Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Horriable Gas Mileage affter trip?!?!

Something not working right?

by Cable810 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:40 am

Alright title says it all. Ever since I've gotten back from Drummond I've been getting bad mileage. I got 17 from my place to Drummond which was a 120 Mile trip and I had filled up in a town 14 miles from my place 4 days before the trip. Now I've gone from our place in Rogers city to my grandparents place in Cheboygan which is 49.5 according to Google maps. I drove up there twice since being back from Drummond. The first time I burned a quarter of a tank to get there and back the 2nd time I burned a bit more than a quarter and by the time I got home I had used 1/2 of a tank. Now mind you that I had gone into Mackinaw to help a member of my club install his steering arm, and track bar on his jeep Which Is another 10 miles and a small trail run about 25 miles from my grandparents place. I just don't get it. I've noticed that my rpms are bouncing ever so slightly every now and then. Also noticed that coolant was right at the add line.

Tire pressure is good. Two are right at 36 and the other two at 37, I cleaned the Throttle Body last year...

What I think it could be :
Plugs (planned on doing that come winter)
Some Air sensor
Air Filter(looks like it needs to get replaced
Or the Gas I filled up with when I got back from Drummond
Or something to do with the TCC
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by DirtyBacon04 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:47 am

How many miles are on your truck and are they the original plugs? Plugs usually are good for ~100k miles. TB should be cleaned relatively frequently, like every other oil change, simply because it makes such a difference and being so easy. Have you changed your fuel filter lately? Fuel filters only last about 25k miles. Throwing any codes? Have you suddenly added anything to the exterior (lights, roof rack, etc) or carrying alot of new weight in the truck?

It very well could be bad gas that you got. I'd suggest SeaFoam in your gas and vacuum lines.
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by Cable810 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:58 am

I don't know the miles it says 140K something but its wrong cause as I've said before My uncle put and OD Stopper on it. Don't know if they are original plugs or not, I"ll clean the TB today. I changed the filter last year and used a FRAM :facepalm: I still have the AC Delco which was put on Before I bought the Traiblazer. I've got an ABS/parking brake light which I've too lazy to fix but other than that no codes that I'm aware of. I've added nothing. I've got my Spare tire and recovery equipment and that's it.

if it turns out to be bad gas NEVER EVER get gas from speedway.
Last edited by Cable810 on Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by DirtyBacon04 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:10 am

and what's the benefit of an od stopper, other than to con people when you try and resell
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by Cable810 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:11 am

Exactly... but my parents knew that it was on it when we bought it and made him take it off.

EDIT: Also RPMS are at 1700 when driving 55-60
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by DirtyBacon04 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:24 am

So, I'm confused. is the od stopper still on it or not? Does the tripmeter still work? Those are the only two really accurate ways to determine MPG. You need to top off fuel, run 1/4 to half a tank or so, at normal driving behavior, record mileage, fill up, divide, and let us know the mpg. The equation of "I drove over hur and used this much. Then I drove over thur and used THIS much" isn't really enough to help me. :poke:

Regardless, if the truck has over 140k and original plugs, that shit wont fly. Is it enough to cause a dramatic loss in fuel economy... ehh, hard to say, especially if you aint gettin a misfire. Most likely though, it's wind resistance. I recommend a turtle wax and tire shine application. Don't forget the stickers, either.
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by Cable810 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:31 am

The OD Stopper is off and everything works. You actually reccomending Turtle Wax and Tire shine :facepalm: :lol:

I'll do that. Fill up and drive normally
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by HARDTRAILZ » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:52 am

Are you kidding me. You are trying to figure your MPG based on our known to be inaccurate gauge?

I vote we delete this thread until some real info on the actual MPG is involved.

You need to really calculate the number of gallons versus the number of miles over a couple tanks of fuel or there are far too many variables to even bother answering your questions.

Right now you are guessing you are getting worse MPG based on a gauge that has failed GM so many times they pay for all or part of the fix.
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by HARDTRAILZ » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:55 am

Cable810 wrote:if it turns out to be bad gas NEVER EVER get gas from speedway.


How about finding out if this is even true before posting something this ignorant? I run about 40 gallons A WEEK of Speedway fuel with no issue at all.
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by Moots1288 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:13 pm

HARDTRAILZ wrote:
Cable810 wrote:if it turns out to be bad gas NEVER EVER get gas from speedway.


How about finding out if this is even true before posting something this ignorant? I run about 40 gallons A WEEK of Speedway fuel with no issue at all.

I've never even been in a Speedway!
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by jonbo2002 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:53 pm

HARDTRAILZ wrote:
Cable810 wrote:if it turns out to be bad gas NEVER EVER get gas from speedway.


How about finding out if this is even true before posting something this ignorant? I run about 40 gallons A WEEK of Speedway fuel with no issue at all.


I run Speedway everytime I am in Grayling, I fill up once I get there and fill up before I leave to head home.
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by bartonmd » Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:05 pm

To be honest, I didn't read every word of this thread, but have you looked at alignment? Toe-in still feels stable and tracks straight, but scrubs tires and kills fuel economy.

Mike

ETA: There are no bad gas "brands". If it's bad gas you got from a particular station, it was either a load of gas that they got with water in it, or it is that they have a leaky tank (more common than you'd think - says the guy whose wife is a risk assessor for the state, involving just that (among other things)). The "don't buy ______ gas, because I got a bad tank once" thing is ignorant of the facts surrounding fuels.

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by HARDTRAILZ » Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:10 pm

Mike...he does not even know what his MPG is...present or past.
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by bartonmd » Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:37 pm

HARDTRAILZ wrote:Mike...he does not even know what his MPG is...present or past.


Oh God.

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by Cable810 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:37 pm

Yep lol I just fill up and go except when I go on LONG trips over 130 miles which is very rare then will I calculate. I WAS NOT saying that the Gas at Speedway was bad It was a thought. My Alignment is still good. Call me stupid and delete this thread for all I care.
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by HARDTRAILZ » Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:18 pm

Cable810 wrote:Yep lol I just fill up and go except when I go on LONG trips over 130 miles which is very rare then will I calculate. I WAS NOT saying that the Gas at Speedway was bad It was a thought. My Alignment is still good. Call me stupid and delete this thread for all I care.


Ok stupid :facepalm: . Why don't you do some real calculations and see what your mpg is if you are concerned. You do not need long trips, just a record of miles and gallons. Simple calculation and you would have something worth a shit rather than this drivel you fed us. Not sure what you were hoping for, but we can't help you without real info. It takes a little effort, but not much to get the info needed. Depending on how far and often you drive you could rack up a couple tanks or say 500 miles in a pretty short time and we obviously are willing to help you.

Report back with some real info and we can see if we can get you dialed in. :cheers:
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by JorDaneeKey » Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:45 pm

Caleb, if you are not a consistent, long distance driver with your TB, you may not notice how finicky our gauges are. Very often just after fill-up, my gauge will read F or near F and then drop suddenly to 3/4s after only driving to work twice (~72 miles). It will then hover there for a while and then suddenly drop to 1/2 (~90 miles). After that the gauge accuracy is a real crap shoot, but it will stay at half for a long time.

Best recommendation is to fill up your tank, track your miles driven (I recommend a good GPS mileage tracking app if you've got larger than stock tires), or use your in-dash to measure (and then calculate for the bigger tires).
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by drburke » Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:18 pm

I have every gas receipt in my center console with that tank's MPG, and any info that might have contributed to it. If you haven't started to do miles/gallons at fillup, you should probably start. It's not a bad habit, and makes you a more-informed driver. If you have a ScanGuage, it reads the MPGs from tank, trip, day and week (iirc, and it's not incredibly accurate) and can adjust for tire size. If you're positive you're getting less MPGs than before, look at your maintenance schedule. I had 170k and original spark plugs, my mpg jumped by 2 when I replaced them. General maintenance keeps any vehicle running at the best performance, I'm sure you know this. Oil, filters, cleaners, etc.

I cleaned the Throttle Body last year...


go clean it again. at LEAST once a year, if not more.
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by Cable810 » Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:43 pm

Alright filled up and it took 10.813 and I drove 214.2 Miles according to OD. So what's the math that will get my actual miles driven with having 265/70/17 and 4.10s?
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:49 pm

What was your original gearing?
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