By Dave Dolan-Wallace on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 02:40 pm: Edit

I've had my 96 SE7 for 1 1/2 years now. Over the last 6 to 8 months the gas milage has slowly declined from 17 hwy to about 13. It has almost 80,000 miles on it, 4.0 and a direct ignition system. I've done the maintenance when I can or I take it to a local mechanic who is not familier with LR (except mine) and only does basic work(nearest LR dealer is 150 miles away). I use champion truck plugs but have not done any other work on the ignition system. Time for new wires? New coils? (I have to admit I have no idea how direct ignition works). Filters are clean. Alternator is new. Belt is new. O2 sensors were replaced on time. A few other new parts but most are stock/original.

Any ideas?

Thanks

By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 04:17 pm: Edit

Just out of curiousity ... are you running a K&N air filter? I had the same problem except I went from 15 mpg down ... I cleaned the air filter with every oil change (2500 miles) with the cleaner and oil kit. My gas mileage kept dropping. I tried everything else with no luck and decided to try a new factor air cleaner and I am back up to 15 mpg again.

Murray

By MA on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 05:13 pm: Edit

My 94 Disco with 51,000 miles started to do the same thing about 3 weeks ago. I first thought it was the new steel wheels, but I ruled that decision out. I use to fill up the tank once a week. Now it is twice a week with premium(3/4 and 1/2.) This is killing me! I have a K&N, it seems pretty dirty, so i'll buy the cleaning kit and clean it out. I'll also replace the spark plugs. I hope this will do something. Because, if it keeps doing this, i'll have to say bu-bye to the Disco

By Steve (Steve2) on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 05:53 pm: Edit

i went back to my factory filter - the kn for some reason gave better off line power - but poor hwy power and also ate into mpg a little. i am now back to the factory filter and she seems to be happier with it. in stop and go and hwy mixed with and without a/c on - i averaged 14.7 on last tank - which i thought was pretty good

steve

By 94Rover on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 06:05 pm: Edit

Darn guys, this is the same problem I'm having in the 94Rover........ I thought it was the 02sensors, then I thought it was my heavy right foot.....but from the looks of this message it could possibly be my K&N filter......I was trying to figure this one out before I hand the 94 over to my dad.....
whoa, maybe I'll slide my LR filter in over the weekend and see if this is the prob.....

By Moe (Moe) on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 06:25 pm: Edit

Dave, you said filters were changed . . so this includes the fuel filter too?

Yes, change your wires and plugs at the same time. The Magnecore wires are a good and relatively cheap replacement. I found the stock 7mm wires work fine with NGK plugs.

http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/main.htm

By Moe (Moe) on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 06:26 pm: Edit

. . . as for the K&N theory LOL. Anyway you are supposed to keep them dirty for them to work well

By mike w on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 06:27 pm: Edit

let me know if it helps....my 94 always got bad mileage ( a realative term) it was 11*12 mpg prior to the K&N and its the same now.

By Dave Dolan-Wallace on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 01:43 am: Edit

I'm running the factory air filter and the fuel filter has been renewed. I've been through some of the achives here and this string says the same thing, the K & N filter brings mixed results.

I'm going to try the plug wires and let you know.

Thanks

By Marc on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 03:11 am: Edit

When should O2 sensors be replaced?

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 03:28 am: Edit

I blame my wife.

When I drove from LA to Napa and other times around the area we get about 13~14MPG. On the Napa road trip, we got 17MPG averaging 65MPH with the AC on.

When my wife drives it, she has the AC on all the time and I have no idea of her driving habits (when we're together I drive as she wants to sit in the back with the baby). She gets 10MPG.

By Moe (Moe) on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 04:23 am: Edit

Jeff, you can blame your wife, but when I saw your rig go by yesteday (without you) the wife was still in the back seat. I think you need to talk to the baby about the 10mpg

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 04:24 am: Edit

That would explain the drool on the dashboard and the formula stains on the steering wheel...

By Robert Mann (Oldscout) on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 06:55 am: Edit

Have you ever cleaned your injectors? Dirty injectors with a poor spray pattern will kill mileage. I'm not talking about dropping a bottle of snake oil in the tank, but having them cleaned with a pressure cleaner that hooks to the EFI system.

By peter matusov on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 07:18 am: Edit

hehehe

yesterday, my daughter reprimanded me for taking one particular turn (yellow-posted 15mph) at 35 mph in a range rover... later, she mentioned mom having attempted it at 45 mph... in a lifted Disco with a roof rack and ~40lb. on it. she said it was pretty hairy

my wife gets consistently worse gas mileage than I do, by about 2 mpg.

peter

By MA on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 10:16 am: Edit

Back to normal!!!
I recently put some fuel injector cleaner in my Disco(forgot the name) and my gas mileage is back up to 15-16mpg. I also cleaned out the K&N, and checked out the Borla, to see if I have dirt clogged up in there or holes. There was nothing wrong with the exhaust, but I was just curious. The Magnecor wires I installed a month ago also made a very marginal difference.

By Keith Armstrong on Friday, October 05, 2001 - 04:19 pm: Edit

Hey all,

I just had a 2-3 mpg increase in my '94 Disco with 98k+ on it.....all I did was re-pack the wheel bearings! No scientific data, it just happened on the week's trip to Wisconsin.

By Dave Dolan-Wallace on Saturday, October 06, 2001 - 05:52 am: Edit

The snake oil didn't help on this truck. It did when I ran a Ford V8. I like the idea of having the injectors cleaned and I'll have the shop do it next oil change.