VERY Dissappointed with the Celica.... Options

[Badkarma]

well, i bought the celica with hopes of getting Much better gas mileage than my other car. 1999 mustang 3.8 v6 5 spd. so i filled it up last week, set the trip, and today the trip meter hit 280 miles and i was due for a fill up. well, it took 14.4 gallons. it comes out to about 19.5 miles per gallon. my mustang gets 21 average! i've gotten up to 30!. this really was quite a let down. i still love the celica but is everyone getting such horrible mpg?
maintainance is kept up. runs great. plugs, wires, filters. only thing i can think of is it needs of an alignment. what else could be the problem?

thanks, sorry for knocking the celi's.


Erich

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Yeah, most Bosch plugs on Toyotas don't work too great, in my experience.

I pulled a totally beat set of Bosch Platinum +4's out of my Corolla that were obviously way too hot of a plug for the car.....and you would think the little 4AFE wouldn't be so picky. I also had a set of +4's on the 5SFE in the Celica long before I swapped the 3SGTE in, and it was the same deal with those. Plugs looked like they were running white hot upon inspection.

With our Toyotas, If you're going to use Bosch plugs make sure its a cooler plug with a core made from iridium or copper or the like.

I've used nothing but cooler NGK plugs ever since and to great success.




Back on topic.....Badkarma, I would definately replace your primary O2 sensor in the exhaust manifold. Check your ignition timing as well to make sure its in spec.

You really shouldn't be getting poor gas mileage like that....I get comparable if not better gas mileage with my swap utilizing a big fuel pump, 540cc injectors, and lots of boosting!