Okay guys, I have a problem with my car. Mustang's a pig, but this thing is unbelievable!

On $1 of gas (86.4 Cents per litre; Canada) I can go from walmart, to school, to home, and to a gas station. Now, when I say that it doesnt sound so bad, but the city I live in only spans about 8 to 10 miles north to south. That trip in particular is only about 6 miles. Now, I've put about $200 of gas in this car in the single month I've had it. I've driven 850 miles on that gas. Doing conversions, that translates to about.... 4 miles per litre? The MPG on this car is supposed to be 17 (According to autos.msn.com) and since a gallon is bigger than a litre (pretty sure), that number comes out even smaller than 4 MPG... now a 4MPG car is a huge pig, but one with significantly less than that? somethin's up.

My car is a Red 1989 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 Convertible (I have crappy pics if people want me to post them)

I just had the transmission fluid changed so the slipping gears are now out of the picture. I just put $5 of gas into the tank yesterday afternoon and in that one day of driving around for about 20 mins, that $5 is gone.

I'm thinking a tune-up may help, but at this rate, even a brand new mustang would be cheaper on me in the long run. Any suggestions? (The motor oil is about 1/4 between the low point and the max point)

I NEED HELP!

you need to add "Click" to your engine...or something simular...like duralube...

but mostly, you probably need a full tuneup, and your timing adjusted...

Yeah, the ONLY symptom is the low milage. There's no lag with the accelerator (unless, naturally, if its low on gas), no clanging in the motor, no nothing. I think the computer's been changed though. If the tuneup doesnt do it, I'm trading it off when I can get a job. I'm thinkin an '06 mustang or... better yet a Civic hybrid

bad oxygen sencer

since a liter is slightly more than a quart (4quarts =1 gallon) your milage is somewhere in the 15-17 MPG range. the only way to tell for sure is keep track of the exact mila on the odmeter when you add gas, and the exact amount in liters/gallons(including 1/10s) you add.
heres a calculator to convert MPG to Kilometer/liter
http://www.teaching-english-in-japan.net/c...iles_per_gallon
Face it you've got a gas hog car, and you'll have big gas bills, but you can make them less.

Having a tune up will almost certainly help, keeping the tires inflated to the maximum recommend pressure for your car helps alot (a decent tire gauge is cheap and will pay off after just a few gallons) HOW you drive makes a really big difference (accelerate slow, "time" the stop lights to keep moving if possible, avoid using the AC, shut off the engine if you're just waiting/idling for a couple minutes, plan your trips to avoid 'wasted' miles, etc.)

$200= 231 liters at 86.4/liter= 61gallons
850/61- around 14mpg, since your numbers are guesses, this is a rough figure

Changeing the fluid in your trans does not mean its not slipping. Changing fluids in a car does not fix a problem that is already there.

Other things are a factor in this mileage thing....Are you an iron foot driver....are your tired inflated to their proper specs, do you change oil regularly(3000 miles)....So for the car being the pig...it might just be the operator

forgot to say this is an american car (all milages I listed are... in miles) and since I'm in canada, prices and gas are CAD and Litres.

Since I'm not familiar with the Liter-to-gallon conversion, I'm hoping the 14 MPG is accurate. because if a gallon is 4 litres, then that's about $3.50 and it's sounding a little better.

2.8 Litre engine only putting out 125 HP (according to MSN Autos)... I've seen 1.8 Litres put out 140HP and get better milage while its at it.

I was looking at the hybrid cars, read up on how they work. Not really that impressed anymore. They start at something like $26000 CAD and go up from there. Yeah, it'll save me aLOT of gas money, and sure, they have MONSTROUS torque (Toyota Prius's electric motor alone, no gas motor, produces 293 ft. lbs. of torque... comparable to a mustang GT O.o)

I like to floor it sometimes; when I'm racing or I just have a need for speed, but even when I take it easy (and I mean EASY), I still get poor milage. Tires are 35 lbs. tires; inflated to about 32 as a safeguard (for the first couple days I had it, I was running on 25 lbs in the front-left tire, 30 lbs in the front-right, and 18 in each of the rear. They're all 32 now.

After the transmission job, the shifts have been smooth and quick, elminating high-RPM's between gears (although I dont think I did the tranny any good when I was doing 120km down my street... bein chased by some psycho lady who got pissed cuz I passed her)

The oil is fine (I havent even driven it for 900 miles) but I'm going to add another litre to the motor oil for safe-measures. A tune-up IS coming when I get the money, I should still be getting more than 14MPG (one would think)

yah, civics are nice...

after putting in some Click engine treatment...i got over 700 Kilometers a tank highway...

cost me $40-45 to fill her up...

i take real good care of her though...

goto a special Honda/Acura shop, NOT affiliated with Honda Canada though...wifes Uncle is an one of the most awarded and trained Acura technicians...

City Mileage is totally diffrent than highway miles....SO you might be doing good...stop and go eats up gas

yeah, it's supposed to get 17 MPG in the city and 22 or 24 MPG on the highway (I think the highway one is right)

should be replaced every 30-40 thousand miles , bigest killer of mileage

LOL pappy is quoting himself

But he is right

well, the mechanic I took it to (the one who did the transmission fluid) told me that the silver box on the top of the glovebox (yes, there is a silver box acting as the roof of the glovebox, lol) with the sticker "VF Racing Fuels" is probably the computer, and was changed not long ago; and someone just decided it would look better with a sticker on it

WHEN this computer was changed, I dont know. But Tune-up comes first, if that dont help, then I'll try a new computer (how much does one cost?) or is there an adapter I can buy for my full-size computer to use it as my car's computer? lol nah... I prefer my comp here... anyway. Two basic points here:

How much does a new car computer cost (or oxygen sensor if it's separate)
If that doesnt work, what's a good car where I can get alot of bang for the buck? (Mustang GT is $32,000 CAD and packs 300HP, I'm lookin for somethin near that, like a camaro)

there's two gas guzzlers

yup, but if I'm gonna have a gas guzzler, I may as well have one that puts out decent power too... my car is only 125 HP and has the milage of a train engine

My 2 litre Honda Civic Type R puts out 197bhp as standard.

The Honda Integra Type R 2 litre puts out 220bhp.

The '00 S2000's 2.0L, 11.0:1, DOHC VTEC four-banger developed 240 net horsepower at 8,300 rpm, the highest output per liter of any normally aspirated production automobile engine ... yet the engine was one of the first to fully meet California's LEV (Low Emission Vehicle) smog standards. The two-seat pocket rocket had a 9,000-rpm rev limit, accelerating 0-60 in under 6 seconds.
HONDA

Its hard to keep track of my cars now. I've traded that cavalier after smashing the rad in (got too close to a curb in a parking lot). Some guy took it and gave me a running orange '84 CRX. I love the car, but about a week after I got it, the timing belt snapped. Not good for my new job. So grandpa goes out and pays to buy a new car for me. This time it's a 1990 Toyota Camry. As I'm saving up money to have the CRX's belt fixed, the camry's transmission starts to go. First starts slipping horribly, then reverse is gone (acts as another park) and next goes neutral (still neutral kinda, except if I rev to where the RPM's would be if I were accelerating in drive then it starts to spin the wheels. Fun I guess if I need an extra boost, funny drivin by people and goin into neutral and spinning the wheels at 50kph). Oddly though, the camry feels as if it's got a bit more power now (slightly). Sucks not having reverse though . A few weeks later I get fed up with the camry, and my girlfriend's mom lends me her brand new truck to go to work in (odd isnt it? I've known her for a whole 3 days before she lent it to me). Then it got repo'd by the dealers in BC (they towed it all the way back lol). So, back to the camry. Tranny stopped slipping when I lost reverse by the way. The CRX finally goes into repair, and a week later is "finished". So, I park the camry in the back, and off I go to work in the CRX. (the CRX is my fave car, modified to a 12.5 sec 1/4 mile) . When I get to work about 2 hours after I got it back, the harmonic balancer falls off the damn crankshaft, and I ended up running it over and breaking a piece off. So, now I've got no alt. I tell my boss I cant work that day due to the balancer. A few days later, a roomate asks me to bring him smokes at his friends place, I finally decided to go, and on my way home, the car starts to shake violently, and all of a sudden the front passenger wheel comes right off! I checked it out and one of the studs is broken, and no sign of the lug nuts anywhere. Spare tire is already in use on the back passenger side because one of the tires went flat and I asked the mechanic to swap the spare to the back (the tire that fell off is where the spare originally was). I'm sitting there right in the middle of the road, no tire, and no money to get the car off the road via a tow truck. Police come along a few minutes later, impound the car for 30 days and now I have to have the car inspected for safety because of the crappy work of the mechanic, who's still asking me for $70 more for fixing the car that just fell apart (totalling $210 for the work, PLUS $80 for the belt to be changed). Back to the camry, and still with it today .
So, now, I'm parting out the CRX. 89 integra motor w/ racing clutch and other mods I'm not aware of (finishes 1/4 mile at 185 kph, meaning it's got more than 180hp at the wheels, motor comes 118hp stock)and still boasts an awesome 42mpg in the city.
Nice big 15" rims, tried to find them online, no luck. The guy who traded told me they were $2000.

No pics of the car after all this stuff, but I have pics of when it still ran... I love that car, it almost makes me cry to see it destroyed like that...

Pics of my beloved CRX

You're problem, Lead Foot Syndrome, the symptoms are poor gas mileage, broken parts, worn out parts and high cost car repairs.

Solution, Grow up, or and quit whining, or buy hiking boots and a mountain bike.

That may be so, GP. But it sounds like he got hosed by the mechanic who changed his timing belt. I mean really - the harmonic balancer fell off?! Yeah - that mechanic obviously has no idea what the term 'torque-spec' means. Since he pulled the balancer to get the timing cover off, he's at fault - you owe him no more money, IMHO. He's lucky you don't sue his ass for negligence, if you ask me. Sorry, but most mechanics that are worth a crap will stand behind their work and at least offer a 30-90 day warranty on the work performed - meaning if things like harmonic balancers falling off during that time period after they worked on it, then they'll fix whatever gets broken during the event.

Here's something to try for the Camry's tranny slipping problem. It sounds like your slippage problems are related to clogged passageways in the automatic tranny - low fluid pressure is not activating the servo properly. Go the one of your favorite Auto Parts stores, and pick up a small can/bottle (two would be better) of Berryman's B-12 Chemtool. Pour it into your transmission filler and run it for an hour or so, cycling through all of the transmission modes in the driveway (not at the local street races or dragstrip...). First in Park, then move down to Reverse, then back to Park, then to Neutral, then back to Park, then to Drive, etc., etc., etc... all the way through the range of tranny modes. If the Berryman's works properly, you should get your transmission back. Once that's done and everything's good to go again, you'll need to have the transmission serviced (change fluid and new filter). Which means drive straight down to a lube shop or be prepared to do this yourself. If you can pull the pan, drain the fluid, change the filter, and reinstall the pan (on jack stands or drive-on ramps), then you'll be money ahead (tranny filter and gasket kit should be around $12-20USD). If not, having it done at a Lube place would be better anyway because they'll push completely new fluid through the entire system (torque converter as well). It'll cost a little bit (usually $40USD).

That should get your Camry squared away for now. If the slipping persists, then you have bigger problems concerning clutches, servos, and bands. But the fact that your slippage went away after losing reverse tells me it's a case of clogged arteries.

Make sure you get the 'cholesterol-free' tranny fluid next time.

Bad news though Dude - those are not $2000 worth of rims and tires (well, not USD anyway). They're Eagle Alloy copies of O.Z. wheels... which are much cheaper. The O.Z. wheels ran about $350 apiece... the Eagles, around $150 or so. But I keep forgetting that you're talking about Canadian money...

Good luck with it.