Lame Gas Mileage...HELP

[Unseenspirit2002]

I have owned this 2002 TE PT Cruiser since February. When I bought it, it had only 24,996 miles on it. A rare gem, truly, however, it now has 27,148 miles as of this morning, yet I get really crappy gas mileage and I mean real crappy. I've owned big block chevy's from the 70's that got better gas mileage then this thing does. We're talking 175 miles to a tank and that's if I'm playing Grandma, but usually we're looking at 155 miles to the tank spread out between city and highway, with more driving in the city then highway. With gas in Denver going for $3.73 for Regular....well that just plain out right blows! It runs fair enough but the idle has gotten rather rough over the last month or so. What's the best things I can do to get better gas mileage? I mean for Christmas sake it's a four cylinder it's supposed to economical not some high-end luxury item!!! I'm thinking new plugs, wires, and a K&N FIPK, but what's the best plugs to get and what's the best wires to get? Thanks!!!

[morrises]

From what I've read plugs, wires, and an air intake... and that's about it. Pretty much, pt's are not known for their gas milage. sadly..

[Unseenspirit2002]

Yeah but a 155 miles to the tank, I get what....10 miles to a gallon? What kind of plugs, NGK, Bosch, Champions? Wires, any paticular brand?

[ucantcme]

155miles to the tank....Are you exaggerating?? I sure hope so. Sometime I get 250miles to the tank and I'm bummed out. Other times I get an excess of 350miles per tank fill up.

When was your last tune up? Do you try to find the cheapest gas around and buy it there? A gas station near here is nearly $.10 cheaper then everyone else, but their gas sucks...I get MAYBE 220miles per fill up with their gas.

When was your last oil change? How is your air filter? Try any Fuel Injector cleaners?

Good luck - Welcome to the forums!

[Hooligan]

No way you should get that few miles to the tank. See my signature for plug info and wires you could also check with Maggie at www.raceandstreet.com for wires.
I get 17-19 City and 24-27 Highway.

[mjb457]

That is very terrible for a 4 cylinder--- Is it possible for a stock PT(automatic) NA to get 25city & 30Highway (is there a software upgrade to doit) without mods? I think that is the magic # to make the Pt worth keeping VS a foreigh job,,, such as an Altima or Honda... with gas soon approaching $5.00/ gallon.

[lakersfan1]

Forget about how many miles to the tank. How many MPG's are you getting? Miles per tank, divided by how many gallons to fill it up. Miles per tank is a useless statistic because it doesn't tell us how empty your tank is when you go to fill it up.

Now if THAT number is under 18-20 MPG, you've got something wrong somewhere. Especially if you're in Denver. From my experience, everytime I've driven through Colorado I've gotten almost 5MPG better than I do at sea level. I've averaged over 30MPG with a V6 through CO with the same car that in 4 years I never did better than 23MPG a tank.

I'd pull the codes if I were you. If there aren't any, the only other thing I can think is maybe the parking brake is locked up?

I get 22-23MPG on my PT and I haven't broken it in yet. Still at 5,000 miles or so. And I drive fast.

[Unseenspirit2002]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

No way you should get that few miles to the tank. See my signature for plug info and wires you could also check with Maggie at www.raceandstreet.com for wires.
I get 17-19 City and 24-27 Highway.

Umm....yes way i get that kind of mileage. We're talking 12.5 mpg and no I'm not going to forget how many miles to a tank because it all counts brother and if your getting better mileage while your rolling through CO then your ECM hasn't had time to compensate for the thinner air, we're talking a 20% drop in HP as opposed to Sea level. I'm from NJ, born and raised and been back and forth 4 times for visits over the past 14 years. Also to answer some more questions, the oil was fresh when I purchased it and I had it changed to Mobil One 5w-30 April 4th and have maybe put 500 miles since then. Also at the time of the oil change I had them replace the air filter. I'm not sure of the last tune-up of the car but the plugs, when I pulled them were clean and the electrodes had no visible wear. The wires, OEM, were clean with no visible breaks or cracks, and a check with a digital ohm meter showed that each was with in the acceptable tolerances. As for the condition of the fuel filter I had that changed last week just to see if it made a difference and thus far, no. So I'm baffled by it, I'm throwing no codes and the engine and whole car is lickably clean, literally. I'm not leaking any fluid and I also had all the brakes replaced with new rotors and ceramic pads, they aren't dragging. I'ver run some fuel system cleaner through it and I'm about to just say screw it and run some seafoam through it too...(SMOKE), so otherwise I'm clueless.

[R_I_PT]

i thought I got crappy on my turbo at 220 to the tank, and that's me stomping on it all the time. Now I get 250-270 after added Cold air intake and pumping gas at slowest pump speed.

[Unseenspirit2002]

Yeah I know it for a fact that an intake with a k&n filter will make a difference big time. I had owned nothing but Intrepids since 1997 and I had one that got cheesy mileage until I got the o-rings on the injectors replaced and put a k&n filter on it and made the world of diffrence. So I can wait until I get an FIPK for the little purple people eatter. I don't drive that far obviously, but it would be nice to get beeter gas mileage, ya dig?