Ok i want to know what you guys are doing to get 350-400 miles per tank? my lancer is pretty much bone stock right now and i bought it used with 12,100 miles about a month ago. How fast do you guys drive? What mods do you or dont you have? Also how long do you drive after the gas light comes on? I fill up pretty soon after my light comes on and then it only takes about 10 gallons to fill it up. isnt the tank 13.4 gallons or something like that? so does that mean you have like a 3 gallon reserve and you could really go another 75 miles + or so? right now my mileage is about 13,500 and im sure its got stock spark plugs in there so they could probably use a change. What brand would you recommend? Or anything else to improve my mileage i would appreciate. Im just confused

 

I can get to the 400mi mark pretty easily when upshifting at lower rpms and keeping under 70 for highway cruising. I also usually upshift at 3.5k unless I'm trying to accelerate quickly for expressway onramps, etc. No extensive idle warm up either, it runs for a minute then off I go. The light in the fuel gauge supposedly comes on with around a 2 gal reserve left, but the gauge is set to be conservative like most mfg's these days.

You didn't state whether you're auto or 5spd, but here's a few quick things. If you think your mpg is low, check your tire pressures, underinflated rubber doesn't help. Second, check / replace the air filter. Since it was a one owner for 12k, they may not have done that maintenance item. Checking and/or replacing spark plugs would be good too. The Denso Iridiums seems to be popular with a lot of the crew around here, but NGK copper cores (their plain jane plug) should do fine for stock purposes.

 

sorry auto

 

Getting 21-22 mpg. Im paying about 1.43-1.50 per gal.

 

my mpg doesnt change no matter how i drive..i have an auto and even if i do a week of aggresive driving and autox or a week with normal, my pace driving, i always get 24 mpg

 

i agree i can drive like an ******* or like a grandman and 24-25 is the magic numbah

 

Well for you auto equipped members, unless you do a 100% freeway trip for the entire tank and actually control your speed(s) to sane figures, you probably won't notice a great mileage change. The auto transmission is taking around 10 to 15% of the engine's power and wasting it for running the transmission itself and heating ATF. Until overdrive engages with the TC (torque converter) locked, forget about gas mileage.

 

i have an automatic and only got 200miles to the tank highway only. going about 85-95 most of the way. in the city i get between 200-240. is this normal.
by the way the car is bone stock other than rims and intake.

 

yeah that is pretty normal. i get about 240 per tank highway mainly going around 80. if i drop down to like 70-75 i get about 260 on the tank and I am dead stock except for my hood and audio system

 

well i just got back from a trip yesterday and i got 340 miles to the tank and it was mostly freeway with the cruise set at 82 mph i have a stock automatic except i just put in new spark plugs

 

Just as a helpful hint, I suggest posting actual mpg...trip odo/gal used instead of total miles on tank. There's no account of how low you ran the tank before refill, so that method introduces a lot of possible error.

 

Well mileage is a big concern for me. I can't afford gas right now and I drive 150miles a day. Which means I have to fill my gas tank at least 3 times a week.

My assumption is that we have a 13gallon tank in the US lancer2002 and the gas light comes on after 10 gallons is used. Back when I only drove locally I would only get like between 210-250 miles before the gas light came on. Now that I am all highway I am getting 317miles when the light comes on. That is 317 miles on the cheap ghetto gas (I actually stretched it to 390 before I filled it and probably could have squeezed out like 2 or 3 more miles).

NOW..... Shell gasoline (almost positive it is shell, for some reason my mind is going blank) They have a new Gas that yields better gas mileage. To me, that sounds like bukkaki and I wouldn't believe it, but my friend claimed he got 50 miles more than his last tank (could be screwed up from mixed highway/city mileage).

I am testing this myself right now... 317 on ghetto gasoline and I just filled my completely empty tank this morning with the regular better mileage gasoline from Shell*



Has anyone else had experience with better gasoline (I am only useing "regular" gas). I will confirm my mileage in like 2.5 days and see how the difference is. My driving is 95%+ highway miles.

 

i don't let my gas tank get below 1/4 if i can in any way possible avoid it. i read when you corner with less than a quarter tank you can possibly pull no gas and damage your engine. I'm sure different gas can affect gas milage, let us know.

 

Thats an interesting comment about the cornering with less than 1/4 of a tank of gas. I have not heard that before... can anyone else out there back up this statement.

When I was buying my car I asked my dealer about mileage and when the gas light comes on. He told me that I shouldn't stretch the mileage on the car, so I asked him why. He didn't say anything about a quarter tank, but the only reason he had was that in the winter you dont want moisture in the empty gas lines to freeze. So my interpretation was that in the winter was the only possibly damaging time to have low gas levels in your car.

That could be a pretty serious issue if you can damage your engine by having less gas in reserve while turning.

 

Yeah this is a problem in cars but only when you are EXTREMELY low (which it sounds like you do very often). The fuel in the tank moves like you do and when you hit a corner at speed it is thrown agains the side of the tank and not where the inlet for the fuel pump it. That is why on drag cars they put the fuel pump in the back so that when you are on it the gas is pussed backwards. Allowing you car to loose fuel isnt as bad in an NA car as it would be if you were turbo but still not too good of an idea. Stop off earlier and top off the tank.