Page 1 of 2

Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:57 pm
by alec_b
Last tank I got about 330 miles. That was using about 15 gallons, with maybe a 75/25 highway/city split. That works out to about 22 MPG. Not great.

Any ideas where to look? It runs great, no codes, new plugs wires ICM and fuel filter. It's always gotten about the same since I got it. Or am I just hoping for too much?

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:47 pm
by 00Beast
Remember that you probably are on Winter Blend, which will give worse mileage than summer blend.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:05 pm
by olblueeyesbonne
I too have the same issue. Although, those #'s match my summer #'s. My winter #'s have me putting 18 gallons in every 250 miles.
I'm very much considering getting an older LN3 Olds Touring Sedan for winter use. Still have most of the features and amenities, but in an older car that I won't worry too much about and will get over 25 mpg year round.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:11 pm
by repinS
Yeah, like Marty said, that's about right for me in warmer weather. Straight highway, in the summer 30+ is easy, 23 with a 50/50 mix.

100% city, I've been seeing about 16mpg lately.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:42 am
by alec_b
Ok good deal, so it's not just mine.

I guess I'm almost on the high end of average, not bad for having 205k on it. I think I'm going to need to get something smaller though, it's getting too expensive for the amount of driving I do. I manage to put on several thousand miles a month, I need something that's a litte more sippy and a little less gulpy, if you know what I mean.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:37 am
by 1fatcat
You could get an old geo metro :)

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:40 am
by myfirstbonnie
I would rather get poor gas mileage and some get-up-and-go before I would buy a metro. [-X

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:04 pm
by PRD2BDF
You're using premium right? I just wanted to check...

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:27 pm
by zuper8
I always run 93 octane, and I see maybe 16-18 city, and 23-27 highway depending on how I drive. it's got all the tune-up goodies too. i've heard people say that you can get just as good of mileage with the SSEi as you can an SE, but I haven't been able to do it yet. my SE got 33+ highway without me even trying. i've just accepted it. and really, that's not to bad for being a huge car with a supercharged motor.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:40 pm
by 00Beast
It's better than my dad's GXP. No matter how well he drives, 21 is the limit on that car, unless you're cruising down the interstate at 65.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:46 pm
by '96Bonnevillel67
zuper8 wrote:I always run 93 octane, and I see maybe 16-18 city, and 23-27 highway depending on how I drive. it's got all the tune-up goodies too. i've heard people say that you can get just as good of mileage with the SSEi as you can an SE, but I haven't been able to do it yet. my SE got 33+ highway without me even trying. i've just accepted it. and really, that's not to bad for being a huge car with a supercharged motor.
Ever considered non-oxygenated? Find someone with a good scan tool with a live data function, monitor your LTFT/STFT, spark, o2's etc. Do both WOT and cruise. (o2's don't matter a cruise, they jump all over.)

I haven't seen a change in consumption at all with it dropping down to ~25* unless I run regular oxygenated gas.

If you get into it even once you'll suck gas down to compensate for the cold, especially with mods/tune.

Cold shouldn't matter if you adjust your driving for it. Larz01 just recorded just over 30mpg at ~65mph in an '01 GTP. And I'm still averaging 22mpg city with quite a few "pulls."

Driving nice will still net me upper 20's.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:49 pm
by alec_b
I was running the BP non-oxy for a little while, didn't make a difference. I've used everything from 91-93 octane, doesn't make a difference. I think i'll grab the scanner from work and pull some data and see how it looks.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:07 pm
by Larz01
'96Bonnevillel67 wrote:
zuper8 wrote:I always run 93 octane, and I see maybe 16-18 city, and 23-27 highway depending on how I drive.

Cold shouldn't matter if you adjust your driving for it. Larz01 just recorded just over 30mpg at ~65mph in an '01 GTP. And I'm still averaging 22mpg city with quite a few "pulls."
I just turned up cruise timing and put my torque converter back to stock & stock stat. Got 31 mpg driving up north this weekend, made the 400 mile trip on 1 tank of gas. In town i get 26 can be a combination of mods and tuning to get this as my vehicle doesn't have to work as hard to pull its own weight.

"you probably are on Winter Blend" - no delineation here
"Ever considered non-oxygenated?"

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:12 pm
by '96Bonnevillel67
Forgot to mention, still running a 180* stat in this cold.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:44 pm
by repinS
'96Bonnevillel67 wrote:Cold shouldn't matter if you adjust your driving for it. Larz01 just recorded just over 30mpg at ~65mph in an '01 GTP. And I'm still averaging 22mpg city with quite a few "pulls."
On long-haul trips, yes.

Those who do shorter trips (average city-highway mixes) will have to deal with the extended period of time in open loop before everything gets up to temp.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:11 pm
by '96Bonnevillel67
repinS wrote:
'96Bonnevillel67 wrote:Cold shouldn't matter if you adjust your driving for it. Larz01 just recorded just over 30mpg at ~65mph in an '01 GTP. And I'm still averaging 22mpg city with quite a few "pulls."
On long-haul trips, yes.

Those who do shorter trips (average city-highway mixes) will have to deal with the extended period of time in open loop before everything gets up to temp.
Yea, and most of my trips consist 15min of highway, 15min of stop and go with aggressive driving on occasion, and with mods, and a much richer than stock tune, but I can still muster no less than 22mpg combined in ~35* weather with a 180* stat. In fact, more often than not, it's mostly city for me.

Tri-State with the runs at the track I averaged ~25.5mpg, and that was with 32* temps and no change in my cruise spark with a fully loaded car.

There's something wrong with his fuel consumption, that's all I'm pointing out.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:19 pm
by dangrus4060
i usually run aobut 330-350 miles on about 17 gallons so thats about 20 mpg average. i run 93 octane BP Ultimate.
i usually run about 50/50 city/highway combo (70-75 mph avg. on I-40 here) and i do drive a little aggressive. LOVE THAT WHINE!!! (with front of air box gone i hear it nicely with just moderate throttle)

i've only done 1 good road trip since i got it and i got about 27 hwy thru the mountains.

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:10 pm
by TDS-94SSEi
I think our '94 gets something around high-teens around town. But it it hard to stay off the go-pedal, so i accelerate it somewhat aggressively a fair amount. i've never actually tried to calculate how the car does on the freeway trips, probably should some time. . . .

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:44 am
by alec_b
Well thanks for all the replies guys, but the car is gone as of this past thursday! Time to move on to another project.

Thanks for all the replies!

Re: Average miles per tank, SSEi owners

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:49 am
by 1fatcat
So what did you end up trading for? I have a neighbor with an 88 honda civic and I asked him, but he said he was not interested in trading. I couldn't/still can't believe he didn't want to trade.