[newbie321]

Hi, guys:

Recently, I have noticed that my windstar dropped from about 18mph (city) to just about 8-9mph (city). This transition happened virtually overnight. Sounds weird, huh?
So, I VISUALLY inspected the engine while the motor was running and not...got under the van...no fuel was running out. the engine runs smooth ie not rough and does not die out. there is no MIL indicators. Ran the DTC scan. No DTC was found.

I am about to do a brute-force inspection, where I will be checking pretty much all of the relevant sensors,relays, fuses but before I do not that I would I would ask you guys to see if there is a weak link that statistically manifests in the form of the aforementioned fuel problem.

has anyone of you had to deal with this type of a fuel problem? If so, how did you resolve it?

Sincerely,
newbie321

 

[bowesmobile]

When it relates to gas mileage and such a rapid change. Replace your O2 sensors. When they go bad it will cause a dramatic increase in fuel consumption. Personally thats where I would start.

 

[Cuda_jim]

You should get it on a scanner with a good operator. Monitor the O2 sensor PID's. With such a drastic reduction in mileage you should see extremely rich conditions....if not you have a leak. Not all leaks are visible, fuel can evaporate before a puddle is formed.
Do you smell fuel? (walk around the vehicle with it running)
How are you determining the MPG?

 

[bowesmobile]

You should get it on a scanner with a good operator. Monitor the O2 sensor PID's. With such a drastic reduction in mileage you should see extremely rich conditions....if not you have a leak. Not all leaks are visible, fuel can evaporate before a puddle is formed.
Do you smell fuel? (walk around the vehicle with it running)
How are you determining the MPG?

Good point! Its better than throwing parts at it, lol. ut:

 

[newbie321]

Hi, guys:

Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it.
as far determining my MPG goes...
I am a college students ie I am a cheap ass. so i usually put 2 -3 gallons into the tank at a time and that lasts me literally for forever since I do not drive the van that much. well....this time I went to walmart and back (about 2 miles total trip) and the low-fuel indicator lamp went on. and after more driving it the fuel needle was showing almost empty.

I realize that the fuel gauge is not exact and sometimes it shows more when you go uphill and shows less when you go downhill. but still the fluctuations should not be that dramatic.

 

[newbie321]

Could you please explain what you mean by '...get it on a scanner with a good operator.?' do you mean the operator being the other person? also what scanner do you suggest? I have an Innova scanner and while it is not the greatest it fetches error codes.
OR
do you mean going to a dealer and having them use their computer and have a good mechanic operate it as opposed to a bad mechanic operating it?

 

[Cuda_jim]

Hi, guys:

Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it.
as far determining my MPG goes...
I am a college students ie I am a cheap ass. so i usually put 2 -3 gallons into the tank at a time and that lasts me literally for forever since I do not drive the van that much. well....this time I went to walmart and back (about 2 miles total trip) and the low-fuel indicator lamp went on. and after more driving it the fuel needle was showing almost empty.

I realize that the fuel gauge is not exact and sometimes it shows more when you go uphill and shows less when you go downhill. but still the fluctuations should not be that dramatic.

No way you can determine your MPG that way.......fuzzy math.:nono:

 

[Cuda_jim]

Could you please explain what you mean by '...get it on a scanner with a good operator.?' do you mean the operator being the other person? also what scanner do you suggest? I have an Innova scanner and while it is not the greatest it fetches error codes.
OR
do you mean going to a dealer and having them use their computer and have a good mechanic operate it as opposed to a bad mechanic operating it?

Yes, but it's moot point....see above post.

 

[newbie321]

Thank you guys for your feedback!!!

sounds like i know what I will be doing this weekend. I will update you guys on my progress.

newbie321

 

[Poppy]

" Fuzzy math" Cuda... that's funny!

If at 18 mpg you could drive for ever on 3 gallons,
at 9 mpg you could drive half way to forever, with that same logic for another 3 gallons you could drive all the way to forever. Put in the extra 8 dollars, and you can drive all the way to forever.

On the other hand, your gas guage sender is in the gas tank, it is like a potentiometer. It wears out. My guess (given this new cheap a** information) is that it is so often only in that one region... (going on empty) that it is worn out in that area.

The way to correctly determine mileage is to fill her up, and write down the mileage. Run her for a couple of hundred miles and fill her up again, calculate the number of miles traveled, and write down the amount of fuel it took to fill it back up. This is the amount of fuel (gallons) used to travel those miles since the last fill-up.

Divide the number of miles by gallons to get miles/gallon or mpg.

 

[newbie321]

Thanks guys for your input regarding calculating the MPGs and all. I absolutely agree with that too. But given the circumstance I just have not had a chance to fill her up all the way several times. I live on an island and to cover 200 miles would mean I would have to drive around the island like couple times I think. or if do city driving on a full tank it would usually go for like 2-3 months as I do not drive that much. So given such a duration of time, I can not really wait for months to just measure the MPG. and we have to agree that even this method of measuring MPG is not too accurate, but it is replicable, that is folks like it.

On a similar note....does anyone have an exploded assembly view of the fuel delivery system and the related accessories? If so, could you please post one here...

Thank you very much!!!!

newbie321

 

[MissInformation]

does anyone have an exploded assembly view of the fuel delivery system and the related accessories? If so, could you please post one here...

I do not have a Windstar specific "fuel delivery system" diagram, but I do have a generic one that may help give you a general idea on how the fuel system in an automobile operates.

I am unsure what you mean by "related accessories" - if you could kindly extrapolate I would be glad to assist you if I can.....