I have a 95 Dakota, 3.9 L with 85,5XX miles on it. I am getting approximatley 9 mile per gallon city. Does this seem right? Gas prices are killing me, Im getting roughly 140 miles to a tank. What can I do to get better gas milage??? Gas prices are absolutley killing me with this truck, I'm starting to miss my VW a lot......any help is appreciated




Thanks
Mike

 

In my '95 I was getting about 15-20mpg and 400miles to the tank.

I would start with a full tune up. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter...

 

thanks but I'm not mechanically inclined but learning. What is rotor and where is the fuel filter located, im guessing its above the gas tank and i need to drop the tank.

Thanks again

 

Cap and rotor are on the distributor. I believe the only fuel filter was the massive thing in the tank. I would also recommend putting one on the line under the hood so you can observe if crud is getting through the lines.

 

Plugs, wires, cap and rotor (on the top of the distributor), the fuel filter should be underneath the car bolted to the driver's side frame rail towards the back by the fuel tank.

Start with that. If its still crappy mileage you may check your O2 sensor.

I am having the same problem with my '90 dakota

 

thanks for all your help, im going to start replacing/checking things out, and if worse comes to worse, my neighbor is a mechanic. Also, what kind of plugs do you reccomend for my truck?

 

I am running NGK plugs in ine and they are great. i had bosch +4 for about 3/4000 miles and my truck lost its *****, put the NGKs in there and it runs much better. The fuel filter in in the tankon these trucks like most dodges, unless someone put an aftermarket one on there.

 

ok thanks for all your help....i think i may have found some issues with my gas milage also. The original tires where p195/75r15 or something like that and the tires on there now are p235/75r15. I talked to a mechanic and he said this may by giving me an innacurate reading on my odometer. Os this true? and could the computer be reprogrammed to this tire size?

 

it couldhave an effect. youare actuallytravelling farther and faster than what is indicated. But not by much. at 70mph you would be doing around 75-78 actual speed. if the 195 is the width, the 75 means that the height is 75% of the width. so figure out the percentage difference between the tire heights and thats the percentage your speedometer and odometer would be off.

But honestly I would check over plugs and wires and check your O2 sensors since those would have a bigger impact on your MPG

 

I had 235/70/15s on mine and the spedo was only 1 mph off according to the GPS. That was going 70.