Improving mileage

Hello everyone,

I am trying to improve the gas mileage in my 2003 ford Taurus. I was wondering if any of you can tell me what would be the basic and most advanced things needed for improvement of my vehicles mileage. I just changed my oil, filter, fuel filter and put in a new K and N air filter. Also my car has about 45000 miles on it. Thanks for any help you all can give me.

Driving technique should be #1. Review economical driving techniques, we all need to do that now and then.

Is that an oiled filter??? One of the best things to help improve is to cut out the jackrabbit starts,, has anyone else noticed that people riding up your a## is at an all-time high???? It seems the higher the gas price, the faster people are driving.. oh yeah, inflate your tires to the maximum recommended pressure, I've always done it.. and check them often to keep it there...

Stick a brick under the gas pedal, coast up to red lights to avoid having to stop before they turn green as far as driving.

New sparkplugs, cleaning MAF, alignment, inflate tires to max on sidewall of tire ... should be pretty good.

You're driving my Taurus! :slap: We have an 03 SES Vulcan 46.7K miles and it gets 19 in town and around 22 on the road which seems to be the norm. I don't drive real fast but I do like to accelerate fast and if I slow it down and drive conservatively I don't realize THAT much improvement in gas mileage. Use 5W-20 oil like Ford says use and do the other things repiles said. Tire pressure is important and best check it once a month. We live on the coast in SC near Savannah, GA and gas is $2.06 here.

The K&N filter thing is controversial because some auto experts say they aren't worth the money and others say they are.

the only real thing a K&N filter does is filter out the wrinkles in your wallet.
my freind next door installed a K&N air filter on his Mustang which came with a lower mounted altered air intake scoop. At the first rain, he went thought a puddle, scoop a big gulp of water . . . . $5,000 to repair the engine damage. Good design K&N!!!

I expect that the cold air intake kit came with a warning about driving in rain. Can't really blame the filter for what happened to your friend. Plus, if your friend did the install, he should have realized where the air intake was located are that it would be easy to suck up water.

There are water traps available to reduce the liklihood of this happening and are recommended for daily drivers with cold air intakes.

A regular K&N and similar filter will pretty much only have noticeable HP gains at very high rpms. For a daily driver, the benefit will usually only be a longer lasting filter that is washable. The user just needs to be sure when they wash, dry, and re-oil the filter that they do not over-oil the filter. Excess oil will contaminate the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor and cause decreased fuel economy.

-Rod

An owner with an '03 Vulcan should easily be able to average 23 in town and 28 hwy. Every time you "accelerate fast" and step on the brake you are using extra fuel.

An owner with an '03 Vulcan should easily be able to average 23 in town and 28 hwy. Every time you "accelerate fast" and step on the brake you are using extra fuel.


The mileage "estimates" are based on a model that include a maximum speed of 48mph on the highway. So, no, you can't easily average 28 on the highway. However, an '03 Vulcan should be able to best 20 in the city if you're not Mario Andretti. I'm not an aggressive driver and I'm driving a '97 Vulcan and I average 24.5 if I'm not being careful and 26 if I'm really taking it easy, and I'm going up and down hills everywhere I go around here, though I don't do much stop-and-go driving at all if I can help it. If I'm on the highway going over a hundred miles on a trip and lock the cruise in at 65, don't have to pass anyone, etc., then I can get 29 mpg. But that's on a 4-lane highway and the cruise is locked almost the whole way.

Best ways to improve your mileage are to not accelerate going uphill if you can help it, coast when you can, use your cruise whenever possible (just not in the rain or on slippery roads), accelerate as slowly as traffic conditions warrant (no need to cause another road-rage related incident), keep your speed as low as you can go (other than low-drag vehicles like the Prius, where going 65 takes less fuel than going 45) becuase of air resistance issues, make sure your air filter gets changed on schedule (or sooner -- come on, it's like $7 at most and you can do it yourself in three minutes), and make sure your plugs are clean/new. Inflating your tires to the maximum reccomended pressure is vital. Something like ten percent of your fuel economy can be lost just for having 3psi low in your tires, according to reports.

Also, try synthetic oil. If your car isn't under waranty anymore, try Mobil 1 Extended Performance. 15000 miles on one $30 oil change doesn't sound too bad to me AND it comes with an engine guarantee in case anything effs up. That and synthetics do improve mileage slightly, irregardless of maker. Royal Purple recommends 6000 miles between changes and they have a great rep. People who've used AMSoil (other than professional dirt bike racers) that I've talked to swear by it. I boosted my MPG by 2 on my first tank of gas using just SuperTech 5w-30 full synthetic, though after that it fell back to normal levels (I think, since it was the first one since I got the car, that it just really needed an oil change).

Some other things that might not hurt is fuel injector cleaner. You have to realize just how dirty gasoline is. Make sure your fuel filter was changed when it was supposed to be, change it if not, and run a bottle of some good FIC through. You have almost 50,000 miles on that thing -- that's a lot of small explosions and a lot of gasoline being pushed through very small holes at high pressure. Lucas Fuel System Treatment/Injector Cleaner is supposed to improve mileage slightly (at $3 a pop for the small bottles, but much more reasonable in the bigger jugs if you're interested in it) and I've noticed a slight increase in mileage when I can afford to pay $3 more per fillup, which isn't often, but besides all that I've noticed that it does a bang-up job on dirty injectors. Just my :2cents: .

Drove 90 miles in town and 50 on the road and got 23 overall. Good enough for this old pedal-to-the-metal Turbo Taurus Terror! Varoooom! Varroooommmm! Hook it up! Git' A Wheel! Lay rubber! Screamin' off the line and lookin' real mean! Tach it up, tach it up Buddy gonn'a shut you down!

I use WalMart injector cleaner and Pennzoil Platinum full syn 5W-20 oil! Vaarroom! Vaaroomm! The Jelly Roll King Shakin' That Thing Senior Citizens Terrible Taurus.