JDL Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Hi. I have a 2003 Outback 4 cyl. automatic with 16k miles. For the last 2 months the gas mileage has been dropping steadily. It was 22 and has dropped to 16. The driving is around town and hasn't changed. No long warm-ups. The tires are at correct pressure. There are no messages from the OBD. The local Subaru service dept. tells me that the loss of 6mpg is not significant and that if there is no OBD activity, there is nothing they can do about it. Has anyone else had this problem? What is the solution? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unverviking Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Reformulation of gasoline for the winter will cause this. I too questioned it when it happened on our 01 OBW. Check the air filter and it's opening to the front, it may get clogged and thus burn more gas... On my 93, I was getting 25 city, 30 highway in the summer with the AC on. I'm lucky now if I get 20-22. The 01 was averaging 25-27 highway this fall, it's probably not any better than 20 as well. I remember in the really, really cold snap last year, my 93 got only 17. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinjmpr Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Going from 22 to 16 is almost a 25% drop That's a huge drop that I don't think can be attributed just to oxygenated fuels. My '99/auto dropped down to 22 from 25-27 last week, but it was a cold week and I spent a lot of time driving slowly with the engine running to let the car warm up. After it warmed up my mileage jumped back up to 27. I'm not a mechanic, but I think the usual suspects are things like the EGR valve. If there is another Subaru dealership in your area (or an independent garage that specializes in Subaru), you might want to take it there instead. I have noticed a huge difference between some dealers and others in terms of their knowledge of the product and their carefulness and professionalism. Just as an example, I refuse to take my Subaru to the local dealer in Laramie because they have been so careless in the past (overfilling my oil reservoir, cross-threading and/or insufficiently tightening my oil drain plug after an oil change resulting in a noticeable leak.) The thing is, they sell Jeep and Chrysler products, too, and I think Subaru is just a sideline to them (although there sure are a lot of them in this little college town.) Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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