Major Trouble with comsumption. Please HELP (450)

[bigbossjecks]

Good day, i am a smart fortwo owner from the philippines. My smart car was imported from japan. It is the 3 cylinder, 599cc version, 2000 model.. It had 60k plus miles when i bought it. I am having a problem with its fuel consumption. It roughly goes 6 kilometers per liter! I have changed the filters, oil and spark plugs but i still have the same problem. the importer told me that the injectors could be the problem. Can you please help me? How many liters exactly is one full tank? and how much fuel do any of you think one dot in the fuel gauge represent? thanks in advance and hoping for your immediate replies..

[Padawan]

That's the equivalent of roughly 14 MPG, which I find very difficult to believe unless there is something incredibly wrong with the fuel system.

I think it's more likely that you are not calculating the fuel economy properly. To get a good indication you need to do the following:

- Fill up the car and record the mileage (or reset trip meter to 0)
- Drive car until empty
- Refuel (preferably at the same pump) and note amount of litres pumped
- Note the mileage on the trip meter
- Divide the number of kilometers travelled by the litres pumped
- Repeat this process several times and find the average

This site makes it really simple to track your fuel economy: http://www.fuelly.com

[lebikerboy]

The tank is only 22 litres. Here's another fuel economy monitoring site...
www.spiritmonitor.de/en/

[GHammerly]

Could have any of these problems.
-Damaged or plugged up catalytic converter.
-Bad oxygen sensor.
-Dirty fuel injectors.
-Ignition timing off
-Exhaust valve seals leaking oil causing carbon build up at exhaust ports.
-Extremely low compression (Worn rings or leaky valve seats)
-Running too rich for some reason. (ECU problem, exhaust restriction, O2 sensor, wrong fuel injectors, etc.)
-Some one siphoning fuel from your car

[bigbossjecks]

thanks for your replies sirs. I will advice the mechanic of your suggestions so that he may monitor and check them. keep your advices coming

[mark08859]

Keep us posted of your progress and/or discoveries.

[geosynch]

Unfortunately, Japan is kind of notorious for dumping its older cars on unsuspecting developing countries. In Japan, once a car gets to 60K km, it is scrutinized more frequently at license renewal time. Once certain problems develop, it is extremely difficult to get a car re-certified to drive on the road.

I've seen mini-buses that had a previous life picking toddlers up for day care, painted with cute little scenes and with markings from its home prefecture way out in the African bush. Or on some remote island in Tonga.

Good luck. The suggestions above or all good ones and the right places to start looking.

geosynch