99 SL2--35 mpg!

Sounds about right to me. I'm using Mobil-1 in my 97, changing it when it gets down a quart at around 5,000 miles. Current mileage 99,000. On my daily commute, consisting of a 25 mile mix of city and highway driving, I've routinely been averaging 33 with a standard deviation of about 2. On a couple of long trips it got 38. Who needs a hybrid?

Two critical factors: trip length and inactivity. I figure that the short trips don't let the engine warm up. Changing the engine temp sensor and thermostat helped that a little, though it's still running a bit cool. When the car sits for extended periods, like it has lately, the gas mileage goes down significantly. One possibility is gas evaporating out of the tank, though that's not supposed to be possible. Could also be injectors gumming up due to sitting, as a bottle of injector cleaner seems to make a difference. I've been avoiding gas with alcohol in it since that seems to gum things up.

Bob Henry

35mpg is nothing unusual for my 2000 SC2.

It's 5 spd, 90K, 70% Hwy/30% City and gets about 15 km/L without even trying. Converted to the US equivalent at

that's 35.3 mpg. If I baby it, I can get >17 km/L (about >40 mpg).

It markedly decreases in winter though to about 11-13 km/L (26-31 mpg).

I have 2k SL2(Sleek Blue Bueaty)w/ manuel transmission and I get around

40+ mpg rural. Of course I do have the factory spoiler installed :)

With the current price of gas, isnt it great to own a saturn? 35 mpg is quite the status quo for us. I have an '02 with an intake and I average

25-30 mpg, stock I will do 35. Our family SL1's average 35-40 mpg.

marx404

"When we first got the car, it got about 21 city and 25 hwy."

When you first got the car the engine was not "broke in". If you ran Mobil 1 from day one your engine would of probably taken 10-20k miles to finally start seating itself halfway right.

Btw your oil may last 8-10k but does your oil filter? People say oil has gotten better so 3000 miles oil changers arent needed... Well oil filters have gotten better to. As in they load up faster since they are capturing smaller particals. Hence why the 3000 mile changes still stand. At least do your oil filter every 4k and you mobil 1 oil every

8k.

That makes me cringe - especially if you don't change the filter more often. While using synth oil is commendable, it still picks up the same contaminants that regular oil does, both particle and chemical (and recirculates them). Do the longevity of your motor a favor and stick to the recommended interval of 3000 miles.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

Amen to Blah blah and Lane. I am asked frequently about going longer using synth oils, especially the newer Mobil 1 products. My motor lives on Mobil

1 and expensive K&N gold oil filters, even though I don't need the more expensive stuff. I have exceeded 3K intervals by 1 or 200 miles, but any longer than that and that is just plain foolish IMHO when contaminates are a serious factor.

I wish I could get one of the techs to cut an oil filter in half thats been changed at 3K miles and one at 50K or more so ppl could see how dirty the filter gets and what junk the oil has to flow through as it passes thru the filter every time they crank up the engine.

Back to the topic at hand, if/when the price of gas goes up to $3. a gallon, I am 86'ing my AEM intake and putting the oem back on!

marx404

A pipe cutter you roll around a pipe will cut it really nice. A&P mechanics commonly inspect the filter guts on piston air craft when they do an oil change.

Wes