Has anyone had bad mileage with their Sl1.

My name's Joe. I joined the forum to get more answers for my girl's 1994 saturn sl1.

 

OK -- Please characterize your "bad mileage" --> 10mpg, or 15mpg, or what ?? Also identify the mileage both for city driving, and highway driving. Are there any warning lights lit on the dashboard? Take her car down to AutoZone (or similar), and have them run a scan on the computer. Please list the code numbers here too. That's a start ......

 

Yes ... and are you saying by your user name that it's a SL1 TwinCam?

 

My SC2 coupe with automatic gets 33 on the open road, low/mid 20's in town. On the open road that is at 75mph+ with the A/C on on long haul trips going though mountain ranges with 7% grades. I think that is pretty good. Been that way pretty much since it was bought in 1996. It is a 1994. What is it you expect anyway. In order to realize your expectectations, you may have to lower them.

 

Mornging everyone, Yes its the twin cam, well I can't really speak of the mpg because I don't use her car for long periods but ill say this. I put Twenty dollars worth in her tank which brought me to a quarter of a tank full, from my town woodbridge to bridgewater drove it on 287 on a good day. As I arrived to my destination I looked at her gas and it put me to a little bit after have a tank. And then one night I hung out at her place one night she had I would say about half a tank drove me home and had a little then a quarter tank full. I'm going to be doing spark plugs (any to recommend?), Plugs, Switch to synthetic oil, pretty much a tune up in here car.

 

Synthetic oil is a waste of money. Other than a new air filter and a set of plugs there is nothing to tune and no indication (under the circumstances) that they are needed, and the gas tank only holds 10 gallons.
And you still don't know what the gas mileage actually is.

 

Hmmmmm .... Woodbridge to Bridgewater --> about 30 miles and 40 minutes one way, so a round trip would be 60 miles. Twenty dollars in gas would get you 6 to 7 gallons depending on current pricing. As I remember, the '94 models held about 10.4 gallons in the tank. If the car gave you 30MPG, you would burn 2 gallons on the trip, leaving you with 4 to 5 in the tank. If the mileage was 20MPG, you would burn 3 gallons on the trip, leaving you with 3 to 4 in the tank.

Google shows the trip route as about 1/2 on 287, and 1/2 on surface streets - so taking into account of the mileage UnclJohn gets with his SC2 coupe (and the mileage I get with my SW2 wagon), I'd say you are not too far off.

Now, a new set of plugs (and possibly wires) could boost it a bit, but I wouldn't expect to see any massive improvements. If you change to synthetic oil at this late date, I suggest you watch for possible increase in oil consumption as some of the engine deposits established over the years are dissolved/loosened up.

 

Damn, so pretty much the saturn sl1 has crappy gas mileage. and with the twin cam if would eat more a lot more gas too. and I will be going to replace the spark plugs and wires without a doubt. I know there is something you could pour into your gas tank to clean out the injectors and help clean out the block. and I was going to put some pennzoil gold I heard good things about it. So pretty much there really isn't anything i could do for the gas mileage

 

I am not so sure that the word crappy can be applied to the gas mileage that you are getting.
If it is like mine, I think mine is good. I have not heard a specific number applied to yours other than an impression. My Van gets 24 on the open road, 17 around town and 11 doing a 10 stop an hour delivery route. I call that good too.
I can say this though.
Using synthetic oil is expensive and as a cure for fuel mileage, it is not one. There is absolutly no reason at all that using a synthetic oil shoud be expected to make any improvement in fuel mileage and specifically no significant improvement.
Of course it is claimed that light weight oil such as a light viscosity oil will improve fuel mileage but it will also decrease the life of your engine.
So balance that off with economics applied. proper oil wieght vs temperature range driven in and driving habits are a better guidline.
As far as spark plugs and wires? If it don't need them, changing them won't do anything.
Motor fix it in a can to clean out injectors is best applied to cleaning money out of your wallet unless of course there is a problem with your injectors and then maybe it might work.

Personally I do not see anything that you would like to do, justified by any particular reason that is needed, and I still have not seen any numbers claimed as to the actual gasoline mileage the car is getting.

And as that can very quite a bit by driving habits, even if you did list a number that number itself would be open to conjecture.

There are a lot of things that can be done for gasoline mileage if there is some reason to believe that there is a problem with it.
But first, the problem has to be identified.

You are talking about a 16 year old car of un-identified condition that probably is paid for.
If it is getting 33 mpg on the open road and low 20's driven hard in town it is probably quite normal. A newer car, such as a 2011 Kia or Chevy or what ever that might get better, and that is open for question, might also cost upwards of $25,000. You can buy a heck of a lot of gasoline with that money before it makes sense to by a new car.
So from where I sit, you need a better definition of Crappy
and a better definition of your objectives.

 

Here's the numbers from my cars:

'93SW2 ----- 21 in town and 29 on hwy
'96SL2 ----- 24 in town and 31 on hwy
'02L200 ----- 23 in town and 33 on hwy
'09AURA XE -- 24 in town and 34 on hwy

Please note, that all these cars have the DOHC engines appropriate to the model/year and no exotic changes. Am I pleased/displeased with those numbers? Frankly, I'm happy with them, and if I was more careful, they would probably increase a bit ....