Very Poor Fuel Economy After Recall
 

Back in October, the CA DMV forced me to have the valve work done on my car to issue a registration renewal. Nearly immediately after getting the car back, the engine would die if I made a quick stop at stoplight or stop sign.

Then I noticed my fuel economy had gone way down, from about 28mpg to 19 mpg city and 23 on the freeway.

I took the car in for service at the beginning of the pandemic, and when I noticed how poorly the dealership was taking steps to protect staff and customers, I inquired about bringing it later in the year. They told me I had until October for the warranty on the work.

So I'm scheduled to bring it in next week. Any ideas on what part of that recall work causes the engine to choke like that at stops and ruins the mpg?

Thanks for your help!

Does your car have any power mods?

AT or MT?

I'd suggest you ask them to re-flash the ECU.

Mine's an AT, Limited, no modifications. Yes, I was wondering about an ECU refresh. Thanks!

If you're concerned about covid and catching it, I'd recommend an n95 and frequently sanitizing your hands while you're at the dealership. You could wear gloves but keep them on only in the dealership, don't touch anything that's personal property (i.e phone, keys etc) and dispose of them when you leave the dealership. I'm not a fan of gloves for anything other than touching dirty surfaces and immediately disposing of right after. They don't make sense for the general populace.

Similarly, let the car bake in the sun with the windows up after they finish their work.

https://news.uga.edu/heat-key-killin...hSGJUWhvADzJAk

Your car will likely hit near 140-150f with the windows up in the California sun. You have little to worry about.

https://media.tenor.com/images/a12bf...dd1f/tenor.gif

Also wash your hands really well after urinating. There's no telling where that thing has been and who's been touching it also.

mines not detachable, so i know exactly where it's been, and who's been touching it.

:laughabove:

I took it home, washed it off and put it back on.

some of the 20-somethings at work had never heard that song before. their reaction after i told them that they had to hear 'this one song' was worth it.

Well, this went south fast.

????

Thank you for the precautions. I own a home health agency, so I really appreciate it when people understand what's necessary to protect others during this pandemic. Too many of my workers have gotten sick and too many elderly people I know have died.

OK, back to topic: Yesterday, in preparation for my trip to the dealer, I decided to do a deep clean of the interior, and disconnected the battery before unbolting the seat.

This morning as I was on my way to the dealership, I noticed the problem had miraculously (well maybe not so miraculously) corrected itself. Turns out all I ever needed to do was disconnect the battery, thus resetting the ECU...On the way into work (and the dealership) this morning, my fuel economy in combined freeway/street driving was 32.5 mpg. I haven't seen that number in nearly a year -- was lucky if I got 23 mpg on full freeway driving before yesterday's battery disconnect!

Boy, I've wasted a lot of money on gasoline this past year. I guess that's the only good thing about this lockdown -- I haven't been doing nearly as much driving.

I believe it wah Geroge Carlin who said if you need to wash your hands after touching your ****, you should wash your **** in the sink as well.

In the spirit of continued derailing of thread, my personal favorite George Carlin quote is “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

Glad it worked out for you. Stay safe.

Fortunately this virus isn't as deadly as we initially expected, however who's to say you don't have comorbidities and or live with elderly people etc. It's still 2-3x more deadly than a bad flu season, and we barely have the healthcare infrastructure to handle that. Fuck everyone else who says you are over reacting.