Increase MPG on a Town Car

[gone.d3]

I drive 90% of my driving in the city.

I am getting roughly 18 mpg city and 25 city. The epa rates the car at 15 city and 23 highway. My ac is broke, even if it wasn't I barely used it. I am leaning towards taking out all of the components to the ac system, BUT I live in Florida and it seems like it gets hotter and hotter every year. So I am still not 100% sure. I have a power steering fluid leak and to drop some lbs I will probably remove my power steering.

I am careful on how I use my right foot with this car since it has 445,000 miles (original motor). Can anyone give me some good ideas how to give this old lady some more mpgs.

[Frank Lee]

See the mods and tips located near the top of the screen? Check 'em out.

[chuckm]

That's an awfully big boat of a car to ditch power steering on... unless you get a manual rack with a huge ratio.
The biggest hits to your FE, aside from your city driving, are your monstrously thirsty engine (4.6L V8), your curb weight (about 4000 lbs), and the dirty aerodynamics. From a modification standpoint, those are the big opportunities. Some aero improvements can be made cheaply, but if you end up with an Town car with improved aero, it's still a Town Car.
For driving style, I second Frank's recommendation of the tips.

[fud2468]

To help with highway mileage the 2.73 gears from a Crown Vic or Marquis might help. Check the axle code, I think the Town cars were 3.55.
However if most of your driving is in town, an axle change might not help, and could even hurt mileage.
I hope soon to get into a Crown Vic or Marquis for highway trips, and you might consider trading into one of them--some owners claim 30 mpg or more with the 2.73 gears.
Ray Mac

[RobertSmalls]

Well, careful driving, instrumentation to facilitate careful driving, and weight reduction will be of the most help in the city.

Weight reduction: how do you get a 4038lb car down to a more reasonable weight, like 3000lb? Well, you can start by deleting parts that are found in the Lincoln but not the Crown Vic. The '95 Crown weighs 3761lbs. I presume most of the weight is from interior luxury garbage and the fancy adjustable suspension. I presume the interior of the car smells like sweat and oil anyway, so there's no sense in burning all that gas to haul around your living room. Gut it.

That 4.6L engine is downright athsmatic, with 190HP in the Crown Vic and a less pathetic 210HP in the heavier Town car. Swap in the powertrain out of a Ranger - 143HP out of a 2.3L four cylinder, and a five speed manual transmission. A high-tech 4 cyl arrangement will save you weight throughout the car - lighter engine, tranny, battery, exhaust. You could even get a smaller fuel tank if you wanted to.

I would love to see a gutted, stick-shifted Crown Vic with a Ranger engine, fuel economy tires, an engine kill switch, a ScanGauge, and an alternator delete. It would probably get better gas mileage than a carelessly driven Focus.

[fud2468]

The CV and TC are not twins, so the TC is not just a heavier CV. The '95 TC is 7" longer and has a 3" longer wheelbase than the '95 CV. So stripping down the TC would mean getting rid of some extra metal too.
Ray Mac.

[MadisonMPG]

Not sure what you're willing to do, but you could do the following for starters:
Spare delete
Jack delete
Rear seat delete
Crap delete
Passenger seat delete

You can go farther, but I feel you have a general idea.

[Frank Lee]

Remove Excess Weight

Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2 percent. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.

Tips to improve your Gas Mileage

Weight reduction will help but don't expect a miracle unless you get radical.

Great posts! The tips are really helpful and makes me feel that there is always someone to help me out. I spend most my time driving so this website helps a lot.

[Big Dave]

The automatic is slitting your throat.

If the car is truly limited to city driving, a smaller engine is in order. You simply don't need much HP for slow city driving.