Hi everyone, I just purchased a 1996 Ford Escort station wagon with 201,000 miles, it has the 1.9L engine. For some reason it is only getting 18.9 miles per gallon (I've calculated it 4 times over numerous tanks of gas) which is terrible for these cars as they usually get around 30 mpg. I just had it tuned up (new platinum plugs and wires, new fuel filter, new serpentine belt, new battery, also had the fuel injectors cleaned) hoping that would take care of the problem but it didn't. It runs great and drives great, there are no indicator lights on the dash that are on signaling any problems. Does anyone have any ideas of common problems of Escorts that result in bad gas mileage even when they run great? I called the mechanic who did the tune-up and they had no idea what it could possibly be when it runs great and there are no lights on. His only option was he could do a compression test on the engine to see if the engine is bad but he said when it runs that great he can almost certainly guarantee the engine is good. Could it be the fuel pump, oxygen sensor, or catalytic converter? Everyone loves cars that get good gas mileage and I'd love to hang onto this car if I can get the gas mileage issue fixed. Nobody will buy it when it gets terrible gas mileage and I don't know what else to do so I thought I would post the topic on here and hope that a mechanic who is familiar with Ford Escorts could shine some light on the situation. Thank you.
- posted
19 years ago