Ford_Falcon

Yes and no. I may have babied it initially, but for at least 2 years I was getting 300 out of her before the low fuel light would come on. I average 65-70 mph on the freeway, but I will drop it to 60 for a week or so and see how it goes. Not always easy, especially in the slow lane when you have to merge with entering / exiting traffic.

So I'm smelling fuel in my garage within seconds of firing her up in the mornings, I'm thinking there may be a problem with air/fuel mix. I can really smell it. There's no leaks or anything like that. So is it likely the MAF / O2 sensors need replacing?

Oh, and where have you all found the cheapest place to buy replacement sensors and such? I'm seeing about $72 from ebay to replace just one of the sensors.

Now I don't want to sound cheap, but can anyone say that they got better performance (mileage etc) from a name brand (Bosch, Denso, NGK) sensor, that they didn't get from a lesser known $28 OE replacement, such as...
http://www.car-stuff.com/store/?N=11...709+11921+9167

Ford_Falcon

I bought a pair of heated general Oxygen Sensors off eBay. They are Borg Warners. I will fit them this week and see how it goes.

Ford_Falcon

Well, things are looking promising.

I bought a pair of Borg Warner O2 sensors from eBay for about $45. So far I've only fitted one of them, the one that sits between the CAT and headers. I was a little disappointed with the length of the wires attached to the sensor. It was about 3 inches too short. I had hoped to just take out the existing wires from the connector (male) and replace them with the ones from the sensor. Turns out I had to strip and splice the old with the new, and then remove the other wires (female) from the grommet that holds it in place over the rear engine mount. It then gave me enough slack to attach the sensor wire to the connector, with a little room to move.

So I filled her up the other day, and the needle is just about to touch the 3/4 mark on the fuel gauge, and she already has 105 miles on her. This is good news because up until now I've been struggling to get 60 miles out of her at the same point. I'll be interested to see what it reads when the low fuel light comes on.

SentraSE-R

Sounds promising.

FWIW, I aim for 80 miles by the time the fuel gauge drops to the Full mark
150 miles to the 3/4 mark
250 miles to the 1/2 mark
390 miles to the 1/4 mark

Those are targets for normal tanks. On good tanks, I'll top 180 miles to 3/4 tank, 280 miles to 1/2 tank, and 430 miles to 1/4.

jwaj2002

holy ____ how?! I get about 220 200 at 1/4 tank

gonna try new spark plugs come spring/summer

doge323

hey its probably that you are pressing on the gas to hard and quick...
for example you say you're usually going 65 mph, you probably try to get to that speed to quick... what i mean is try to slowly get to that speed and you'll see a huge difference..( gradually build your speed up) i had the same exact problem of mpg on my xa, but now that i learned this method i no longer do!

JessXA

The last month or two my car has gone from about 200-210 at half tank to about 175 at half tank. I guess it started right around when it got cold and snowy. The only thing that's changed for me is the weather.

jwaj2002

I coast alot and my car never sees anything above 50 mph and I still get only 200 miles by the time I'm at 1/4 tank

Ford_Falcon

For me it's been a process of elimination, you could say. When I bought my xB it already had 60K miles on it, and it now has 160K. After doing the spark plugs, wires, air filter, tires, transmission oil, even cleaned the MAF sensor, there can't be many more things to clean, fix or replace. I hadn't changed the O2 sensors since I bough it in that time, so now with the results I'm getting I will change out the second oxygen sensor behind the catalytic converter this weekend. As for gas, I've just been getting mine from Costco.

I'm now about midway between 3/4 and 1/2 tank and it's already done 160 miles. I should get at least a week's worth of driving on one tank, so I'm happy about that, 'cos you all know it's only a matter of time before gas prices get crazy again.

Ford_Falcon

So far did 215 miles and it's just on the half-way marker. I'm already 75 miles ahead of where I used to be.

daneisthegreatest

iTrader: (1)

im only getting on average for the 14 months i have been tracking MPG about 28.6 mpg, i hate taking it on the highway because with highway miles it drops to 26- mpg, never really seen a car that gets better gas mileage in the city than on the highway

Ford_Falcon

300 miles at the 1/4 mark.

SentraSE-R

Sounds like you fixed your problem. The next tank should confirm it.

RichBinAZ

MPG on a 700 mile run from CA to AZ was 27mpg.
Changed the OEM air filter at 23K miles to an autozone STP brand.
MPG on return run 35mpg.

Is there a lesson to be learned here?

vintage42

The lesson is that the original filter was dirty and should have been inspected and changed at 15K. You should always get 35 mpg on the highway.

I did a 2500-mile road trip from KY to New England with the overall average of 35 mpg. I did one tank at 60 mpg and got 42 mpg. That was on the OEM filter. Imagine what it could have been on the STP filter ;-)

jwaj2002

unless you own a stick, the standard does not get but between 22 and 25 on the highway/freeways due to 5th gear not being geared high enough

vintage42

My xB has a "standard" transmission (5-speed manual).

The EPA estimates for the 2006 xB were about the same for both transmissions:
Manual 30/33 mpg.
Automatic 30/34 mpg.
It is easy to get a little better or a little worse mpg than those.

But is it almost impossible to get 25 or 22 mpg with an xB unless you are using very heavy throttle and/or something is wrong like a plugged air filter.
The day that I spent at Exposed '06 did cause 22 mpg because of several laps around the Mid-Ohio race course wound out in all the gears.

jwaj2002

mine gets between 15 and 20 on interstates, at 70 I'm doing 5k in 5th gear, been that way since I bought the car new

bB2NER

Way too rich if in fact you are that low. Sounds like a stuck open injector or bad sensor somewhere. Should have the exhaust analyzed and injectors cleaned or replaced. Someone hasn't been using Seafoam every oil change.

jwaj2002

car spent 2 weeks at toyota a month after I picked it up they looked it over and so has my mechanic nothing is wrong with it, thats just what its always gotten on the interstate, backroads I get between 29 and 32