gas mileage, where did it go

aloo1 · Sep 22, 2009

i just got my 97 cobra about a week ago. drove it around and then put about 10 gallons of gas in it after driving about 195 miles. that was mostly highway. now i'm about about half a tank and i've only drivin like 85 miles... this seems way too low for numbers i should be getting. the car has 93xxx miles on it. i think one cat is bad but what else could be causing this bad numbers. i got a new catted h pipe coming and the car came with a diablo spot tuner. do i need to get it tuned or something? any help would be appreciated. i dont' get on the skinny pedal really at all. i have been doing more city driving but that should make it drop to where i'm at now. i got a break job done and got my abs flushed and what not. could they have had to let my car sit idle for a while to cycle anything and that could have drained it?
thanks,
alan

96_SVT_Cobra · Sep 22, 2009

do you have anything done to it. mine seems to get 180 per tank maybe 220 highway and only going the speed limits, but mine is supercharged, cam'd, and 4.10 gears on the shortlist

aloo1 · Sep 22, 2009

no it's pretty stock... so i'm confused. maybe a tune up with new plugs, etc will help

96_SVT_Cobra · Sep 22, 2009

id try the new wires, air filter, plugs, clean MAF and maybe even throw on a new fuel filter. also a tune could never hurt after you do a basic tune up.

uncltrvlnmatt · Sep 23, 2009

My 97 Cobra has 169k on it. Pretty much stock accept for 3:73 gears. I get on average about 20-22mpg. That is right around 300 miles per tank. I have had a high of 26mpg on long trips. You should be doing way better than you are.

Replace the plugs, wires, and air filter. Hotter coils might help, but I did not see much difference going from the stock Ford coils to the MSD coils. If you have not done an oil change, do it. You would be suprised what fresh oil will do. Also do the fuel filter as mentioned.

Use platinum plugs. If you use copper plugs you will notice a power and fuel milage difference. I changed mine from platinum to copper for about a week. Then threw the copper plugs in the garbage and bought some new platinum plugs.