Would Dirty intake runners cause bad fuel mileage?

[layinthesmack31]

Hey guys. Well i have determined that my intake needs to be cleaned so that brings me to another question. Would the dirty intake cause bad gas mileage? cause right now i get about 160 miles until the needle on the gauge reaches the 1/4 left in the tank mark. is this normal? i really dont know how to calculate the gas mileage i am getting. so any help would be great. I have also changed the thermostat thinking it wasnt heating up enough because it would only go the the L on NORMAL and even since changing it it still never goes past the L. so i really dont know what is up. Also what have u guys noticed that works the best for cleaning the intake? please any input is greatly appreciated. thanks

Matt

 

[HopefulSHO]

Dirty intake shouldn't really affect your milage at all. But it's not a bad idea to clean it up

To caluclate your milage, fill up your tank and mark down how many miles the car has. Next time you fill up, divide the difference between the new milage and what you wrote down last tankful. Take that difference divided by how many gallons you put in and that will give you a pretty good average of your MPG.

You may want to think about cleaning your MAF sensor, changing oxygen sensors, and the ECT sensor as well. Plugs and wires also come into account here. Actually quite a few things can affect your milage. Are your tires properly inflated and aligned?

Plus one of the biggest gas milage factors: your gas pedal. How fast do you drive?

 

[layinthesmack31]

Whats the best way to clean the MAF? i also replaced the oxygen sensors. I have been trying to keep the secondaries from kicking in during normal driving also so that i dont use extra gas. I was thinking about doing plugs and wires when i cleaned the intake cause they would be easy to get at so i will do that. I am not familiar with what u mean by the ECT sensor. what is it and where is it located? thanks for the quick response

Matt

 

[HopefulSHO]

Remove the MAF (you'll need either some saftey torx bits or a dremel & screwdriver), and spray the two filaments with electrical contact cleaner or non-chlorinated brake cleaner. I used the latter and it took care of the laywer of black crap that was on mine real quick.

The ECT sensor is the Engine Coolant Tempature sensor..located near the housing where the thermostat is. There are two temp sensors around there, one is the ECT (has 2+ wires coming out of the harness) and one is the dashboard temp sensor (one wire unit). If the ECT fails it can cause your computer to think the engine is running much cooler than it really is; and will never leave fuel-enrichment mode.