What mpg should I expect ?

[guest user]

Hi all,

Am I missing something here? I checked the mpg on this 96 Outback and was shocked to find it was hardly getting 14mpg.

 

I've owned Subaru's for over 30 years and I've never had one get less than 25mpg. Our last Forester, which was an 04, got 30mpg in a place that was winter 10 months out of the year and had huge mountains to climb. And ran studded tires 6 months out of the year.

 

All this Outback does is ride down a flat warm highway, with a tail wind most of the time. I don't even want to think what would happen to the mpg if I used the AC.

 

Is this normal?

 

Thanks for any input.

[Stang70Fastback]

I think I answered in your other post, but I get upwards of 25 mpg. There is no way in hell you should be getting the same mileage as a Hummer, lol, that's the WHOLE POINT of the Outback.

[guest user]

That's what I thought. Maybe I better have a look see at the plugs. I'm trying not to drive it much until I can find some tires. PO has 3 different brand tires on it. That can't be good.

Just can't understand why after all these years a tire dealer will still allow a customer to install different tires on an AWD vehicle.

I've never had an Outback before,do they all have a heavy feel to the front end and under steer,or could this be from the mismatched tires?

 

Thanks for the reply.

[Stang70Fastback]

It's hard to answer that question because it IS an Outback, not a Ferrari. That said, a couple things to keep in mind:

 

1. I've noticed that as the tires become worn, the tendency to understeer is significantly amplified. This is probably true of a lot of cars, but with worn tires on the front, this car really doesn't like to turn in, in fact once you get down past 4/32nds of an inch, at least with the last set of tires I had on the car, it became downright dangerous in the wet.

 

2. With NEW tires, I've found that the car is actually quite nimble (for what it is). I've even had people sitting in the car impressed with the handling. Understeer isn't too bad really, but it will understeer first, as do most cars for safety reasons, though a quick flick can induce oversteer ;-)

 

3. I don't think the front end feels terribly heavy. I wonder if it's possible the struts on your car are worn out and could use replacing. That would definitely contribute to roll AND understeer AND an overall feeling of "weightyness." I've found that if you turn sharply just one way, there really isn't too much body roll at all. If you transition from one direction to the other, that's where the body really tends to sway. So if you give it a quick flick to the right and the car really leans over, you should probably look into new struts.

 

All-in-all though, this IS an Outback. It's not the most nimble car on the road, but it handles very well for what it is so if it's really not feeling right, it's possible there's something wrong.

 

/kind-of-not-really-helpful-post

 

EDIT: Also, about the fuel economy, you might want to consider your MAF too.

[thefoos]

Hi all,

Am I missing something here? I checked the mpg on this 96 Outback and was shocked to find it was hardly getting 14mpg.

 

I've owned Subaru's for over 30 years and I've never had one get less than 25mpg. Our last Forester, which was an 04, got 30mpg in a place that was winter 10 months out of the year and had huge mountains to climb. And ran studded tires 6 months out of the year.

 

All this Outback does is ride down a flat warm highway, with a tail wind most of the time. I don't even want to think what would happen to the mpg if I used the AC.

 

Is this normal?

 

Thanks for any input.

 

 

Check your o2 sensors...I took the rear o2 sensor out and mileage dropped from 22 to 15 mpg. I did other things to the car at the same time, but I'm almost positive this was the cause (I just fixed it today, so I will be able to confirm in a week or two).

[Homo Sapien]

Around town 16-18 mpg is not unusual on my 98 legacy gt. Highway I can get 25 - 26.

[cman7]

This is a bit low for gas mileage. I average 26MPG in my LGT and I don't exactly drive the most fuel efficiently. Granted most of my commute is from 50-65MPH.

 

http://www.fuelly.com/sig-us/33563.png

 

Sounds like you need a tune up. Check the air filter, tire pressure, spark plugs, fuel filter, pcv valve, etc.

 

If the MAF or 02 sensors were the case, he'd be getting a CEL.

[dmanaenk]

That's definitely low.

 

If the MAF or 02 sensors were the case, he'd be getting a CEL.

Yeah, unless the bulb burned out.

 

Does the CEL come on when you start the car?

[cman7]

That's definitely low.

 

 

Yeah, unless the bulb burned out.

 

I think that's pretty rare. I've never seen that happen once in my entire life.

[Stang70Fastback]

If the MAF or 02 sensors were the case, he'd be getting a CEL.

 

Tell that to my car. My MAF was bad for a whole 6 months - the result being sputtering, stalling, rough idle, car running on 3 cylinders, etc... it was incredible how through all of that the CEL never came on.

[cman7]

Damn. Mine went bad about 4-5 months ago and it threw a CEL.

[Stang70Fastback]

Yeah, not saying it shouldn't, and obviously in the vast majority of cases it will, as that's the whole point of the CEL and OBD-II, but just pointing out that with mine I had no indication which is why I had so much trouble figuring it out.

[mherman]

I think that's pretty rare. I've never seen that happen once in my entire life.

 

I have a burned out CEL, which kept me from realizing I had a bad knock sensor for a long time. All the other indicator lights in the panel come on (the ones that are supposed to, anyway) at startup. So, I plan to pull the panel and swap out the bulb.

[mherman]

oops, the CEL wasn't burned out! I pulled the instrument cluster and found someone had bent back the contact on the CEL bulb so it didn't contact the circuit board. I'm not the original owner, so I don't know why this happened.