Steps for better mileage
 

OK...

after talking to several of you on here and the people at my local dealer...I have decided to take a few small steps and see how this affects my overall performance and more importantly my mileage.

First, I am (already ordered) going to install a new distributor cap and a new rotor (should be here saturday afternoon). Then I am taking it in to get the fuel filter replaced and an oil change done (they said they will do it for free:)) While it is in there I am going to ask them to check anything that may be causing the low mileage. When I called them yesterday (the day before?) they said they could run a scan that checks the Fuel Trim to make sure it is getting the right amount of fuel. After I do all of that...I am going to fill her up and watch the mileage very carefully and see if there is any improvement.

I talked to my buddy Logan, REALLY nice guy at my stealer, and he said that if there is no check engine light on that there isn't going to be anything wrong with the 02 sensor...he didn't say what would happen with a clogged cat.

Occasionally there is a pretty awful smell (or as my girlfriend says, "that is absolutely DISGUSTING!) coming from my truck after being driven from my house to her house (~4 miles). My truck usually sits a good few hours from the time I get home from school to the time I take her home (so pretty much the engine is pretty cooled down by that point). Bottom line, after being driven for ~4 miles from a semi-cold start it will smell but then if I were to drive another mile maybe and stop at a gas station...no smell. Now that is NOT consistant. That is the most information that I have at this point.

Initially a few of us on here were thinking it could be a clogged cat or a bad 02 sensor but...after talking to my guy at the stealer I have concluded that the check engine light SHOULD be on if there was problem with the sensor or the cat.

ANY IDEAS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED....I AM REALLY HOPING NOTHING SERIOUS IS WRONG!! COME ON GUYS, PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON!!

ALL questions/comments are welcome!

As always, thanks in advance,

Fink:devil:

Are there any emmision laws in your state? You could do as I would like to do and cut the cat off, gut it out, then have it reinstalled for $10-20. The FF is easy to do, save yourself $50 worth of shop labor and do it yourself. Then you can take that $50 and buy a K&N filter. Some guys will cut it off only to put a straight pipe in but even if you have no emmision laws a Highway Patrolman can ticket you for defective Eq. I need to do this and have the tools but have not decided when to do it being I will need to take it down to the Exh. shop to have it welded back on. He cut my buddies off installing a straight pipe but does not trust me because I use to be an armed guard wearing a uniform, vest, holster and gun. He swore I was some kind of cop of some sort last time I went in. So he will not cut it off at all. He plays the "im a straight forward guy that plays by the rules officer". Oh well I guess that is my doing by going down right after work last time. Have you had the Tbelt replaced with in the last 50K? Plugs wires? What grade fuel are you using?

I have a write-up on my website about how to increase mileage effectively. Some of the mods are cheap and some don't yield a dramatic increase, but all the little increases add up over time.

http://www.haveblueonline.com/gas%20mileage.html

Re: Steps for better mileage
 

That is wrong. Check out this thread.

Fink,

I purchased a fuel atomizer from HaveBlue. I should be getting it next week and installing it promptly. Hopefully I can restore my mpg to my past avg of 19-20 mpg. If HaveBlue gets in the mid 20s on the highways, that is incentive enough to give this a shot. We'll see.

Bob

Man, now I am seriously debating what to do.

Here are my questions...

1. Should I do the cap, rotor, fuel filter and oil change(thats a must) BEFORE I have the dealer do the 02 sensor or what?

2. I haven't gotten a single Check Engine Light, and if I did then I was either sleeping behind the wheel or distracted by my girlfriend (don't ask:ignore:). Should I go ahead and spend the bucks to get the 02 sensor changed. I have NO idea if it was replaced before, I got this rig July 14th of 2003 and I don't have any service records or anything. What do I do?

3. What about the clogged cat possibility? Do that as a last resort? Also, what about that Fuel Trim scan that the dealer was talking about, is that BS or should I go for it? $37.50 to do the scan.

I remember TOR saying that he could get it for somewhere ~80 bucks, that is a good price. I wonder what my dealer would charge. How long should it take them to install it?

Also, how hard is it to test on my own? I have a multimeter, is it said how to do it in detail in the Chiltons manual? If so, I can probably do that test tomorrow morning before my rotor gets in so that way if it IS bad then I can just leave it with them after I get the rotor and have them do it for me. Regardless of the 02 sensor being bad, I am going to go ahead and have them do the oil change and fuel filter. I don't think I am qualified enough to do either of those things.

The thing that really scares me is that, one, I don't know if I have gotten a Check Engine Light or not, two, I have NO idea if it has been changed before, three, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO DO!!!

The dealer says there should be there a light, all the guys on here and 4x4Wire that I trust say that it doesn't come on half of the time. And two, I PRETTY MUCH HAVE NO MONEY!!!!

HELP!! :help: :help: :help:

Fink:devil:

Since you said you were experiencing a smell, I immediately thought of the cat. Isn't it possible to unbolt the thing from the exhaust and check it out? If so, that's what you should do. Take it off and hold it up to the sky to see if you can look through it. You should be able to see through the honeycomb element easily, and you should be seeing a hole the size of the stock exhaust pipe (2"). If not, it's clogged or getting clogged. When I had mine replaced, I couldn't see through it at all. I gained a lot of low end back by replacing it, as well as a few mpg. If your 02 sensor wasn't reading properly, you should get a check engine light. I would check out the cat first.

If this doesn't help anything, go ahead with the fuel filter and the cap and rotor. It wouldn't hurt to replace those things anyway, but I'd save them for after the cat just to see if the cat is what was causing the problem.

I'm not sure what kind of rig you have, but there's a write-up in the tech section for changing the fuel filter on the 3.0 V6. It's really not that hard to do... just time consuming and messy. Changing the oil is something everybody should know how to do. Any one of us here could walk you through that easily.

If none of those things solve the problem, I'd check out the 02 sensor and do the fuel trim scan, whatever that is. If the 02 sensor is bad, it's really easy to replace also. You just unplug it, undo two bolts, remove the old one, and install the new one exactly the opposite way. Hope this helps some.

Well now I have a nice big dent in the front of my freakin car!!!!!! I AM SO MAD ABOUT THAT! It was entirely my fault though.

So now its going to the dealer tomorrow to get THAT fixed...

I will let you know what I decide to do about the MPG problems.

Fink:devil: