Forgive me if this question has been asked before, for some reason the search function is not working right now. As stated in my previous posts, I recently purchased a 2003 s60 2.4.

So in the manual, and from the research I have done online, it seems as if this car has a 18.5 gallon fuel tank. I find that hard to believe though, considering gas prices are about $3.50 a gallon in Chicago, and it cost me approximately $50 everytime I fill up from empty. Simple math tells me that I have about a 15 gallon tank, right or wrong?

Also, according to the research I have done on gas mileage, it seems as if I should be getting around 21 mpg in the city and 28 on the highway. Well, traffic is serious in Chicago, and most of my driving is done in the city. It seems as if I'm getting about 15 mpg for my combination of predominantly city, and a lil highway driving. The first time I fiiled up I usedultimate and maybe I'm mistaken but it seems as if I got around 18mpg, I have currently been using silver.

Therefore, does it sound like I'm getting lowmpg for the type of driving I'm doing, orare theadvertised city/highway mpg's completely off? Should I be filling up with ultimate, silver, or regular? My trip computer seems to be on point with my mpg, but off with"miles left to empty tank"

Any and all Responses are appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question.

Nicolas

 

Hi Nic,

How are you calculating the mileage?

How many miles are on the car? Have you had a tuneup recently (air filter, spark plugs, etc)? Have you checked the tire pressure recently and what pressure are you using? Is yours a turbo? If not, I don't think the gas will affect the mileage that much.

 

Hey Fisher, thanks for your response. The car is not a turbo, and it has about 27000 miles on it. I'm using about 35psi in the tires, but i have noticed that my rear passenger tire seems to have a very very very slow leak. As far as caculating the mileage, I'm taking the total number of miles I'm getting right before it hits "e" and dividing by the supposed size of the tank. Finally, my trip computer always seems to miscalculate how many miles left to empty tank, like astronomically...anyway to correct this. Right now I'm at about half a tank left and I have gotten about 165 miles, the most so far...so we shall see what I end up at.

 

OK. The most accurate way to calculate the mileage is to fill the tank up andwrite downthe odometer reading (# of miles on the car). On the next fill up, write down the odometer reading and the gasit took to fillthe tank back up. Then take thesecond odometer reading minus theinitial odometer reading and divide by thegallons it took to fill up thecar.

I do this at every fillup and get between 24 and 27 miles/gallon, which is close to what the on-board computer shows.

 

Hey Fisher... So I did what you suggested and still got the same mileage. Here is the deal, and why I find it hard to believe that I have an 18.5 gallon tank. Last time I filled up, from what I thought was "E" it took about 14.4 gallons. Am I to believe that, although I was damn near at the last line and the orange fuel light was on, I still had approx 4 more gallons of gas left? That's crazy. Also, I divided mymiles by 14.4, I still came up around 17 miles, isnt' that kind of low? Let me know what you think.

Nicolas

 

From my experience, the S60 gas gauges suck. Mine and my friends both fluctuate all over the place. They can never decide how much gas is in them, as one minute it will read half and the next itll be E. I don't know whats the matter with them, but maybe that'll help you. I did a gas mileage calculation, and turned out to have 19 mpg. I don't drive conservativley, however, and my car has a stick not an auto. I don't know if that helps, but I hope so. Lastly, as long as your car isn't turbo, stick with regular. Volvo engines have pretty high compression ratios, which causes a knocking for me at times. I especially notice it when the tach is below about 900. My mechanic also tells me to use regular in my S60 and S80, which has an even higher compression ratio.

 

eh, the guage on mine seems to be fairly reliable. No worse than any other car really.

To the OP: I know 100% that its not a 15 gallon tank, as I've filled up and put 16.5 gallons in before.

 

Nic,
I agree. Seems very low. Sounds like you are covering the important points. At 27k miles, you will need a new engine air filter soon. Hopefully, that will help.

One thing you might try is filling up at different stations to see if that affects your mileage. I would not think so, but it is possible. You might also try a fuel system cleaner. Chevron Techron concentrate from the auto parts stores works pretty well. Let us know how things work out.

The fuel gauge on mine seems to work fine also. As I mentioned, I am consistent with the mpg readings.

 

Goofy thread.
The guy was calculating gas milage first, by guestimating how much was left in the tank. UHHH, it doesn't work that way.

Only way to do it is fill the tank up, drive a lot, and then refill it. And divide the miles driven by the amount of fuel you just refilled with.
And you can't complain about milage if you are idling in downtown Chicago for a long time. All bets are off.

I have an NA, and it gets 30 mpg on the highway and about 22 in the city. But it doesn't take me a half hour to drive 5 miles either.
Maybe he should get a hybrid.

 

Thanks for all the input...I'll def look into a new air filter. In response to Fred, im not sure how to take your response and arguing on the internet is stupid. I'm not interested in a Hybrid, thanks. I could of sworn that this was a forum for Volvo owners to educate and be educated, my bad if my level of knowledge isn't as superb as yours...

 

nicolas414
I just bought 2002 S5 T5. I seem to agree with you on the tank size issue, but that is the least of my problems. but I also got a 18.7 MPG on my first tank fill using the accurate suggested calculation method. my guestion to you is, did you find a solution to your low MPG? and my question to the forums expert is this MPG acceptable knowing that I just got a tuneup and changed the airfilter when I got the car? other post suggested a sensor or mechanical malfunction? please help

 

I've got a 2004 S60 2.5T with an Auto (slushbox). I usually fill up when the "distance to empty" gauge is 20 miles or less and I put 16.2-16.5 gallons in every time. ($4.15 a gallon here in Scottsdale, AZ) I've never pushed if further but I'm willing to bet those smart engineers made this car dummy-proof and put the empty sensor on the conservative side.

Now for mileage - I track mine religiously. Every fill up. I average 24.5 miles per gallon since I bought the car with 40k on it. (74k now). I always use 89 octane (low grade?) and I fill up at different stations. My average speed since 09/2006 has been 31mph so I guess that means I am about 50/50 between highway and city driving. When i do drive long distances it is usually over 75mph which I hear is more like city driving anyway (60mph I am told is the best highway speed/mileage ratio)

I'd say I drive semi-spirited... I am 27 but I drive a Volvo...so you do the math on that one.

I am replacing the air filter and spark plugs this weekend so I'm intersted to see where my mileage goes. I did also get new tires two weeks ago and I noticed a huge dip in mileage my first tank with new tires (19mpg) but since then I'm back to normal. It must have been the "hey I got new tires, let's see how the stick" phase... which wore off quickly when you are paying almost $700 for a set of tires.