tori24 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Well, a month later and here I still am.. http://i52.tinypic.com/fy37et.jpg The WORST part is, local Subby dealership says my mileage is normal and Subaru's get bad mileage in the winter... in other words, please help me LGT.com! sad to say but I am in the same boat, but not that terrible In my 05 lgt i went from getting 25 miles per gallon, down to 14 on a good say. But its not just Subaru's that this is happening to. Depending on where you get gas you need to be a little careful. I found that during winter seasons gas is spread out differently which makes miles per gallon a lot less than summer seasons. Just hang in there til summer, and things will get a bit better for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 The car is reading 13.5mpg for my city driving. I have a 5EAT tranny, a 1200 mile new shortblock/turbo and use 91 octane. What am I doing wrong? My brother drives an '03 WRX stg.2 (I think?) and gets better mileage than me. Is it the new block not broken in yet? I drive like a granny and am now testing it in full automatic mode rather than the manumatic. We do have a good amount of hills here in NE PA but would that kill my mileage? Just seeing what you guys think. Maybe i'm just worried too much or my average mpg gauge is off. Subarus get crappy mileage get used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I shift manual all the time. Each shift is between 2-3K and at most, 3.5K. I'm never boosting or having fun because once I do, the gas goes even quicker and I average 4mpg. I seriously never beat on the car and drive it slower than my old '95 Legacy LS. I hear it all day from my sister to drive faster home from school. Do I listen? No . For an AT gearbox when the lock-up doesn't engage it may mean that you increase your loss in the torque converter if you shift early. And the lock-up engages only at higher speeds when the load is relatively low so going uphill means that it's probably never engaged. The 8 mpg seems excessive, but do a highway trip to test the fuel consumption in a more controlled situation. For short runs the oil choice is important too. It really makes a difference. Try to get some 0W30 fully synthetic and see what it does for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc6 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 For an AT gearbox when the lock-up doesn't engage it may mean that you increase your loss in the torque converter if you shift early. And the lock-up engages only at higher speeds when the load is relatively low so going uphill means that it's probably never engaged. The 8 mpg seems excessive, but do a highway trip to test the fuel consumption in a more controlled situation. For short runs the oil choice is important too. It really makes a difference. Try to get some 0W30 fully synthetic and see what it does for you. Every little bit helps. Also try a tank of 93. might help some granted the price might be 4 cents off from 91. 2005 Satin White Pearl Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT Unlimited 5EAT (Project Car) 2019 Agate Black Ford Explorer XLT 4WD (DD) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank_ster Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 go on the highway at 65 mph and hit the rest button . what mpg do you get on the highway ? maf could also be dirty .. take it oot and hit it with brake cleaner then blow off with compresed air. Now that's thinking out of the boxer! fyi all 05 + legacy's have built in code reader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc6 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 go on the highway at 65 mph and hit the rest button . what mpg do you get on the highway ? maf could also be dirty .. take it oot and hit it with brake cleaner then blow off with compresed air. I use the maf cleaner on mine when I do oil changes and filter cleans. More summer cause I get those water in the aem cels often. When it warms up I'm gonna do both and reset pcm. Anyone ever get the reset pcm multiplier trick to work? 2005 Satin White Pearl Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT Unlimited 5EAT (Project Car) 2019 Agate Black Ford Explorer XLT 4WD (DD) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Just watch out with compressed air - I have found that cleaner fluid (brake cleaner, carburetor cleaner) is sufficient. The heated resistor is ceramic or hard composite and may develop a crack if you use too much force. I usually take two steps - short spray with fluid, let it soak for a few seconds and then a harder spray with the cleaner. Using the straw all the time. Usually when the MAF is dirty you will see buildup on one of the resistors. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to take a picture of one right now since mine is recently cleaned. The buildup appears on the heated resistor while the other one is a reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc6 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I only do short bursts not the "DIE ROACH DIE!" raid sprays. 2005 Satin White Pearl Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT Unlimited 5EAT (Project Car) 2019 Agate Black Ford Explorer XLT 4WD (DD) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 I'll certainly try to drive up hills faster. I normally go about 35mph but I'll hit it a little harder up the hill. This is about a 2000 mile new short block. We're changing to synthetic in a thousand miles I believe but not 100% sure. Should I do 0w-30 or 5w-40? I see a lot of people run the 5w-40. We actually just cleaned my MAF when swapping out my Perrin Intake and put my stock one back in (thought the intake could've been the problem), so the MAF is clean. I also tried a tank of 93 and that failed. Hopefully it's just bad winter gas .. Like i said though, even in October I was getting low mileage compared to others. Penguin, I'm pretty sure Subaru's don't get 8.4mpg in the winter being that I know 2 others getting much higher mpg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmx045 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 ^ is your car tuned? Maybe checking the maps will give some insight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Not tuned at all - completely stock. Waiting until spring time for that. Maybe that'll be when I figure this out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Donated thefultonhow Posted January 6, 2011 I Donated Share Posted January 6, 2011 FWIW, I've been getting better mileage since going Infamous1 Stage 3... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Hahaha exactly! Stage 0 FTL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instanced Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 what where your actual numbers for the single pump test? Don't take this the hard way.... but are you doing it correctly? Go to the gas station, Fill your car 100%... hit the trip reset... Drive for a few days... then go back to the gas station and use the same pump and Fill your car again.... record the gallons you put in the tank, and how many miles you traveled... do the simple math to get your resulting mpg... show us the numbers... ie "I stopped at the pump and put 1.45 gallons in and i traveled 10.5 miles since reset." That poor gas mileage is not right at all... 8-13 while light driving is not right... if it was 18ish i'd MAYBE understand... I'm getting 22mpg average in Sport mode... driving 100+miles/day... mostly highway though, but there are some hills i have to deal with. highest i've gotten was 29mpg on a single trip in intelligent mode, but i was going 5 under the speed limit everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 I've been basing my mpg off of the computer in the car. I have yet to fill drive for a good bit then fill again. That's what I'll have to do. I need to get gas after school anyways so I'll start this kind of testing today. Thanks for the advice. It was just in my understanding that the car read somewhat accurate so I never did it by hand yet. I'll keep this tread updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instanced Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Definitely calculate it... that should have been your first step.... Next time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 It probably should've been but I had faith in the car's mpg reading.. I also figured it was reading right since I barely stretch 190 miles per full tank which is around 9-10mpg i'm pretty sure. That's around what, 11mpg I believe? Upsetting Will be calculating by hand now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vr4Legacy Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 The cars reading is fairly accurate compared to my calculations... there is a handy iPhone app (probably Droid too) called GasBag that is basically a gas tracking tool. It lets you input your info and keeps an average... mine is about 1-1.5 mpg different than my LGT shows, but then I've never done a true test resetting my trip to compare against.... However, I think instanced may be alluding to the fact that MAYBE your computer is not calculating correctly... if you are getting 190mi to a full tank (14 gal at EMPTY) then you are averaging at least 13 mpg..... I to am curious to see what you find out... GL, even 13 mpg is horrible, unless you stay in S# as often as possible and floor it from light to light.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instanced Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Assuming he's got an '05, he doesn't have the Si-Drive system. Those came to be in.... '07?... honestly I'm not sure when they implemented that... I find my car is in S# when I am nearly empty... also when I fill the tank... or when I want to pass someone... S# is so poorly tuned though IMO... my Subaru stutters a lot when it's on... I've had it reflashed before but that only helped for a day... living with it until I start doing bolt-on's and a retune... if I keep the car that long... Back on topic> my subaru was pulling a steady 5 mpg this morning when I first left for work... After the car warmed up a bit, it was 18's or so... right now my trip is at 400miles and my average is 22.8mpg. EDIT: saw OP posted about getting 190miles to a full tank... Maybe you got the Lemon of all Lemons... bad injectors just dumping fuel into your car... or maybe you're leaking fuel elsewhere? when you fill up your car... is there anything in the car that tells you how many miles are left based on the tank? not sure if that makes sense... my car will tell me how many miles I have left before I need to stop and get gas... gaslight comes on around 50 miles... be interested if the car knows only 200ish miles per tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 13mpg is definitely still horrible even if that is the true mileage.. From what my father is saying, the injector numbers read correctly. I *think* he said the O2 sensors would be reading off or a CEL would come on if that was the problem. Maybe I have a leak but wouldn't I smell something or no? Thank you to you guys trying to help. I appreciate it highly and we will figure this out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 It depends on the type of leak - a vacuum leak doesn't smell. And an O2 sensor giving an incorrect reading doesn't necessarily throw a CEL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 But what are your highway numbers? Even instant MPG meter value when driving highway at 55mph would give a good indication if there is a technical problem. On a flat road it should read at least 20, and approach 30 if the conditions are really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmichael Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Looks like my car prefers snow. I was averaging 27.0 for the first 800 miles. This morning I filled up and reset the trip meter. The first 7 miles is climbing a large hill. Averaged 17 by the top of the hill. By time I went 10 more miles, the average was 30. When I reached work 26 miles later my average was over 32. It needs to snow more often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blongo804 Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 ehsnils, thanks for the reply. I'll check vacuum lines. The O2 sensors appeared to be correct. One was swinging slightly under a volt and one was around 2.7-2.9 volts the whole time. For instant mpg, at flat highway, cruise control at 67mph, I was high 20's-mid 30's fluctuating the whole time. Big ranges but that's what it was. Gmichael, wanna trade cars? Kidding! That's awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 OK, that's really good that you are in that range because it means that there shouldn't be any major problems with the car. What is interesting is the driving distance combined with the terrain. As you said - it's hilly. And if it's hilly you may benefit from a lower gear to lower the slippage in the torque converter - counter to the recommendation to run a high gear. But if you run a high gear you may have a lot of the power lost in the converter due to it slipping. A high gear works best on a manual gearbox or an AT gearbox as long as the lockup is engaged. But the distance between your home and where you are commuting - how far is it? If the car never gets thoroughly warm combined with a lot of start/stop you may lose a lot of fuel. And if you drive short distances the choice of oil is even more important than if you drive long distances. One factor is that even if the engine temp is up - you only see the temp of the water, not the oil. And the oil takes longer to get warm. What oil do you use? Maybe a change to 0W30 really would benefit you if you aren't using it already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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