2001 Intrigue gas mileage

Hi, I was wondering if any Car Gurus or Magicians out there knew what the problem might be behind my horrible gas mileage. I got 13 mpg on the last tank and I KNOW that is abnormal, even for all the short trips. I live about 14 blocks from work, so the car is started a lot, which I realize "eats" up gas. Plus, we live in MissisSOUPY so the a/c is on practically constantly (I shut it off before turning off the engine and wait a minute after starting). In Nov 2004 I had a fuel system cleaning and in Jul 2004 I had a transaxle flush/fill. Other than that, it has been just the regular oil changes (switched to synthetic about 65,000 miles). It currently has about 73,000 on it.

I also am getting the sound of a police siren??? from the car at starting and for about 4 blocks or 2 minutes. No, it's NOT a cop trailing me - I was born with a lead foot, but I'm only puttering around town. =) Could this be related or (sigh) a separate issue? My husband wants to trade my baby for a PRIUS!

13mpg does seem on the low side for city driving. However if you are making mostly short distance trips through heavy city traffic (idling extensively and not sustaining speeds over 30mph) then 13mpg might not be all that out of the ordinary.

My Intrigue (3.5l) gives about 17 to 19 in the city driving that I do. Which is about half freeway driving and half "heavy city" driving (a lot of sitting in traffic). I imagine if I were to cut out my freeway driving I would be looking at around 15mpg.


my 2 cents,

Chuck

Thanks, Chuck! See, I know I am not crazy...all my driving is in a town of 50,000, and I bypass most of the traffic by taking the alternate routes morning and afternoon. "Traffic" here is 4 or 5 cars at a stoplight, while I am used to traffic in St. Louis (if you are there in the rain, don't bother to drive!)

I would like to make a couple of suggestions, first check the cat since you hear the siren noise it may be starting to plug up. Second, replacing the O2 sensors will help with the gas mileage. Third, If you have not done so changing plugs and wires will improve fuel efficiency in that they will cause the combustion to be better and get more power from the fuel used. Finally, make sure the air filter is clean as better air flow into the engine will make it more fuel efficient too. The worst I ever got on my GTP, I know it isn't an Olds, was 19 mpg with my son driving and he likes the supercharger with the majority being stop and go driving.

Thanks, Chuck! See, I know I am not crazy...all my driving is in a town of 50,000, and I bypass most of the traffic by taking the alternate routes morning and afternoon. "Traffic" here is 4 or 5 cars at a stoplight, while I am used to traffic in St. Louis (if you are there in the rain, don't bother to drive!)
my 3800 1999 only gets around 15 in town but on a trip it will get 27. thats quite a spread . ive donr everything i know of to improve it but its always been that way since i bought it used w 25k on it.

I've never checked out my 2002 in the city only, but I'm on vacation now. I've gone from Rockford, IL, thru Chicago, into Michigan and up to the Upper Peninsula. Going thru Chicago and Gary I got 28.66 mpg, then furthur on I got 30.14 and 30.43 - almost as good as my friend's little Neon.

Why don't you take your car on a highway drive for 100 - 150 miles and recheck the mileage. Let us know what you get for highway mileage.

kmohr3 you acctually get 30mpg with the US gallon.that is amazing.I just checked mine yesterday and i got 33.3 on a canadian gallon which is somewhat larger than a us gallon.correct......anyone
kmohr3 you have the 3.5 engine right?

We are happy with the mileage, on the last leg of our jouney we got 30.83 mpg AC on most of the time. A Canadian gallon is 1.25 US gallons.

If you haven't done this already; you may want to check your mileage over (3) consecutive fill-ups by dividing the total of (3) fill-ups by the total mileage driven for the (3) fill-ups. This will give you a more accurate mpg result.

Check the Air Pump...Just under the bumber on the drivers side for the noise at start up. I'm sure that's the problem. I just put one in my 01 aurora...no big deal to do

pump those tires up to about 36psi. My dad goes 40+ psi or the max the tire can take -but he's alittle nutty.

36 psi is kind of high for me since I usually ran about 32psi. But I have gotten used to the stiffness.

If you really baby your Intrigue on a trip and drive 50mph where the car is most efficient you should get 30mpg quite easily. I think my dad has gotten 34,35,36 Mpg, but he drives super-slow and every body passes him on the highway (not safe).

When I switched to tires that had a larger radius (tire is larger) than my old tires I think it helped also. Harder (touring 80,000 mile +) tires will get better mileage than soft (35-40k mile warranty) ones.