i have a 97 ferio lx completely stock and lately ive been noticeing that ive been getting poor gas milage. also my temp. needle has been staying down (like if engine was cold) and sometimes it goes to the middle (like if the motor was at normal temp.) so i think that the motor is running rich if it thinks the engine is cold (so it burns more gas)...my question wold be where are all of the sensors that indicate engine temp.? or what would cause the needle to be low all of the time, pics would be great. thanks for your help.

 

first of all how did u measure ur mpg and what difference was it by? because the correct way that i have figured out is to have ur tank almost empty and then fill it up all the way and rite there and then reset ur trip odometer and drive ur car as usual but dont fill it up again until it is almost empty and then u see how many miles u have driven since ur last fill-up (trip odometer) and divide it by how many gallons it took u to fill the tank back up and that's the correct way to know ur actual mpg's. ha ha sorry for this essay and if ur engine is running rich u would see black smoke comming 4rm ur tailpipe and the temp. gauge is either next to ur thermostat housing where ur lower rad. house connects to or on the side of the cyl. head by the distributor usually temp. sensors are green. and a cause of ur temps. always being low is that u may have a sticking thermostat in the open position. my bad for the essay again but hope this helps...

 

Sticking thermostat would be my vote for the engine not reaching operating temp (if indeed it isn't reaching operating temp). If that's the case you should certainly look there first for the culprit in your poor gas mileage.

 

yup when the engine is cold it puts more fuel in. definitely check the thermostat

 

i just learned a quicker to do it is to:

fill up the car until the gas pump stops, dont over fill it
run it for 100miles ONLY
go back to the gas station and fill up till the pump stops, dont over fill
read how many gallons you put in on the pump screen and divide it by 100

ex 100 miles / ~4 gallons it took to fill up = 25 MPG

 

hey thanks for responding fast guys ima go boil up so water and do the cold to hot water test.. jaja