29 mpg?! what can i do?

[tbobb]

i have a 1996 geo metro that my brother in law gave to me. he was the only owner and took pretty good care of it. i just calculated my mpg at my last fill-up and it came out to 29 mpg. not happy with that at all. i recently put on all new tires. i could not find the 165/70 r13 i had on, so i went up to 175/70 r13. before i got these, i was still only getting 30-32 mpg, mainly in town driving. someone told me that i may want to replace my oxygen sensor. i follow almost all of the hyper "rules", but can't seem to get the mpg others are getting. suggestions?

[d0sitmatr]

from my understanding, it all depends on exactly which model of metro you have.
I believe only the XFi got the really high mpg, after that I havent a clue how it breaks down.

[tbobb]

it's a 4 cylinder lsi. auto trans.

[endurance]

If it's an auto transmission, you're right in line with EPA ratings
I just never imagined you could get that much fuel through a 1.3L engine. Bizarre!

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by tbobb

it came out to 29 mpg. not happy with that at all. i recently put on all new tires. i could not find the 165/70 r13 i had on, so i went up to 175/70 r13. before i got these, i was still only getting 30-32 mpg, mainly in town driving.

The automatic transmission is working against you.

With those wider and larger tires, you're doing less revs/mile, so your speed and distance indications will read low by 2.4 % - are you compensating for that ?

[tbobb]

what do i need to do to compensate for that? do you mean if my gauge says i am going 50, that i am really going 48.8? and if my last tank gave me 225 miles it is really less!? or do you mean something else?

[saand]

tbobb seems like you have a half decent car if you want to get more efficiency out of it, i started at 22 mpg and you have a nice small engine which is a plus.

If you haven't come across it yet you can have a look at the wiki which has all the modifications you can make to your car to get better efficiency.

Car MPG Efficiency Modifications Main - EcoModder

also if you are particularly interested in getting around your automatic transmission you can transform it into a half auto half manual with some electrical changes. its in the wiki under "Automatic transmission manual gear control (Manumatic)", i have done this one myself takes a few hours but not too difficult.

well good luck

[Ryland]

Isn't 155/80 R13 the stock tire size?
Because your metro was built in 1996 you can use a scan gauge or other OBDII reader that gives you real time MPG read out, they are also extremely useful in trouble shooting.
Anyone have an opinion on synthetic transmision fluid in the geo metro? if it's not going to hurt anything it might give you a small boost in mileage.

[tbobb]

saand--i will check that out and see what i can do.

ryland--yes, 155s are the stock tires. i think my brother-in-law switched to 165s b/c he did almost all of his driving on the highway to the sfo airport, and wanted more stability.

if i am going to be doing my own repairs, does anyone recommend one service book over the other? chilton vs. the service shop manual? i may take out the a/c since it doesn't work that well anyway and i never use it.

[Frank Lee]

I've fixed rusty sticking dragging Metro calipers before. Dragging brakes helps neither performance or fe. Jack it up and see how freely they spin. Or do what I did, drive it, coast to a stop withOUT touching the brakes, get out and feel the brakes, burn your finger on the dragging one(s).