i installed my CAI but after my gas mileage went down the drain! im at 80 miles at the half way point already! and i been babying it! what could have happened?! thanks!

 

Pardon my ignorance, but whats a "CAI".

My gas mileage sucks as well in the city 15 city / 27 Hwy @ 80 mph

 

I still recommend you take the car to a shop to have the CEL code read. It should say whether it thinks the MAS is burnt out or F'ed up or something else.

And CAI means Cold Air Intake, as opposed to SRI which is Short Ram Intake (the two commonly available kinda of aftermarket intake for us)

 

i use to get 320 miles to the tank with my SRI with Iridium Plugs.
Then i got 300 miles to the tank with SRI and no Iridium Plugs.
Now i got an AEM CAI with iridium plugs and getting 260-275 miles to the tank.
And finally, i have AEM CAI, Iridium plugs, and 215/40/R17 rims and tires and getting 220-240 miles to the tank. All the tests i performed were either on 89 octane or 87. is it the tires to blame or the CAI????

 

as long as your tires are properly inflated... they should not affect your mileage at all... actually sport tires could theoretically improve mileage because their tread should generate less rolling resistance... You should be running around 35 - 45 psi in a 17" rim.

It is not actually the intake that is causing the problem.... but rather the filter... I don't remember the full explanation... but for some reason KandN filters and other things like it CAN reduce gas mileage.

Also if the ECU thinks it is getting more air... it'll dump more fuel... and you'll get less mileage. But try resetting your ECU (disconnect battery for a good 15 minutes... ) and see if that helps.

 

maybe it's cause your car is getting more air = more horsepower = more efficient = more gas being burnt.

Similar to running your car on Premium gas.. you'll get less mileage with premium than on reg.

 

Yeh I noticed it too when I first put on my intake, I accidentally put in Premium one time I ran out of gas so freakin quick I was pissed but now I dont mind because I love my intake.

 

all this time..i thought intake/exhaust improves ur gas mileage, sheeesh

 

your CEL is still on madlib? i thought you fixed it already.. but if not, i agree with urbanknight and go to a shop to check your MAS. since you tried resetting your ecu numerous times, something must have went wrong when you installed the intake. 80 miles and you're at half a tank?! you're running way too rich and i seriously think its because of your MAS.. it doesnt let your engine know how much fuel to burn in proportion to the air its receiving.. anyway, good luck on everything and keep us updated

 

your intake and exhaust should improve gas milage, i get 300 a tank with regular and 250 a tank with 93 oct.

 

damn all the shops i been to dont have the updated chip with the 2002 lancer... =[ i gotta wait man! thanks for the help anyways

 

What in the world are you people doing? Running it all the way up to redline each time? With all my mods (intake/cam/full 2.5" exhaust from the manifold back) I garner just about 325~ before my light comes on and by then I still have usually another 25~ miles left in the tank if not more.

 

With my exhaust and intake.... I get about 31 mpg on the highway... and I get about 22 in the city (which is kind of my hard driving... )

I would double check that you have the harness reclipped onto the MAS properly... if that isn't on there it goes into limp mode and will consume mucho gas.... So make sure you have good connections... other than that.. no idea man!

Good luck.

 

The computer is just dumping fuel in the motor... Something is off, get it checked out. On a side note, if you keep this up, your catalytic convertors will get cooked too. Have it looked at soon or your repair bills will get more expensive.

 

i'm running bone stock right now, and i get sucky gas mileage as well. what i've noticed is that our cars need a good amount of gas to get moving. you have to give our little sohc engines gas in order to move the 4 doors