G'day,

I've had my PT Cruiser for a few weeks, during which I've been running basically 95 or 98 Octane from Woolies.

I felt like I wasn't getting great mileage, so I put the trip meter on when I last filled the tank, and when the warning light/sound first went off, I was only up to 296km.

This is all city driving, moderate traffic, with air-con going. I am not (much of) a hoon, so no excessive speed/acceleration.

Is that poor?

I read that the first point of check was the air filter... Took a look, and whilst it's not brand new, it doesn't look super dirty to me...

What else should I look at? I'm tossing up between just taking the car to my mechanic for a service including all filters/etc etc given that the car yard obviously did nothing for the car, but then thought maybe I should get back to doing services myself like I used to do for my Nissan 280ZX... I then spent 5 minutes looking under the hood of the Cruiser... Yikes that's tight...

Is there anything obvious I should be looking at after the air filter?

Thanks,

cosmic

Auto or manual ? Autos have dreadful consumption (well over 10l/100km)
2.0l or 2.4l ? (2.4l uses more)
Air-con will cost you 15% extra in a PT (10% - 20% in any car)
I don't have exact figures (except for ours), but-
2.0l, manual, air-con off, in traffic, about 8-9l/100km; no traffic, about 6.5-7.0l/100km.
2.4l, auto, air-con on, in traffic, about 14l/100km.
So, if yours falls somewhere in that range......

If you can; use NGK Iridium plugs and low resistance leads (eg. Granatelli),
K&N drop in air filter- in original box, don't muck around with pod filters (they're sucking hot air from the engine bay!).
Good quality synthetic or semi-synthetic oil, and 95 octane fuel (yours is 2005 or older so never E10 crap).
You can go further (yes, I'm a bit extreme) and fit a fresh air feeder pipe up through the inner guard .......... But it works

Also, how are the tyres, tyre pressure, wheel alignment?

G'day PTmunji,

2.4L, 2005 Auto... And the last tank of 95 octane only got around 320km - so, about 19L/100km.

I did know that the car was less economical than say a Camry or the Zafira, but 19L/100km... that's gotta be something wrong... Even my 280ZX straight 6 EFI used to get around 12-14...

The air filter is in the stock housing. I've seen them priced between $15-$85... Is there any real difference in performance in that range?

A K&N filter will give you a little better performance and consumption compared to to a standard filter, and it's re-useable!

To calculate the consumption you need to use the actual amount of fuel used (that is, what it shows on the fuel bowser after filling)
then divide that by the actual number of kilometres travelled.
Your figures of 19l/100km mean that the 57 litre tank was bone dry when you filled it after doing 300km...........

If you do 320km and the pump shows 49 litres, that's 49/320=15.3l/100km.
Still excessive, but nowhere near what you describe.

You haven't mentioned the condition of the tyres, wheel alignment, etc.
These factors all influence consumption.
Also, based on what I can read about the history of the car my guess is that the plugs & leads are still the original,
as are possibly the tyres (if they're Goodyear NCT they're crap), and will cost you at least 2l/100km.

As I said, 2.4l Auto and driving with the air-con on...... don't expect much better than 14l/100km in the city,
and that also depends on how much weight the car is carrying.

An automatic car, with the air-conditioning on, in traffic, will always use a lot of fuel.