Start checking your milage

[RichP]

Alot of the locals here in PA have noticed radical decreases, talking 17mpg to 13 mpg, in MPG over the past two weeks for no aparent reason. I myself noticed a big increase but have been buying my gas in northern NJ where it's .15 cents a gallon cheaper and not in Pa. I also see mobil state testing done on a regular basis in NJ which I have never seen done in Pa. Just a heads up if you notice a sudden decrease in milage, it may not be your rides fault... For all intents and purposes the winter fuel should be ending this week, 01APR, and normal fuel being supplied so the winter mix/summer mix will no longer be an excuse.

[Eagle]

Connecticut recently outlawed MBTE as an additive and is now selling 10% Ethanol as the winter mix. I put the '87 MJ back on the road about the time they made the change and was astonished that a stock truck with 3.07 gears was getting 12 to 15 MPG when it should be over 20.

Then I saw the stickers on the pumps. Mileage is getting a bit better now, and I hope after we get "summer" fuel (and I put summer air in the tires) things will revert to normal.

[BlueMJ]

My saturn mileage has dropped noticeably....from 42-45mpg highway to 37-38 mpg

Havent driven the MJ since the new year so I couldnt tell ya how the mileage is on that....rediculous

[Atl XJ]

Is this "winter gas" just something used in Northern states, or do they use it in the south too? I live in Georgia.

[RichP]

Not sure, its use is I think mandated by traffic, solves pollution problems ideling in heavy traffic in the winter. Wife and kids came back from Florida last week and when I checked her log book she got ~25mpg going down and coming back and running around down there, now its back down to ~18 or so, that in a 97ish oldsmobile with a new engine that was put in last year.

[TC]

Might be a good time to change out the winter air in the tires also. TC

[CaptTrev]

YEAH

this past week I lost about 40 miles to the tank of gas!!!!

I was getting worried....cuz my rig is WELL tuned up, and has relatively new O2 sensors and i keep it running mint. . . . .

hopefully we get a new round of good gas in SOON

[jeepguy97]

Yea i'm in PA and I've noticed it too. Thought I was just stupid. :helpme:

[ACE]

Not me. Since it's gotten warmer here in Utah, I get between 20-40 more miles per tank.

[woody]

So they are formulating fuel to burn cleaner,(probably at a higher cost) but at a substantial degradation in MPG? Sounds like a racket.

Wonder how my Mobil stock is doing? :)

[biscuitboy87]

i know this is a stupid question, but how do you check milage? i go by the tank...but never calculate it...is there a formula?
also is there winter gas in califonia? i know that they are trying to take out the mtbe because its polluting the water around here....and i think i read in the fsm that the ethanol is bad for your jeep...or is it methanol or something? ignor that if you will i'm just thinking out loud.

[Atl XJ]

Might be a good time to change out the winter air in the tires also. TC

I'm not trying to be a smartass here, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Is that a northern thing, or a joke or something? :dunno:

[woody]

Pardn me for being a chemistry-challenged maroon, but how exactly is this MTBE polluting the water? Is it some tailpipe-emitted condensate that effects runoff? Is it coming from maroons spilling their petrol at the pump? Is it leaching from the gas-station tanks?

If the effect is bad, I am sure there is a prospective cause. Clue me in.

<edit> Winter air is really bad for tires. I have 5 Jeeps (25 tires) needing the air changed out...<edit>

[LBEXJ]

i know this is a stupid question, but how do you check milage? i go by the tank...but never calculate it...is there a formula?

Miles traveled divided by gallons used = MPG

Start with a full tank of gas and write down your odometer reading. The next time you fill up, write down your odometer reading again and the number of gallons you put in your tank. Figure the miles you traveled, then divide by the gallons used. This will give you MPG. If you are running oversize tires and not regeared, you'll need to compensate for this.

Les

[LBEXJ]

<edit> Winter air is really bad for tires. I have 5 Jeeps (25 tires) needing the air changed out...<edit>

Yeah ... I have three vehicles right now with snotty valve stems from that winter air. :lickout:

Les

[Atl XJ]

Okay, excuse my ingorance here, but I'm gathering that you would release the air from the tires and then refill them with fresh air. I still don't understand thid concept though. I don't air down my tires and I haven't added any air in like six months, I check them but they are always fine. So I don't know if I have winter or summer air. I'm seriously not trying to be smart here, I've just never heard this before. :anon:

[juicexj24]

ya winter air. :wstupid: Juice

[Phil]

Don't forget to top off your blinker fluid when you change the air in your tires. You really don't want to run out.

[Atl XJ]

You know what, I'm not stupid and I figured it was a joke thats why I specifically asked if it was or not. I figured that when the president of NAXJA replied with what sounded like a serious response maybe there was some truth to it. I can do without this shit and I don't have time for it. :flamemad:

[5-90]

I've lost about 6mpg myself (1988 4.0 5sp) for no good reason I can find - and my wife has dropped 4-5mpg, although I've not been able to do her tuneup lately. Smog numbers on both vehicles (just before the beginning of the year) were excellent, so I know they're running their fuel well.

Woody - for more info on MTBE, do a search. There's a lot out there, this stuff is mildly toxic in ppb, and is harder than the hinges of Hell to get out of groundwater. Contamination (IIRC) is caused by spills, seepage from ground tanks, and from exhaust from engines running MTBE-laced fuel.

MTBE was originally mandated for ReFormulated Gasoline (RFG) as an oxygenator to reduce winter emissions while engines were getting to operating temperature, but has been shown to have no beneficial effect of any sort - much less for its intended purpose. The addition of ethanol in its place is a compromise measure, butis an improvement, as ethanol is itself a fuel (though considerably less energetic than gasoline, unless engines are retuned to run on it.)

Frankly, start by going from a "methods-based" means of reducing tailpipe emissions to a "results-based" methodology, and allow gearheads to start deleting the devices that really don't help, and tune engines for peak efficiency, rather than stick with the useless, failure-prone parts. But I'm cranky...

5-90

[LBEXJ]

You know what, I'm not stupid and I figured it was a joke thats why I specifically asked if it was or not. I figured that when the president of NAXJA replied with what sounded like a serious response maybe there was some truth to it. I can do without this shit and I don't have time for it. :flamemad:

Hey AtlXJ ... relax. Woody, though Pres. is just another guy in here. You never know, maybe he WAS serious about his "winter air"! :wow:

There is a lotta jokin' in here as well as good info. Then too, there is "bad" information too, so use the information you get wisely ... in another words ... research the best you can. We're all just regular guys here.

Les

[Atl XJ]

Hey AtlXJ ... relax. Woody, though Pres. is just another guy in here. You never know, maybe he WAS serious about his "winter air"! :wow:

There is a lotta jokin' in here as well as good info. Then too, there is "bad" information too, so use the information you get wisely ... in another words ... research the best you can. We're all just regular guys here.

Les

Sorry I over reacted. I was totally spent yesterday, running on no sleep will do that to yah, and I took that way too seriously. Please ignore my previous statement. :anon: I don't know why I fell for that, I guess the whole lack of sleep deal. :dunno:

[RichP]

The 'Winter air' was just some leg pulling. On another track, need about 2 gallons of baffle cleaner, noticed a dead area in the rear so it's time to clean them out.... Looking for the best prices, been a while since I bought any...

[Yucca-Man]

Noticed the same here, starting 3 weeks to a month ago. It used to cost me 1/4 tank to drive down to my kid's place south of Denver, so I could pick them up and fart around the area all weekend and come home with about 1/4 tank left. These last several times I've noticed it's closer to 3/8 tank per leg of the journey, leaving me on 'E' as I pull into Ft Collins again. If I had money, I'd buy a Honda

[Matthew Currie]

I just drove from VT to Georgia, and got my usual 20-21 mpg along the way (that's running around 70 with bikes on the roof, and a lot of stuff in the car). Without the bikes I would expect to gain a couple of mpg.

Usually I would expect to get a little better mileage as the weather warms up, because of less cold warmup time, less 4WD time, and the fact that gas is usually pumped from cool underground tanks, so that it will expand a little when it gets warmed up.

[basalt51]

We can all thank Al Gore for our MTBE polluted groundwater and crappy politics in general for moronic implimentation of rules with absolutely no science behind it. What a crock. :flamemad:

[woody]

Ya, blame Al Gore for your MPGs... the fawker invented the internet, so blame him for your Netscape issues too.

Don't feel bad about getting your new pubes tweezed out on 1 April. You look better bald :eek:

Last thing I heard on the radio before leaving work was a weather report calling for a 6" snow... Fetched a blizzard-beer supply & rode home glad I didn't change the winter air out just yet: Set a couple ribeyes to thawing/taters to baking, did my little chores (cover up the veggie sprouts) then surfed up the local weather. I'd been hoodoo'd too. :cheers:

My junk pulled in 18.3 MPG between M & F if filling at a dissimilar pump counts. 15.5 gallons of NC $1.70 (87 oct spring gas) for 284.4 hilly country miles & only a few throttle-happy moments. YMMV :D

[XJEEPER]

Not me. Since it's gotten warmer here in Utah, I get between 20-40 more miles per tank.

Bigger tires will solve that.........

[ChEwBaCcA]

Alot of the locals here in PA have noticed radical decreases, talking 17mpg to 13 mpg, in MPG over the past two weeks for no aparent reason. I myself noticed a big increase but have been buying my gas in northern NJ where it's .15 cents a gallon cheaper and not in Pa. I also see mobil state testing done on a regular basis in NJ which I have never seen done in Pa. Just a heads up if you notice a sudden decrease in milage, it may not be your rides fault... For all intents and purposes the winter fuel should be ending this week, 01APR, and normal fuel being supplied so the winter mix/summer mix will no longer be an excuse.

If I use MOBIL 1 will my mpg go up by a factor of 3? Thats what I heard anyhow? lol

Chewy

[ACE]

Bigger tires will solve that.........

True dat!
So what kind of mileage are you getting with the new shoes?

[CRASH]

Pardn me for being a chemistry-challenged maroon, but how exactly is this MTBE polluting the water? Is it some tailpipe-emitted condensate that effects runoff? Is it coming from maroons spilling their petrol at the pump? Is it leaching from the gas-station tanks?

If the effect is bad, I am sure there is a prospective cause. Clue me in.

<edit> Winter air is really bad for tires. I have 5 Jeeps (25 tires) needing the air changed out...<edit>

Leaky gas station tanks. A really bad case happened right at Lake Tahoe, the PUD had to shut down about half their wells.

Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether is nasty stuff, and you can taste it in your water at the parts per billion level.

CRASH

[JohnnysXJ]

We got rid of MTBE here in colorado not because of the polluted groundwater (tastee!) but because the gasoline distributors were tired of every rubber and plastic fitting on every tanker needing changing after 60 days...they started a lobby campain to end the addition of MTBE and got the envirolobby behind them....then came the real science...MTBE caused More pollution because more fuel was being burned to propel a given car a given distance...(sounds eerily familiar).

[Scott Mac.]

Who, what, where and why is MTBE?