning the injectors. Try to find a dealer that will perform a complete diagnostics. They may find a bad/failing sensor somewhere sending false/erroneous readings to the computer.

2002 Almond Pearl Limited Edition 27K
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
http://sci-fi.ptenthusiasts.net/

[CREWZIN]

Pat,

I have an 01 limited. Originally below 20mpg before breaking in. I've added a cool air intake, platinum plugs and DynoMax Cat-back exhaust, Getting anywhere between 22-26 mpg now depending on conditions. Sci-Fi passed on the best advice about the computer flash or battery disconnect, it's worked for others. Good Luck.

P.S. If it makes you feel any better, there are some owners complaining about getting milage in the teens.



Trade your GAMES & MOVIE DVD's at: www.gametradingpost.net


Edited by - crewzin on 04/16/2003 06:20:54

[DTs_PTGT]

Hi liquid dj! <img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

I can definitely relate to the low gas mileage! I get around 18mpg. This is mixed driving, basically a 10 minute city street drive to work and a 15 minute highway drive to school and a 20 minute highway drive home from school 4 days / week. Do some cruising / mixed driving on the weekends as well.

I'm hoping the low mileage is due to the newness of the car (hit 1400 on the odometer yesterday), but I see reports everywhere complaining of low fuel efficiency on this car. Coming from a '95 Mazda Protege (30mpg mixed, 40 highway), the PT's gas guzzling has been a big hit in the wallet for me as well.

2003 PT Turbo Deep Cranberry 'R' Package Stock + AutoStick
Came off assembly line 1/14/03 (Tuesday) between 2200 and 2300.

Edited by - DTs_PTGT on 04/16/2003 06:43:31