i have a 91 acura integra.

i bought it about 1000 miles ago...or so.

lately i've been getting about 10-13 mpg...between 130-150 miles per tank.

this is horrible for such a small car. the person who i bought it from [first owner]...wrote down every tank of gas that he bought, the mileage on the car at that point, the mpg he got with the previous tank, the cost of the gas...etc. when he had it, up to the point when i bought it, he was getting between 25-35mpg.

i don't get it.

last oil change was 2,500 ago. muffler's got a hole in it, but it's not that bad. i do a lot of stop & go driving...and turning the car on, driving 10 blocks, then turning the car off. in cold weather. but i don't see how that could account for 15mpg.

sometimes it looks like the exhaust is thick, and there's more of it...compared to other different types of cars that i see.

any ideas?
thanks,
tfish.

sounds like you are getting about half of what you should be getting. the first question is, is the car running smooth, or are you noticing any problems with it? if not, are you sure that you are calculating it correctly? i cant see how the car would use twice as much gas as it used to in 1000 miles, unless something bad happened to it that you neglected. or the guy was lying and you got a lemon.

the car's running smooth, idles fine...maybe a little rough, but not obvious.

i'm pretty sure the guy didn't cheat me. he kept a book of the mileage...etc up to the time that i bought it, and it was up around 26-30. [he kept the book from when he bought the car with 200 miles on it, until i got it...and there was nothing erased...scratched out...etc]

there was a slight altitude change...but i don't think enough of one to where it would be getting 20mpg less.

one of the ideas that i've heard is that the car is running too rich. because i'm getting a lot of white smoke...even when the car is warm. i've been told that the reason for it is a rich mixture of gas.

is there any simple way to change this?
is it in the computer chip. does the car change it constantly through the cold air intake temperature monitor? or is it just some screw somewhere that i have to twist?

i've also heard about spark plug wires, and distributer caps going bad. but i don't see how either could account for such a major loss in mpg.

any help would be much appreciated.
putting $20 a week into gas isn't very amusing.
thanks,
tfish.

a lot of white smoke usually means that you are burning coolant. try a compression test and see if any of the cylinders are letting you down. if you were running rich enough to drop the mileage from 30 to 15, you would backfire a lot from all the unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust, along with fouling plugs every 10 minutes.

did he drive on the highway alot or streets? i know my dad drives basically on the highway and that bitch gets like 350 miles on a tank and i get 140 at the most if im driving like normal people would drive :smoker2: because i dont really hit the highway.......

streets. i've driven highway a few times...and i think i got up to 180 miles on one tank. which is still crazy.

no backfires...so it may not be running too rich.