gas milage

[lbrailsford028]

i bought a 96 deville recently (first car) and i jus started driving it to and from work everday (30 miles to and from work) for the past 3 weeks. i find myself burning a full tank in 5 days!!!! being i live in NY and todays gas prices i can spend like 60-80 dollars on gas easy. just wanna kno is this normal for this type of car to be getting like 10 miles to the gallon.. does any one have tips on how to get better mpg??

[Bruce Nunnally]

and thank you for posting.

Whenever one buys a used car, the first thing I recommend doing is approaching the maintenance of the vehicle as if NOTHING has been done on schedule. Change the oil, air filter, check the tranny fluid, air the tires, etc. how many miles on your Deville? If over 100k change the transmission fluid and sparkplugs and perhaps wires.

Your Cadillac has an onboard MPG monitor which will allow you to see either instant MPG or average MPG. Before your next commute, please reset the average MPG to 0, so that we measure only that trip. Then put the instant MPG display up, and attempt to drive so that the instant MPG is maximized. At the end of the trip, when you get to work, record the average MPG. Before you come home from work, reset the average mpg to 0. Drive home paying attention to the instant MPG and trying to keep it maxed. Record your average MPG once you get home. Report those 2 numbers.

Your Cadillac has onboard diagnostics. Please check how to read codes and post any codes you find here.

Your Cadillac should get around 17 mpg on the EPA city cycle and 25 mpg on the EPA highway cycle (depending on which year and which EPA cycle).

If driven carefully with the goal being to maximize MPG some drivers do reach or improve on those numbers. It is harder than just flooring the Cadillac at every stop light, and takes some time to build up good habits for maximizing MPG. Keeping the instant MPG meter up I feel is one way to develop those good habits.

[Texas Jim]

i bought a 96 deville recently (first car) and i jus started driving it to and from work everday (30 miles to and from work) for the past 3 weeks. i find myself burning a full tank in 5 days!!!! being i live in NY and todays gas prices i can spend like 60-80 dollars on gas easy. just wanna kno is this normal for this type of car to be getting like 10 miles to the gallon.. does any one have tips on how to get better mpg??

How are you checking the mileage to determine that you are getting only 10 MPG?

Did you write down the mileage for each fillup and divide by MPG, or are you just guessing that you drove about 150 miles and put in 15 gallons? You may be doing other driving that you didn't take into consideration, and therefore getting better mpg than you think.

Is your drive to work all in stop and go traffic?

Is part of your commute on freeways?

This can make a BIG difference in your MPG.

When you are stopped ... sitting in traffic or waiting for a light to change, you are getting "ZERO" mpg which will pull your AVERAGE down real fast.

As Bruce says in the preceding post... use the INSTANT MPG feature of the DIC.

I find that it makes a big difference for ME, when driving my Cadillac.

[lbrailsford028]

Firstand foremost I thank you guys for the advice, I'm not only new to the site I'm new to my deville which I love..but back to business I jus parked my car and my highest inst mpg is 24 and my avg is 17.8. I leave work at 12am so ill post those readings. So ill post those later..... o yea I take the highway to and from work.....(queens to brooklyn if that helps) thanx again

[JohnnyG]

I'm not sure exactly what you were expecting. You are driving the largest luxury car made in America, and NOT the best year for fuel economy at that. Additionally, New York driving, to me, even on the freeways, is not exactly the same as anywhere else in the country. Can you hold a steady 65 mph for 200 miles?, 100 miles? 50 miles? I didn't think so. That's highway driving, anything less than that is "stop 'n go", and the mileage will drop accordingly.

Sorry to "get real" on you, but let's face it, you may have made a bad choice for your first "economy" car. I'd say you're getting the fuel economy that I'd expect, and maybe just a bit better for where you live.

BTW, Welcome to the board!

[lbrailsford028]

well it being my 1st car just wanted to know the regular mpg...my dad drove caddys alot n he found it wierd but if thats normal its cool..... o yea cant let go of it im already attached lol

[BodybyFisher]

I live on Long Island, this kind of question if virtually impossible for anyone to answer. First of all, at 10 miles per gallon, you have a problem, was that an off the cuff statement or is that true? You need to reset everything and see exactly what you are getting. When you reset everything you will be able to report your AVERAGE SPEED during the test you do, to be able to see what kind of driving you are doing, highway vs stop and go. If you are in BUMPER TO BUMPER traffic on the LONG ISLAND EXPRESSWAY, to and from work, don't expect terrific gas mileage.

You also need to run the DTC codes to see if you have any P codes showing up, you might have an O2 sensor problem. Do you see a CHECK ENGINE or SERVICE ENGINE CODE? Pull your computer codes and post them here, your car has a DIAGNOSTIC system that will tell you if anything is wrong.

[Ranger]

Pull the silver beauty cover off and locate the fuel rail. BTW, a '96 was included in the fuel rail recall so it SHOULD be stainless steel, not black nylon. If it's not, take it to a dealer and have it replaced for free. Now locate the FPR (Fuel Pressure Regulator) on the rail. It's a small canister with a vacuum line on the top. Pull that line while idling. Look for fuel leaking from the nipple. There should be none. If there is any fuel present, replace it. That is unmetered fuel and WILL hurt your fuel mileage.