Tips on getting better fuel economy on a 2011 town car?

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Towncarguyxyz

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Due to some unforeseen events, my town car is the main “work” car and since where I live it’s 90% city you can imagine what’s been happening to my wallet when I drive about almost 400 miles a week! Now I’m a new town car owner, cant complain its comfortable, looks wonderful and I love it but everywhere online it’s suggested that the town car gets 15MPG in the city. But what I’m seeing, is more like 11.5MPG. What gives? I’m 24 but believe me when I tell you I have been driving it like an old man, no wild accelerations, no sudden braking, rpm doesn’t dare go over 2000, and yet I’m getting worse fuel economy than I researched about.

My main question is, if I replace the spark plugs will the MPG rise atleast to 15MPG? Considering ofc that my tires are brand new and good to go. Due to work I’m forced to drive in the city 90% of the time, I usually have a Camry for that and I’m not expecting Camry level fuel economy but I hate having to Start my mornings in a gas station only to be back there before going home.


Btw, I am going to replace the air filter aswell. Also would the replacing of the fuel injector with the spark plugs be even better? Is what I’m suggesting a reality? To go from 11.5 MPG to at least 15MPG


I’d like to thank all of you for reading this ebook, I would really appreciate any replies, I am not a car guy and I often have no idea what would work and what wouldnt so any help is awesome. Thankyou

(oh and another thing, I got the car basically a week ago. So I can’t really compare what it was like back whenever)
 
There's certainly something wrong, I don't baby mine toooo much, part of it knowing when to use the power it makes the most, what gear, when it shifts, etc, etc. I poke around town sure but I'm not crawling. There is certainly something amiss with your setup.
 
jylincoln said:
My 1998 gets awesome mileage since it had a full tune up. I would say probably comparable with lots of smaller cars.
Of course in heavy city traffic it's not that great but the same goes for any car. But on the expressway it's pretty awesome (I've seen the gauge say 40+ MPG when just letting it glide).

I wish it were this economical with motor oil.
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Well, that’s more or less what I’m expecting from doing a full tune up on my car. I’ve taken it out on the highway a few times and I can really tell the difference. I’m just on a quest to get to the average MPG of TCs 😂
 
wolf_walker said:
There's certainly something wrong, I don't baby mine toooo much, part of it knowing when to use the power it makes the most, what gear, when it shifts, etc, etc. I poke around town sure but I'm not crawling. There is certainly something amiss with your setup.
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100%, what I’m doing is definitely not normal. There’s only so much I can do when it comes to driving style. I’m basically Driving like an old man. I don’t baby cars, once I’m back to using the Camry, I’ll give it a decent power on the road. I figure if a 98 is getting upto 400 miles to the tank, there’s definitely something I can do mechanically to gain some MPGs.

Short side note, let me tell you how obsessed I am with this car, even with a whole days driving I still can’t get enough. Oh the things we drive for a few MPGs. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten interested in cars, we’ve always had either a Corolla, Camry or something along those lines, I’ve never thought much of them Haha now I’m ordering tools to work on my car myself because I want to get to know her more 😂😂🤣. Being 24, basically all my friends started out by calling it grandpas car. Now they’re texting me about road trips with the Lincoln because it was ”soo comfortable” 😂
 
Towncarguyxyz said:
Thank you for the reply, I’m very tempted to try these, although I have no idea what any of that means haha. I will YouTube and google them to get a better understanding. What about the spark plug way? I mean if your Way is cheaper by all means will I do it, but I don’t mind spending money on spark plugs and possible a fuel injector. I’ve bought the car used with 95K miles on it and I have to do these replacements eventually, my question is will they have a significant impact?
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Spark plugs come in alot of different styles that claim alot. I use Motorcraft plugs, filters etc or approved products thats equal or better. If your plugs look bad or are very old yes it will help, but your not gonna put e3 plugs in and get 40mpgs. Fuel injectors in most cases are meant to last the life of a motor. Thing is what is the life of a motor. 100k, 300k, 500k? So if you want to spend the time and money by all means put new plugs, coils, injectors and it will run as good as can be. An engine is a big air pump like I said. They make cars to be reliable and last long time. You can do alot to get it to run as most efficient as possible with alot of things some cheap some not so cheap. I usually try to get a better airflow in and out that helps alot. Anything past that is only gonna help. But if you want a race car, get one, if you want a 50mpg car get a smart car or something small with few cylinders. You can get it breathing better and tuned up and have a shop give you a tune that makes the most of the free flowing exhaust, and all the mods to give you the most out of your improvements. I usually get with 93 gas around 16-18mpg city and around 24-28 or better highway keeping cruise on and not being in a hurry. Best thing is to do some research online to find what works best for you and what you can do yourself to learn how to work on autos and to have a better idea about my opinions and others. Have fun with it and you'll be surprised what you can do with a lil knowledge and some tools!! It's a good felling knowing you can make your auto run great and fix yourself let alone save that money for things you enjoy in life.
 
Towncarguyxyz said:
@wolf_walker okay, see. I see you guys saying that about your cars but it’s just not making sense here, there are no check engine lights or anything. As I stated, I have turned to almost city driving exclusively and the type of traffic I get are somewhat hectic but not that bad. Im really not a fast race car type of a driver in my Lincoln, I drive it very calmly because that’s actually the main reason this car has a place in my garage.

I have Noticed that the MPG meter goes WAY down if I’m idling or moving very slow, not a rough idle by any means but one time it went to 2MPG.
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Gonna suck in bad traffic but driving at lower speeds I never get that low mpg. If you have an issue you'll get a light pop on most of the time. I've seen a bad plug or coil not pop a light until it was about done dead and not firing at all but most lights or cars thats the issue the light will flash saying hey bud, I'm running on less than 8 cylinders now stop before I detonate and blow up. On V8 cars less cylinders it's more pronounced that you got a bad plug or cop or whatever. Look up reading plugs or in a manual. Too much info to list here but it can tell you a good bit just looking at the plugs. Do it while cold and don't overtighen. I'm sure most ppl on here will have about the same mpg in most cases. Mileage will differ and how well engine and driveline is maintained but mostly around same numbers on mpg. If you sit at a idle it will go down to nothing eventually no matter what cause you're sitting. There's a few posts that talk about mpg and most are close to one another. Do a tune up and see what happens. Cheap and easy way to make sure alls well with plugs, coils, filters etc. If it's still terrible than something in the fuel system is going bad. Alot of times electronics as in 02 sensors, plugs, coils start with a lil miss here and there, light pop on then off,, then more of a miss in a certain range of rpm then it will not fire most of time and light will pop then flash. I've seen this hundreds of times. If not thousands. But sometimes a coil, etc will just die. But usually it'll start like I said here and there. If that's the issue. But follow the advice of doing a complete tune up of everything. Plugs, coils, fuel filter etc. If you still got low mpg then time to start looking deeper at things. A complete tune up is a project that's good for you to gets your cherry popped on mechanic's.
 
My observation has been that some cars just get better mpg than others, while I don't think it's the case with the OP since it's so extreme, I do believe it to be so. We see the same thing dyno'ing cars for power.
 
Babyburr said:
Have a 2005 and I’m getting around 22 mpg. That’s driving 75 plus on D/FW freeways. I don’t drive crazy, but ya have to drive that fast or get run over!
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Like driving in Pittsburg Pa. If there's a 17 foot space between my bumper and auto I'm following, at 65mph, a 16 foot 8 inch car will take that space with no turnsignals or horn or anything staring down at their phone then flip me off. Wtf? When I went to Chicago I wanted to go on the sears tower tour cause I'm a county boy who's heard about the fastest elevator and tall buildings. I went to cross the street and it was like playing frogger in real life. I think it was 3 lanes each way, maybe 4. Been 22 years now. I realized in 1999 at 19 why ppl get ran over and how dangerous every day life can be just crossing the street. That was before cell phones. I can only imagine now how it is. That's not bad at 75mph. Most of us get around the same. There's just alot of factors that come in to play when figuring out gas mileage. Where you live, hills or flat, speed limit, traffic, type of gas, type of gears, what transmission, exhaust etc. But we drive American V8s so anything above around 18 is good imo.
 
I got 16 this last tank, all city, lots of aggressive throttle and I bet a good three hours of idle time waiting for the ole lady to finish Dr appointments, and it's been well into the 90's the last week or so.
Worst tank I've ever had.
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@wolf_walker let’s hope my worst tank is 16MPG too one day 😂 , and I do agree cars are a little better or worse but as you said mine is just too much of difference for it to be out of factory.

@Jaskim06 thankyou for the info, Ive got some time off work that I plan to take for a little staycation and to get started on a full tune up of my car. Ive Been reading up a lot on mechanics and whatnot, trying to get those little details you can only get from experience, wish me luck. What a fantastic car, you’d think I bought a Ferrari or something Hahaha

@oktowncar All those are on my to do list, I’ll hopefully get the best out my car.

@Babyburr I usually drive 75 too on expressways, where I live it’s a my car is bigger so I deserve the road type of thing. I wonder, does that mean I own the road?
 
Towncarguyxyz said:
@wolf_walker let’s hope my worst tank is 16MPG too one day 😂 , and I do agree cars are a little better or worse but as you said mine is just too much of difference for it to be out of factory.

@Jaskim06 thankyou for the info, Ive got some time off work that I plan to take for a little staycation and to get started on a full tune up of my car. Ive Been reading up a lot on mechanics and whatnot, trying to get those little details you can only get from experience, wish me luck. What a fantastic car, you’d think I bought a Ferrari or something Hahaha

@oktowncar All those are on my to do list, I’ll hopefully get the best out my car.

@Babyburr I usually drive 75 too on expressways, where I live it’s a my car is bigger so I deserve the road type of thing. I wonder, does that mean I own the road?
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Yes, LTCs own the road! 😂😂
 
Towncarguyxyz said:
@wolf_walker let’s hope my worst tank is 16MPG too one day 😂 , and I do agree cars are a little better or worse but as you said mine is just too much of difference for it to be out of factory.

@Jaskim06 thankyou for the info, Ive got some time off work that I plan to take for a little staycation and to get started on a full tune up of my car. Ive Been reading up a lot on mechanics and whatnot, trying to get those little details you can only get from experience, wish me luck. What a fantastic car, you’d think I bought a Ferrari or something Hahaha

@oktowncar All those are on my to do list, I’ll hopefully get the best out my car.

@Babyburr I usually drive 75 too on expressways, where I live it’s a my car is bigger so I deserve the road type of thing. I wonder, does that mean I own the road?
Click to expand...
The other factor involved in my mileage is that I have very little in-town driving.
I live out in the Country. 12 miles for me to go get groceries/gas and if I need to shop well, that's a minimum of 50 miles away
 
Jaskim06 said:
Like driving in Pittsburg Pa. If there's a 17 foot space between my bumper and auto I'm following, at 65mph, a 16 foot 8 inch car will take that space with no turnsignals or horn or anything staring down at their phone then flip me off. Wtf? When I went to Chicago I wanted to go on the sears tower tour cause I'm a county boy who's heard about the fastest elevator and tall buildings. I went to cross the street and it was like playing frogger in real life. I think it was 3 lanes each way, maybe 4. Been 22 years now. I realized in 1999 at 19 why ppl get ran over and how dangerous every day life can be just crossing the street. That was before cell phones. I can only imagine now how it is. That's not bad at 75mph. Most of us get around the same. There's just alot of factors that come in to play when figuring out gas mileage. Where you live, hills or flat, speed limit, traffic, type of gas, type of gears, what transmission, exhaust etc. But we drive American V8s so anything above around 18 is good imo.
Click to expand...
If you really want to take your life in your own hands, try getting on the Fort Pitt bridge from the North Side to 376W, but on a Harley Davidson Ultra Classic, there is no humanity for any on ramps in Pittsburgh for sure !!!
 
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