Recently, my car (96 SOHC ATX) has taken a dive in the gas milage department. I thought it was because I added a roof rack, so I took it off, changed plugs, air filter, oil and ran injector cleaner. Checked tire pressures, to see if brakes were dragging. I'm runnin out of ideas and still gettin horrible milage, any suggestions??

 

has your car thrown any codes lately? If I remember correctly, the Neon has got 2 oxygen sensors, and if one of them starts going bad it won't throw a code. If your car has the digital odometer you can do the 3 key trick (accessory-off-acessory-off-acessory) and it will display all of your codes on the odometer. If your car doesn't have a digital odometer, it will blink on the check engine light. It will do a series of flashes, this series of flashes is the first error digit, followed by another series of flashes, this is the second error digit. Write each pair down carefully to see what could be causing this problem.

I would also check all of your fluids carefully, pay close attention to your trans fluid. My '97 had this problem and would shift funny and get horrible gas mileage as well. Check under the car for leaking fluids as well, this could help diagnose the problem.

Has this been quite sudden or has it been a slow decline to your current situation?

Try parking on a slight downhill slope, if your car doesn't roll forward as it should then your emergency brake might be locking up; even if the light isn't on. My '97 also did that.

 

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Sorry took so long gettin back on here, was outta town for a few days.

It was a sudden change, I noticed it right after a 300 mile trip. It was fine before but not after. I drove 150 miles one way, parked car for 3 days then drove back. So nothing out of ordinary happened. I park in a fairly clean garage, and no spots on floor or smell of gas, so pretty sure not leaking. Its not throwing any codes, says all functioning normally. The tranny fluid was a little low, but nothing to extraordinary. I topped it off, but no help. Ran some more sea foam and injector cleaner through it, no help. Checked the brakes today, all wheels spinning smooth as a baby's ****. This one's still got me stumped. Just annoying as heck.