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Poor Gas Mileage

M

mbraun

New CEG'er
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
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14
I purchased a '97 contour with a 4 cylinder engine and automatic transmission for my 16 year old daughter's first car. It was my hope that this combination would have reasonable gas mileage as a teenager can rack up some miles. Unfortunately this car gets about 14-15 mpg in town. My SUV does better than that. The car has 96k miles on it. I have changed the air filter and spark plugs, run some techron in the gas but still no help. I ran an OBD II analyzer on it and drove around town. The engine temp that the computer sees is 180-190 degrees, it is in closed loop operation. There is no codes in the computer. Is there anybody out there that can give me some solid technical advice before I go broke feeding this car at the gas station and am forced to make it go away? Thanks
 
Poor Gas Milage

Poor Gas Milage

I would start with a compression test. If one or two cylinders is below average, the computer will comphensate air/fuel ratio. I ended up replacing the head gasket and a valve job and I'm getter better gas milage 18-20 in the city.

Consider replacing fuel pressure regulator. (There are two small o-rings in that part and can go bad resulting in fuel loss.)

I also replaced the EGR valve, IDC valve, and plug/wires.

If there is an emmissions station in your state, they wold be able to tell you if the car is running rich - as a result of poor fuel/air mixture.
 
Welcome :) . I presume you have an automatic. Where are you located? If you run the DEF or DEF/FLR all the time, the mileage will suffer as the A/C gets turned on too (even though it is turned all the way to heat) to help dehumidify the car. In addition, what is the car tire pressure? Unfortunately, I would say 14-15 mpg in town is "par for the course" if you have any of those issues being present.
 
Poor gas mileage

Poor gas mileage

Thanks for the replies. The gas mileage performance is without the A/C compressor on. Tire pressure is 35 front 32 rear. Missouri is not an emmissions state so no testing up the pipe is done here. I have a couple of questions here. 1. What is the IDC valve? and what does it do? 2. if the fuel pressure is not correct will the car set a Check engine light code? 3. What is the proper fuel pressure for the 4 cylinder? 4. Is there a port on the fuel system someplace where a pressure test can be done? 5. if the EGR valve is plugged will the car set a Check engine light code? Thanks again
 
Start with the basics. I changed the PCV valve on my cars & it helped the V-6 a LOT and the I-4 it bumped the mileage up a couple mpg. I got a few more mpg when I replaced a bad fuel injector. I'm gonna replace the remaining units & see what kind of result I get.

Here's a tip. Do you hear a tiny bit of valve chatter a tip-in? Find out which cylinder if you can and swap a couple of injectors- preferably put the bad injector at the #1 or #4 position so it is easy to hear what cylinder is chattering. Replace as needed. While in there, replace the injector O2 sensors & have the remaining injectors cleaned.

Smell any gasoline first thing in the morning, or after a short stop? Might be a sign of worn/old injector O-rings.

Sounds like you may have more than one bad injector, or some other problem such as high fuel pressure.
 
mbraun said:
I purchased a '97 contour with a 4 cylinder engine and automatic transmission for my 16 year old daughter's first car. It was my hope that this combination would have reasonable gas mileage as a teenager can rack up some miles. Unfortunately this car gets about 14-15 mpg in town. My SUV does better than that. The car has 96k miles on it. I have changed the air filter and spark plugs, run some techron in the gas but still no help. I ran an OBD II analyzer on it and drove around town. The engine temp that the computer sees is 180-190 degrees, it is in closed loop operation. There is no codes in the computer. Is there anybody out there that can give me some solid technical advice before I go broke feeding this car at the gas station and am forced to make it go away? Thanks
Click to expand...

I would throw a fuel filter at it also. Not saying anyone is speeding in it, however driving habit will effect mileage. Nice easy take offs help but with todays faster cars and everyone in a rush its hard to do that without the person behind you going crazy and going around you first chance they get to only stop at the same light :)

Also does it idle ruff? PVC and also the hose. The intake manifold has a hose under it that runs to the PVC this hose gets soft and will pinch off the vac to PVC.
 
I picked up a PCV valve, fuel filter, air filter and new plug wires and will install this week. There is no smell of gas, no clicking sound and it idles fine. I am also going to test the fuel pressure. The book says 37-41 pounds. One guy here said that this kind of gas mileage is par for the course. If that is the case then this car is for sale. I paid $2600 for it 6 months ago. It is a 4 door 96k miles excellent body and paint, interior is great, rebuilt trans 2500 miles ago. Also has a new timing belt, water pump, pulleys, right axel shaft, left wheel hub and 4 new tires. $3000 and its all yours. I live in the Kansas City area but could help with delivery.
 
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Can anybody tell me why Ford designed this thing so that you have to remove a heat shield, cat converter and lower the exhaust just to change a simple PCV valve. Who did that thinking?
 
I can bet that she drives the crap out of the car. Last year I had an Escort that had close to the same mileage. The reason? Simple. I drove it too fast on the highway. A car's "optimum" speed were gas mileage is at its best is around 55-65 mph. Above that the mileage will seem to increase dramaticaly.
 
True. I find if I drive exclusively in town low speeds, in an "adult" (gently) manner, my 4 cylinder 1985 Dodge Lancer gets 18 or less. I have had near 15. Driving to work, 2/3 expressway, 23-24 mpg, 30 mpg at 60 or so, worse above. My 2.5 (V6) Mystique is similar in town, never calculated it, I believe it is much more efficient at highway speed than the ol' Dodge! Try driving the car in your routine and see how the mileage is. Also make sure the overdirve is on for highway driving.
 
Just because there is no MIL on doesn't mean that everything is OK. If you can, read what the O2 sensor is doing, what the air charge temp is, and so on. Are there any other symtoms at all besides poor fuel economy?
 
Compression is 150, 145, 150 & 140. New fuel filter. Fuel pressure is 37 psi after the pump comes on and will hold for at least a minute, 30 psi at idle and 40 psi with throttle applied. This is exactly what the book says is should be. Using an HEI tester the spark is at least strong enough to jump a 40K volt gap. It now likes to back fire. Of course there is no codes. I am wondering about a partially blocked cat? Anybody else have any ideas. I am starting to really HATE this car.
 
Is the firing order correct, and does each cylinder flash your inductive timing light? I've crossed cylinders before..It's possible timing belt is off one tooth, but I will defer to Zetec experts there.
 
Tony

Thanks for the tip on the O2 removal. I will try that. The car is mostly driven in town side streets. I think that is not helping the mileage either. It has now blown a starter too. That is fun to fix. There is no room for a guy with big hands and somebody designed a EGR tube in the way (nice, I bet this is the same designer who put the oil filter is such a bad place) Have any of you guys used a company named Witchhunter performance in Bothell WA? They do a 3 step ultrasonic injector cleaning and new screens, pitle caps and O rings for about $18.00 per injector.
 
Thanks for the link it was informative. But to pull 2 bolt from the top of the heat shield, 2 bolts from the metal tube infront of the heat shield, 2 standoffs that hold the heat shield to the manifold, engine heat sensor, 4 bolts for the thermostat housing, a hose, a bolt holding the hard line to the PCV valve, clean the gasket surface and reinstall the thermostat housing and put the heatshield back in place with all the hardware will take a bit more than 5 minutes and be a real mess when the antifreeze comes spilling out of the block. However I will take a look and see if the 1 bolt to the PCV valve hard line can be reached with an extension under the thermostat housing. If that is the case then maybe it wont be so bad. I appreciate you directing me to this link, the pictures offered me an opportunity to think about it clearer. I still say a GM is much easier.
 
Finally

Finally

OK here is one that you would probably not expect but I have the car fixed. The flex plate on this car is what is used for the timing crank shaft trigger. The flex plate on the Contour has a tendancy for the area around the crankshaft to twist inside the rest of the flex plate. This of course changes the timing marks being picked up on the outer edge of the flex plate with relation to the actual positon of the crankshaft. So after a new flex plate the car is running correctly.

I have had 1 happy day with this car. That was the day I gave it to my daughter for her birthday. With all the problems with the Contour I have purchased a GM car for my daughter to drive and this Contour is now for sale. I only need to have 1 more happy day with this car.... The day it is out of my life forever.
 
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