Heeeyyyyy Mr. OPEC oil man can you help me and release about 80 billion gallons of oil.There's none left in North America,..well worth exploiting.Has anyone out there ever put an after market cat back and intake on their "car-child" and radically improved their gas mileage like say by 30%? I may be dreamin but I keep seeing the future gas prices and they make me think of Europe at about 6.00 bucks a gallon.Appeciate any helpful and intelligent feedback.

Check out a few topics below. There are quite a few that talk about cat back, performance, exhausts and fuel economy however, the general consensus on this board is that nothing (practical at least) will improve your gas mileage that much. Some have said that cat back and exhaust give you better mileage and others said that it has not done jack.

I have a Flowmaster 40 and K&N and it does nothing for me, I still get 16 mpg on the highway going 70 mph.

You are dreaming of a 30% increase, there's no such thing. We all just live with the mileage. Best way to improve you mileage, however, is to control your driving. If you are heavy footed then try not to be, drive as much as you can at around 45mph and you will be golden.

Redman - "...I keep seeing the future gas prices and they make me think of Europe at about 6.00 bucks a gallon." Remeber that most European cars also get about 3 times the gas mileage compared to the most fuel efficient cars in America. So gas prices aren't as much of an issue over there.

I thought that in Europe you bought gas by the Liter. @ $6 a liter it is going to be pretty pricey. Besides it's not like they can drive very far.
Good luck on the economy. Food for thought, I had an 87 Buick Le Sabre that was getting ~35 MPG after some minor cleaning of casting marks and port matching. Before that it only got about ~25 MPG. Damn thing was falling apart and had to get rid of it.
I'll be doing the same to my X after my warranty is up, but that's a ways off. I'll pay the extra in gas to stay under warranty until then.

I am just buying my 01 X, so I can't tell you what my mileage is. I can tell you that if I was too worried about gas, I wouldn't buy an SUV, lol. But, I'm with you guys, any way to get my dollar to go further at the pump and I'm all for it! I've ordered the K&N cold air intake for it and am trying to find good plugs and fuel filters. I also figure running Slick 50 or something through it regularly and changing the filter to keep the fuel system clean is about as much as I can do.

As for Europe, you're right. I'm living in Italy right now and I've got an Alfa Romeo that gets about 30 MPG. They pay about a Euro per liter here, so they are worse off than us! No wonder they all ride bikes!

Yeah - I just came from Italy a few months ago...the cars there make Mini Coopers look like limosines...you can put one hand on a head light, and the other on the tail light...the cars are that short....and narrow too...they can park like motorcycles, a few of them door to door facing the curb, all in one parking space.



I had to leave the X in the states...but parking it would have been a real challenge...on the plus side, all the traffic would have just bounced off going through the crazy traffic circles.

on the plus side, when you run out of gas you can just pick it up and carry it home. Do you have any idea how many people came out of work and would have sworn they left their car a half mile closer?

now that's comedy!

TJ, when I was in Paris last Fall, I saw one guy driving a Ferrari. He seemed lost and out of place, rambling down the narrow street at 2 mph, "keeping up w/ the flow of traffic". I almost felt sorry for him; all that power, and not a single chance in the world of being able to EVER hit the gas pedal! Poor guy's left foot (clutch) must've been killing him!

Well after living here in Italy for a few years I've learned why Lamborgini doors open up. They are as wide as a normal car. When they park in an Italian spot, they have no ROOM to open the door out.

I was getting 20-21 on the highway with a 2WD Xterra. Now I have my 4x4 and on the first tank I got 18.9 mpg calculated by hand. That is driving 70 on highway with about 50/50 highway/city driving.

I accelerate like i have a tack in my toe. I go easy on the acceleration. Biggest things that affect mileage are driving habit, tire pressure, wind/weather and terrain.

I put an intake and a cat back on and see very marginal gas mileage increases

Wel'p, I drove it like I own it for the last week and after adjusting my timing and having my stock tires on, I drove 229 Miles on 15.74 Gallons = ~14.6 MPG. $39.50 Fillup. Better but far from where I would like it.
Next I'm going to get the BR diag to hook up to my laptop and see if I can make some more adjustments to the timing and maybe run Mid grade fuel.

I just drove over 1000 miles on the freeway average speed about 78. Every time I filled up, i checked my mileage and was under 13 mpg each time. This drive was 500 miles one way and 500 back. I got the same mileage both ways(in other words, it wasn't all uphill or into the wind) I have been getting this type of mileage the past year or so. Before that, I never checked. Is there anything I can do or is this normal?

Chris

Kicker, stay under 3000 rpm and 70 mph. You should see a difference.

Live in a rural area, like me. Most of the roads that I travel have little or no stop signs or traffic signals. Speed limits generally range from 35 to 55, mostly the latter.

I average about 18-ish mpg all the time in my "city" driving. Highway is about the same. And I'm running an automatic with 32" tires at 35 psi and have a Shrock bumper and sliders.

would changing the gear ratio help and how expensive is it? I was thinking that if you were driving at a lower RPM it may help. Any thoughts?

Tire pressure is one factor that will affect mileage quite a bit. Just 2 lbs pressure low will start to affect mileage. I check my tires at least once a week when it is cold. I keep it at 35 lbs.

You do measure/buy gas by the liter. But when the guy above said $6 gas a gallon, he already converted it.

$6 a liter would be close to $24 a gallon.

Its around $6 a gallon.
And many people buy diesel cars there too. So you get a tiny car, with a small turbo diesel, get 50mpg while not being the weakest car ever seen.

Interesting test article in this month's Popular Science. They installed several of the various devices that claim to increase gas mileage. None of them did, most caused the test vehicles to get worse gas mileage and lower horsepower, to boot.

The worst offender in both categories? The tornado device you stick in the intake tube.

any aftermarket mod you put on your car; intake/exhaust is not going to improve mileage in town. the only people that gain are the ones who travel on the highway on a regular basis or take lots of road trips. i have had my x for almost three months and in town i get horrible gas mileage. but on the highway i get 19-20 mpg, which in my opinion is not that terrible of a thing. but i do alot of traveling in the fall and winter up the the mountains to go camping and was thinking about getting a intake and exhaust to see what gains i achieve.

It has been some months since I've been to this site. I see this conversation is still going on. I added the volant intake and Calmini exhaust to my X. Reset the computer. I may have boosted my MPG 1 mile, if that. I think it is a waste of money to try anything to give the X better mileage. Live with it or sell it. I think gas prices are going to keep rising. I don't have the 05 model, so I have this anemic V6 that gets bad mileage. I get just about as good mileage with my 96 Dodge full size pickup, V8, running the crap out of it. Oh well, live and learn.

Drive at 60 mph and you should see 20 mpg.

Drive faster and get less miles per gallon.

Your right foot controls your mpg.

I have an 05 and just drove 188 miles, all but about 15 highway and got 21 mpg. I have a 4x4. I drove 70 and left on the cruise control. I also had on headlights and A/C. The engines ECM will adapt optimal fuel for the conditions.

Bad news: With enough gas left that the "low fuel" light had just come on, it cost me $41.50 to fill up my X 4 days ago.

Good news: The needle hasn't even moved off of "Full."

Bad news: That's because we drove the X straight home and parked it in favor of my GF's Honda Accord, at least for errands and shorter trips.

Just a quick note on using the cruise control for mileage. If you live somewhere that's pretty flat, the CC will help give you better mileage. If you live somewhere that's more rolling terrain, it'll suck the gas outta the tank like you wouldn't believe.