2004 Subaru Forester gas mileage issue

[ksarkisian]

I just bought a 2004 XS Subaru Forester. I am currently only getting barely 22 miles per gallon and my wife is driving the car. Has anyone else seen this?

 

Thanks,

Kev from Buffalo:banana:

[zooma37]

Hi,

 

I purchased a 2003 Forester X over the summer, and I have noticed that we've been getting around 19 - 21 mpg city and 24/25 highway. I am disappointed with the Forester's mpg, but I guess that's the trade-off for AWD. I expected it to get more, but Other than the disappointing mpg, I am very happy with the Forester. I drives well, feels safe, has good enough pick-up, and plenty of room for its size. It's my first Subaru and my first SUV, and it meets all of my needs.

[cookie]

that a number fo folks posted on this not long ago.

In SF we have a lot of traffic that brings mine down to the lower numbers.

You are in the range I would expect, it really can depend on how much steady cruiseing your car sees.

These things are 4wd and the Forester is not the slickest shape that ever hit the highway, but if it was it would not fit all the stuff I put in it.

[BlueSoob]

Man! Lead Foot people!

Just Kidding. My 2003 Forester is pulling 30-32 mpg (30 mixed city/hwy) Strictly city its been down to 25/26. I run 87 Octane (Shell) in mine whenever possible. In Utah/Wyoming I ran a tank of 85 Oct. and it dropped to 23. 87 Oct in Wyo. brought me back up to 26/27.

I have never seen a tank below 24 mpg. Not sure what to tell ya.

Are you at a higher altitude? You have an automatic dont you? What octane are you running? Try a different brand of gas? Do you have the A/C on? Is the pedal to the floor alot? Do alot of hill climbing?

 

hmmmmm

[cookie]

buy Amanda's Forester and have her drive it for you.

I am sure sitting in traffic completly stopped with my AC on ruins my mileage. It is actually more rare for me to get a good run at a steady high speed, and perhaps other Bay Area folks can give opinions here.

When we finally get going in traffic on the way into SF we go 75 or so as long as we can, then we all stop.

I have only taken the Forester out of the SF area on holidays and so I always have holiday traffic to contend with.

I am assumeing that Amanda is a careful driver in a situation with few actual traffic jams and may well be near the top of possible Forester mileage.

I am a former Greyhound bus driver and often have my foot to the floor in terrible traffic.

SF is, I believe, the second worst traffic on the West Coast, and third worst nationwide.

I may represent the worst you are likley to get out of a Forester without moving to LA or NYC.

[zooma37]

I am getting around 20 mpg city in my 03 Forester, actually my wife's getting 20 since she drives the car 99% of the time. The Forester is my first AWD car, and, frankly, I am surprised how much AWD affects mpg. She generally has the a/c on and she tends to make a lot of stop-and-go trips, which, of course, lowers the mileage too. We're running 89 octane, which is the midrange fuel in California. I ran 87 - the lowest - 1 time and had a horrible experience - pinging and knocking - and since then we've been using the midrange octane. I kind of wish that SOA had given the Forester a larger gas tank. 15.9 is not large enough given the rather poor mpg the Forester gets in city and highway driving. But compared to the large SUVs and many large sedans, the Forester is actually pretty good.

[zooma37]

Oh, and we have an automatic 03 Forester.

[BlueSoob]

and there you have it. Stop and go is hell for an automatic forester.. he cries when you have the a/c on. The first week I had my forester, we were driving down the freeway and turned on the A/C.. all of a sudden.... uuuuggggg....

Since, we have renamed the a/c, the snail button. Zippy, the wonder slug.

[cookie]

87 in my car and do not have any pinging. I have rather wondered if going to a higher octane would help my mileage. In theory it should not, but if my engine is retarding the timing a bit to compensate it might.

I know several of you folks have reported better mileage than I get, but I have been getting about what I expect with summer formulated fuel running AC on short trips in traffic.

My BMW does a bit better in spite of lots more HP because the car is so tiny.

If you live in an area with oxegenated fuel don't forget to take that into account.

[Guest lothar34]

Originally posted by BlueSoob

and there you have it. Stop and go is hell for an automatic forester.. he cries when you have the a/c on. The first week I had my forester, we were driving down the freeway and turned on the A/C.. all of a sudden.... uuuuggggg....

Since, we have renamed the a/c, the snail button. Zippy, the wonder slug.

 

Oh, it's not THAT bad. I had an '89 Sentra where you could either go, or run the A/C.

 

It's definitely noticable, but I wouldn't call it sluggish.

[forester2002s]

I have a 2002 Forester 5MT:

 

- Mixed highway/city I get about 11 L/100km (21.4 mpg).

 

- On long runs I get about 8 L/100km (29.5 mpg), or slightly better.

 

BTW, for those interested, the conversion factors are:

 

mpg (US) = 235.2 divided by L/100km

mpg (UK) = 282.5 divided by L/100km

[sprintman]

There a few easy ways to improve this

 

1) Use quality fuel (I use 98 RON) with a UCL of some kind and a fuel burn catalyst (I use FPC)

 

2) Put Nitrogen in the tyres and run at say 36 psi

 

3) Get a proper wheel alignment from a specialist, not a 'tyre dealer'

 

4) Replace the crap OEM oils in trans, diff and engine with a lower CF oil (I use RL and worth say 6% improvement)

 

5) Use a/c only when necessary

[CROSSTBOLT]

SPRINTMAN: What are all the abbreviations??

 

Our 2001 Forester did not do that well on gas. It had a 4 speed auto and, well, the distinctive shape of the Forester to push thru the air. I think they got the EPA stickers reversed for MT and AT.

[ksarkisian]

Ok here are more details. It's automatic and it's in Buffalo. I'm sure the A/C isn't on because it's 50 degree's out. She does have the auto climate on. She does mostly city driving. I guess I was surpised at this because my 2002 H6 Outback Sedan is getting close to 300 miles per tank. I go half and half in terms of city/highway. I guess I'll try the higher octane and talk to the dealer. I thought 165Hp wasn't bad though in terms of having the A/C on or not.

 

Kevin from Buffalo, NY:banghead:

[Sweet82]

There is a thread on Forester Mileage.

 

I was wondering about my mileage too. It seems as though your mileage is somwhat normal.

 

On a recent road trip I got 25.5 going and 21.5 coming back on a 600 mile trip.

 

I don't love the mileage but I love the car!:wave:

 

Enjoy it!

Glenn,

82 Hatch, ...well it used to be....:temper:

01 Forester, .....still is........

[sprintman]

UCL = upper cylinder lubricant. A must use with unleaded fuel.

 

FPC = Fule performance Catalyst

 

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacture

 

And I forgot to mention never buy fuel with Ethanol in it.

[subyroo]

Originally posted by forester2002s

I have a 2002 Forester 5MT:

 

- Mixed highway/city I get about 11 L/100km (21.4 mpg).

 

- On long runs I get about 8 L/100km (29.5 mpg), or slightly better.

 

BTW, for those interested, the conversion factors are:

 

mpg (US) = 235.2 divided by L/100km

mpg (UK) = 282.5 divided by L/100km

 

Try this link to do the above conversions for you:

http://www.tdiclub.com/misc/conversions.html

 

Following mpg etc have all been converted to US measurements:

I own an Aussie MY03 XS and I am getting 27.75 mpg on a round trip of 920 miles travelling at 75MPH with the A/C on the whole time and laden with 3 adults - suitcases etc on vacation.

 

I average 26.73mpg and for combined City & Hwy driving, and around the city I drive quite briskly fast t/o's & acceleration are fairly common as a lot of drivers don't respect the Forester down here, they call them a "soft roader" but a lot of the std cars cannot keep up with their speed away from the lights and I like showing them that ability. 5 - 6,000rpm in 1st is good at doing that too. :D :D

[cookie]

that Foresters have 2.5s down there too.

Over here in the US the fuel is quite different, even changes a lot from state to state or pollouted urban areas.

Here in the SF area we are currently still on the oxegenated fuel we get in the summer, just using the alst of it at the pumps I think.

This means that over the winter our mileage will pick up at bit, but I don't think we will reach the numbers you are seeing.

Out in the country here on good fuel folks are reporting better.

I am off to New Zealand tomeorrow and it will be interesting to see if the high octane fuel is still for sale there.

[subyroo]

These are the octane ratings for our BP fuel:

 

Lead Replacement Petrol 96 min - pre 1986 cars mainly

 

Unleaded Petrol 91 min - normal everyday use by most Oz cars

 

Premium Unleaded Petrol 95 min -

 

BP Ultimate 98 min - dearer fuel by up to 9 cents /L

 

BP Racing 100 110-115 (typical) - not available at the pump, only in drums.

 

I myself like to use the Shell Optimax as the Forester has better acceleration (seat of the pants stuff) and gets a little better mpg per tank.

[TechMarcom]

I just hit 20K miles on my 2004 Forester XS (with automatic trans). I have not checked mileage in a while, but when I was checking, I was getting about 24 mpg. It's mostly suburban driving, and some highway.

[subyroo]

I have switched over to BP Premium since my last post as I found it to be better in the long compared to Shell Optimax.

[wkoepp]

Our '04 is the same, I took off the roof bars, aired the tires up to 34 and turned the AC dial up from 65 to 75 so it doesn't run all of the time; haven't checked the milage since so I don't know what it is now. It's a great car, hope it lasts as long as my 220K mile toyota tercel did.

[subiefan]

87 in my car and do not have any pinging. I have rather wondered if going to a higher octane would help my mileage. In theory it should not, but if my engine is retarding the timing a bit to compensate it might...

 

I do not have a Forester, but in my 96 Impreza there is a fair increase in mpg when using 93 octane instead of 87.

[cookie]

to a diet of the good stuff. It might be like giving my cats canned cat food, kind of hard to go back and a lot more expensive.

I think I would have to have a few MPG increase to justify the expense of the higher priced fuel. In my BMW I have no choice but to support the oil companies, and hope I can give them a bit less in the Forester.

[bjwirth]

I do not have a Forester, but in my 96 Impreza there is a fair increase in mpg when using 93 octane instead of 87.

Really?? I'm a little skeptical. I'm not trying to sound advesarial here, it's just that I've heard stories that cars that only require 87 don't see any benefit (performance or fuel efficiancy) in using premium.

 

I've tried 89 octane gas for our forester and didn't notice any difference. I've also tried 87 octane for our bmw which specifies 91 octane, and there was no MPG penalty. (I did notice slightly sluggish performance when I tried to stomp on the pedal).

 

BTW, we recently hit 26 mpg on the forester on one of our legs of a recent trip (cruise set around 70, w/AC, 2 adults, 2 kids, and stuff). THis is a record!! (we never broke the elusive 25 mpg on our 00 forester) although recently our 50/50 hiway/city mix has been hovering about 20-22 despite winter being over. I guess its sad that I'm excited about getting 26 mpg which in all honesty is probably statistical outlier.