New state, change in gas mileage

I think this has been way over thought. The biggest reason is most likely the drastically shorter commute. Comparing gas mileage between a 40 mile trip with parts up to 65 mph and an 8 mile trip at up to 25 mph is ridiculous anyways. The trips have to be similar for any valid comparison.

The biggest reason is most likely the drastically shorter commute. Comparing gas mileage between a 40 mile trip with parts up to 65 mph and an 8 mile trip at up to 25 mph is ridiculous anyways.

Agree completely. There are times I’ll work at home for a week or so…so my vehicle never sees the highway. During that period my gas mileage drops from 24 to about 18 or less.

I would also increase the octane you put in. Although the knock sensor should take care of any knocking…the higher octane should prevent the engine from knocking.

Deleted: You already read the manual… You know what to do.

Hi, I am in IA, and here the mileage is lower than in many other parts of the country. This, I think, is because of the ethanol in the gasoline. I drive rarely, but when I do, I drive highway miles. On the same trip and back, my trusty Volvo 850 gives me a mileage of 25+ when refuelled in the midwest, but almost 30 when refuelled outside IA.

@Nevada_545 writes, regarding the possibility of a bad thermostat causing low mpg

On a 2012 vehicle? Come on, how many thermostats have you had to replace on late model vehicles?

From: NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, ESPECIALLY CAR PARTS

"Here are the life expectancies Soloman puts on various parts and components.

Automatic transmission, oil pump and valve lifters–for the life of the car.

Horn, cooling system radiator, catalytic converter, fuel injectors–100,000 miles.

Power steering pump, electronic engine control module, air conditioning compressor, alternator and starter–80,000 to 100,000 miles.

Lower control arms, disc brake calipers, front axle shaft, springs, tie rods, universal joints, heater cores, wiper motors, washer pump, water pump and fuel pump–70,000 to 90,000 miles.

Clutch, struts, engine belts, radiator hoses and thermostat–40,000 to 60,000 miles.

Disc brake pads, drum brake shoes, fuel filter and PCV valve–30,000 to 40,000 miles.

Shocks 15,000 to 35,000 miles, mufflers and pipes 50,000 to 80,000 miles, power window motors 60,000 to 90,000 miles, and timing belts 60,000 to 100,000 miles."

I guess some thermostats fail by 60,000, but it’s far from common.

George, that article was written in 1997 and the information was copied from a “Fleet maintenance & safety report”. The information may have been based on taxi maintenance from the 1980’s. Most of that information does not apply today.

I have to yield to Texases and Nevada, you folks have probably fixed 1000 times more cars than I ever have.

I can offer a few bits of data from personal experience on thermostat reliability. The thermostat in my 1970’s Rabbit required replacement every 3-5 years; in my 1970’;s Ford truck it depends on how often I drive the truck. When I use it as a daily driver the thermostat lasts about 3 years; as a second vehicle it lasts about 10 years; the thermostat in my 1990’s Corolla lasted 18 years, but I think it was starting to go bad at the 15 year mark and I didn’t realize it. Which caused me some diagnostic problems later on.

The only other data point I can add is that I’ve had replacement thermostats fail on two occasions right out of the box.

A co-worker purchased a 2006 Nissan Titan pickup that could use E85. He thought that was great as E10 regular was something like $2.60 and E85 was $2.00. I informed him that terrible mileage would cancel the monetary savings. The nearest E85 pump was 60 miles away. He ran the computer down to 90 miles remaining and went for the “cheap” E85. His real time mileage (all interstate) on the first 60 miles was 19.2. His return real time mileage was 13.4. Plus 120 unnecessary miles and 2 hours more than wasted!

Yeah I would say that list is well out of date, even then. I’ve had injectors with 500,000 miles and still ok. Trans at 300K, compressors at least 200K, steering pumps almost lifetime, etc.

I’d say how long on my original thermostat, but that would mean it will probably fail tomorrow. Ahh WTH (I have a new one in the garage) 13yrs/145k miles.

An engine rebuilder told me that he got Toyota’s with damaged heads due to bad thermostats, at around 130,000 miles. Therefore with my high-rel maintenance plan, I replace thermostats on my Sienna at around 100,000 or less.

North Liberty, last time I was in that area, and it has been a while, was an upper scale bedroom community for the University of Iowa, just a short drive south either by I-380 and I-80 or US-6. Since 8 miles a day will not make the round trip by either route, OP does not drive to U of Iowa. Thus, one assumes purely local driving. There are businesses out just off the Interstate, but I must assume that has changed over the years since I was last there.

North Liberty is heavy on NIMN not in my neighborhood. With very wide streets and very wide ditches and very wide sidewalks, the speed limits on NL streets are very, very slow. I mutter under my breath every time I have found myself driving through there. So, NL is not rural driving by any means. (You can be sure those academics in their Beamers do not drive that way in our neighborhoods.)

Yes, it may be surrounded by corn fields, But, with the low speed limits, it is very much the same as urban driving unless you hit the nearby Interstate. And, OP makes it clear that is not the case for OP.

“the manual specifies the octane rating, rather than the grade”

The manual rating is for sea level, so you could have used 85 octane in CO.
That’s why they sell it there as “regular”.

Isn’t Liberty, Indiana part of the plot of that new BBC/PBS-TV Sherlock series? Wasn’t it mentioned as a clue in the “Hounds of Baskerville” episode? Does Liberty, Indiana actually have some kind of top secret gov’t installation there?

What is the percentage of ethanol in the fuel the OP buys in Iowa? What was it in Colorado? I don’t see that possibly important fact in the discussion so far.

Iowa is ground central of the pro-ethanol, movement, and a higher than usual ethanol content in Iowa fuels could be behind some of the MPG diff our OP is experiencing.

I never replaced a thermostat in my 1984 Chevy Cavalier (207,000 miles), 1999 Plymouth Voyager (127,000 miles) and currently owned Chrysler Town and Country (115,000 miles) and 1999 Honda Civic (166,000.)

There is an incredible amount of bad information on this site regarding ethanol fuel mileage and Iowa gasoline marketing.

I have a fuel mileage meter in my car and can monitor fuel mileage at any time; don’t need to record gas buys and calculate fuel mileage at the next buy which might be in error due to the fill level of the gas buy due to the levelness of the parking pad at the gas station.

My observation is that 10% ethanol use results in about a 1 mpg reduction in fuel mileage in the low 30 mpg range.

The small town in Iowa where I visit once or twice per year has several gas stations and of the two that I buy from, each has an ethanol free gas pump selection.

To the OP, you might have already seen that short trip mileage is poor from your observation and from reading other posts. According to my car’s mpg meter, acceleration from a stoplight or stopsign results in fuel mileage dropping temporarily into the single digit range and it happens a lot during a short trip. The fuel mileage gradually increases in a fluctuating manner to a more normal level when a steady speed is reached at around 35 mph or faster.