Fuel Economy and AC odor

[06VIBE]

Our brand new 2006 Vibe (FWD Automatic, purchased on 5/29/2006, only 1570 miles so far) would only get 270 miles on a full tank of gas (fill up the tank at E every time, write trip miles on the reciept, and then reset trip odometer, it has been 270 miles on 11.3 gallon). Took the Vibe all the way back to the dealer this morning and the dealer said nothing is wrong (they said 24 mpg is "good"). Does anyone have the same gas mileage?Also, we've noticed this stincky (like a stinky piece of rag) odor coming from the vent. Is this standard because it's been a hot summer?I'm very frustrated with these issues right now becuase this is our first brand new car and our previous used Saturn was running fine and we just thought the Vibe could give better gas ...... who knows what's gonna happen next. Should I get rid of this Vibe now? Any thoughts?

[northvibe]

your under warranty so if theres something that needs to get fixed it shouldnt be a issue.Now what kind of odor? I mean on some 03/04 there were rotten egg smells and that was the cat. converter causing that. There also might be a weird new plastic smell as the car settles in.As for mileage there is the break in period i think people say 5000 miles or so before you start seeing good mileage. Keep the car under 3k rpms through all gears and your mileage should be good. Is ths vibe a base or base AWD? those each get different mileages. Oh and welcome!

[06VIBE]

thanks for the suggestionthe odor is sort of rotten egg (especially strong if rained)its a base model

[GMJAP]

You should not be getting any odor out of the AC. Secondly, 260 miles on a full tank is terrible!

[JohnC]

Usually you can prevent the ac odor by turning off the ac several minutes from home and running the vent fan on high on outside air. This will dry out the evaporator coil that is located in the dash, thus preventing the mold and mildew from growing. If it is still dripping condensate under the car when you get out you didn't dry it out long enough.Are you checking your mileage carefully? Don't just go by the fuel gauge, reset the trip meter after a fillup and refill at the same pump using the same technique. My 04 gets 25 around town, 30 @ 75mph and 36 if I baby it and don't go over 60 mph.Hope some of this info helps.

[northvibe]

I should seriously drive a tank of gas and try to get the best mpg, because i drive my car HARD all the time and get 28mpg.The rotten egg smell sounds like maybe its the cat. converter? and the mileage would suffer from a bad cat.

[GMJAP]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »I should seriously drive a tank of gas and try to get the best mpg, because i drive my car HARD all the time and get 28mpg.The rotten egg smell sounds like maybe its the cat. converter? and the mileage would suffer from a bad cat.Good point. If you still smell eggs when you get out of the vehicle right after parking, it's likely a cat problem.If you put the AC on "Recirc" and the smell mostly goes away, then it's likely not the AC itself.

[binary]

My '05 still has the whiff of rotten eggs in the air when I stop - and it's just rolled 30k. Excessive smells can be a good indication of bad gas, an unhappy cat, or just a break in smell.Your mileage is pathetic though, I wouldn't fret much yet... start documenting your gas mileage carefully*. If it doesn't improve in the three or four tanks - you may want to check with your dealer. Although your car has probably not even calibrated itself yet. The ECM will learn the engine over a period of driving and fine tune fuel, spark, shift, and many other settings to find the best settings.I noticed you live in Chicago - are you in traffic patterns that would cause poor milage? High speed stop and go type stuff?when you start rolling past 75mph - your mileage will drop considerably... so beware of where that tach is. When you live about 3k rpms... your engine is feasting on your gas tank.*The easiest way to document your milage without spending time at the gas station writting in a book - fill your tank every time, write your trip miles on the reciept, and then reset your trip odometer. Later, when you're home or at work - drop those numbers in a spreadsheet and maintain it on every fill up.

[BlueCrush]

A bad Cat will smell like that and kill your MPG's. I'd get it replaced by the dealer under warranty.Also, your mileage will get better as you drive more for the first 5000 miles or so.

[06VIBE]

thanks for all your commentstook the vibe to the dealer this morning but didn't get a very good response (was told upfront that probably won't find anything)the dealer just called and said nothing was found and the cat is finethey just ran an "ac disinfection" and hoping the smell will go away~~again, frustratedas far as calculating mileage, it has been my habit for years: fill up the tank at E (or warning light came up) every time, write trip miles on the reciept, and then reset trip odometerhasn't had heavy driving so cann't figure out what is going on but will keep in mind all of your commentsso far about 11.4 gallons for 276 miles and the dealer said this 24 mpg is considered "good" (whatever)maybe just bad luck??by the time the car gets more than 3000 miles it will be cold winter and will never get good mileagebought the car with the hope for good gas mileage and can't see where it went wrongfeel like driving a piece of junk (smells unpleasant and bad gas mile,) previous 9-year-old saturn was way much better......

[06VIBE]

the dealer said they ran the test and cat is good and nothing is wrongonly thing they can do is to run an 'AC disinfection' and hopefully that will handle the bad smellnot a heavy driver anyway so don't know what to improve in terms of driving stylemaybe should have chosen a matrix instead of this vibe??

[NUBlackshirts]

I get about 26 MPG consistently in my GT around town and by the time I fill up I'm only around 260-275 miles or so. Seems like I end up putting a bit over 10 gallons in it at fill up which would make sense.

[06VIBE]

mine is just basic 2006 Vibe FWD automatic, we weren't expecting to get 24~25 mpg AT ALL!! and can't imagine when winter comes how bad the mileage will become.anyone with the same model has the same kind of bad gas mileage?what else can i ask the dealer to check while the car is still in the shop today?

[umbriago]

I haven't, I am consistantly getting 30 in the city and 35-ish on the highway. That said...I keep getting a strange film on the inside of my windshield. I have to wipe it with Windex about every two weeks. I run the A/C, sure, but not on defrost. It's weird. I don't smoke, and I brush my teeth, so it's not that.

[northvibe]

06vibe - see if that disinfectant helped, but is there a different pontiac dealer around? if they say they wont find anything before they even look at the car, i wonder if they even did anything in the first place, they sound like jerks. The dealer here in duluth was great and very helpful, I told them the problems, the tsb's and they documented them and they were checked out. If you think their service is crap call the regional manager and talk to him, becuase your car is not supposed to be like that. the trix and vibe are the same, same problems, same everything except dealer. so if the toyota dealer is super awesome thats the only reason i see in getting the trix over the vibe. Just because the dealer is a (removed) head doesnt mean the vibe is bad, im sorry for your trouble your having though, sucks when you have a brand new car.umbriago - its something with new windows. its like some chemical that causes the film, theres a way to get it off but im blanking....someone might post up

[GMJAP]

Quote, originally posted by 06VIBE »mine is just basic 2006 Vibe FWD automatic, we weren't expecting to get 24~25 mpg AT ALL!! and can't imagine when winter comes how bad the mileage will become.anyone with the same model has the same kind of bad gas mileage?what else can i ask the dealer to check while the car is still in the shop today?I'm getting 33mpg running the AC all the time this summer with my base manual. My parents base Auto gets 29-30. "24 is good" my (removed).I mean, the auto EPA numbers are 29/34. Getting nearly 20% below EPA "city"? That ain't right.Blows to have the feeling your "new" car is a POS. I'd call Pontiac and go to the dealer and tell them you expect a new car not to have AC odors and to at least come close to published mileage estimates. If they can't fix this car, then they need to replace it with one that doesn't smell and gets published mileage.

[GMJAP]

Quote, originally posted by umbriago »I haven't, I am consistantly getting 30 in the city and 35-ish on the highway. That said...I keep getting a strange film on the inside of my windshield. I have to wipe it with Windex about every two weeks. I run the A/C, sure, but not on defrost. It's weird. I don't smoke, and I brush my teeth, so it's not that. This is off-gassing from the new plastics, esp the dash. It'll get better over time (new in summer is really bad), in the meantime you'll just have to keep cleaning it off.

[NUBlackshirts]

Quote, originally posted by umbriago »I haven't, I am consistantly getting 30 in the city and 35-ish on the highway. That said...I keep getting a strange film on the inside of my windshield. I have to wipe it with Windex about every two weeks. I run the A/C, sure, but not on defrost. It's weird. I don't smoke, and I brush my teeth, so it's not that. By any chance do you use any sort of protectant on the dash? They can cause a film on the windshield when they get warm.

[northvibe]

oh yeah gmjap had a good point of saying for them to replace the car since its not supposed to. make sure that the tech or someone gets in the car with you and you show them the smell, then say okay if its supposed to do that lets sit in another new vibe and see how it doesnst smell?! and for sure call or get ahold of a higher up manager to talk to.

[NUBlackshirts]

BTW, here's the link to the discussion of the "rotten egg" smell from the catalytic converters...http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=20143

[kcorona]

re: mileage, your Vibe may just still be breaking in. I've tracked mileage on mine since new. Steady increase in avg. mpg from 24.96 @ 307 miles to 30.14 @ 4733 miles, mostly city driving. 24 mpg is not good for the Vibe, but yours may get better with more miles.Also have you checked to make sure your tires are properly inflated?

[JohnC]

Just a couple comments on this thread...there was no mention of "rotten egg smell", it is pretty apparent that the cause of the smell was/is the ac evaporator, not a cat problem. the dealer also diagnosed the same thing. this is not a big problem, it is common on all ac equiped cars. just dry it out before shutting off your car.second; 06vibe has never stated what type of driving he/she is doing while getting the "poor" mileage. mid 20s is normal for stop and go city driving, you won't find many non-hybrid cars that will do any better. here is an EPA site that collects real world mpg numbers...check it out for yourself.https://www.fueleconomy.gov/mp...eList

[GMJAP]

Quote, originally posted by JohnC »Just a couple comments on this thread...there was no mention of "rotten egg smell", it is pretty apparent that the cause of the smell was/is the ac evaporator, not a cat problem. the dealer also diagnosed the same thing. this is not a big problem, it is common on all ac equiped cars. just dry it out before shutting off your car.second; 06vibe has never stated what type of driving he/she is doing while getting the "poor" mileage. mid 20s is normal for stop and go city driving, you won't find many non-hybrid cars that will do any better. here is an EPA site that collects real world mpg numbers...check it out for yourself.https://www.fueleconomy.gov/mp...eListQuote, originally posted by 06VIBE »thanks for the suggestionthe odor is sort of rotten egg (especially strong if rained)its a base modelUnderline is mine

[kcorona]

Quote, originally posted by JohnC » 06vibe has never stated what type of driving he/she is doing while getting the "poor" mileage. mid 20s is normal for stop and go city driving, you won't find many non-hybrid cars that will do any better. here is an EPA site that collects real world mpg numbers...check it out for yourself.https://www.fueleconomy.gov/mp...eListInteresting site, though something seems hinky with their software as there are multiple links for ostensibly the same cars don't know if I'd call 24 'normal' for stop n go, but agree driving style and tire pressure, in that order, are the two biggest factors that affect MPG. Seems like 24 is low compared to what most genvibers get...

[JohnC]

My appolagies GMJAP and others, I did not noticed the reference to the rotten egg smell.

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by 06VIBE »maybe should have chosen a matrix instead of this vibe??and that would have acheived what?

[NUBlackshirts]

Quote, originally posted by JohnC »My appolagies GMJAP and others, I did not noticed the reference to the rotten egg smell. It wasn't in the top post, so it was easy to miss. No hard feelings.I think most of us jumped on the cat idea due to the poor gas mileage combined with the smell....could be totally unrelated though. I know the AC in my wife's Sunfire starts to stink if she leaves it in recirc mode constantly. She has since started to run the AC on fresh air more often. I would describe the smell as something like stagnant water.

[VibeoFive]

My wifes '05 AWD Automatic Vibe gets 30MPG no matter what (during the summer).I have personally filled the tank with 12.2 gallons more than once(how did I make it to the station?) We also get that nasty damp-oil smell from the vents when the A/C is switched off. Seems to be getting less noticable as time goes on (oily from assembly line?)

[ke4yyd]

06Vibe, Your gas MPG is unaceptable. I have a gas milage thread where I have reported since day one and my lowest mpg was 31. You have a crappy dealer if he says 24 mpg is good. I bet the salesman did not say that before the sale.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=23819

[engineertwin2]

Just because they didn't find anything, doesn't mean they didn't look.The method for checking a catalytic converter is to measure and compare the two O2 sensor outputs...if the second O2 sensor agrees with the first, and the vehicle goes into a closed loop condition, they can't claim that there is a problem with the catalytic converter...all it takes is an OBDII scanner to check and about 15 mins...but this doesn't imply they did nothing to check.As for improving mileage, do you have a lot of stuff in the vehicle (trunk maybe)? Weight greatly affects mileage. So too does low air in the tires. Check the air intake filter to see if it needs to be replaced (could be clogged). Try turning down/off the AC. You can check to make sure the belt is properly tensioned, although belt tension usually results in a "drag" feeling (loss of power), but you could be compensating by applying more throttle...

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »and that would have acheived what? Well, I guess Matrix is better than the Vibe because it's a Toyota! --anywho-- 06vibe: for the A/C funk, now that the dealer has defunkified the system, you should try to do what JohnC suggests... Everyone should! I've had some seriously skanky A/C systems in my cars caused by this crap! Only running in recirculate when absolutely necessary helps significantly - after the car has cooled, switch to fresh air mode. Then, several minutes before you arrive at your destination, if you've had the A/C on (this also goes for either one of the two defrost positions regardless of A/C switch position) you need to switch off defrost if you are on it, or switch off the a/c and run the fan on high. I've been doing this with the new car since I drove it off the lot, after 8,000 miles the air still smells fine. I DIDN'T do that with the Vibe when it was new though, and by this mileage, I had already resorted to spraying crap down the vents in an attempt to make it smell better. Get that water outta there! Don't let it get an opportunity to become stagnant as your car is parked. It can make for an uncomfortable last few minutes of your drive, but it is so worth it..

[kazo123]

I just bought a New 06 Vibe FWD, MANUAL. Not even a 1K miles yet, I just checked the mileage on the last fillup. Sorry for this, I was disappointed with 28/mile. I drive probably too fast on the NJ Parkway and usually do 70 to 80 miles per hour and a lot of mixed driving, stop and go, etc. I wanted to see if it improves after I break in the car some. One of the main reasons for purchasing this vehicle was for the excellent gas mileage. If you look at the car magazines reviews, most of the cars don't get near the listed ratings. The ratings are for perfect driving conditions and probably no more than 60 or 65 miles per hour. My friend had a MANUAL Vibe and he was getting 34/miles highway miles, 70 miles per hour.I also have new Honda Accord 04 MANUAL 4cyc and it doesn't get near the execellent ratings listed for the car, especially in mixed driving. Jeff

[ZubenElGenubi]

Quote, originally posted by kazo123 »I just bought a New 06 Vibe FWD, MANUAL. Not even a 1K miles yet, I just checked the mileage on the last fillup. Sorry for this, I was disappointed with 28/mile. Jeff FoA, Welcome to GenVibe, Jeff. Hope we can answer most of your questions here.You're definitely still in the break in period, so don't sweat it. My MPG performance didn't improve until about 3,000, but got considerably better after 9,000 when I made improvements to my driving habits. I'm sure you'll see 30+ soon. It is interesting that you're seeing similarly poor results with your Honda. You may need to review your driving habits as well and see if you can improve your fuel efficiency as well.Back OT: the smell I sometimes notice is when I have the A/C OFF but fan ON and recirculate ON. After about 5 minutes, I'll get that "dirty laundry water" smell. Goes away quickly with A/C ON or recirculate OFF.

[vibebob]

I've heard spraying Lysol into the AC intake vent helps with the funk odor ... but .... the most effective method is a mentioned, turn the AC off and to vent at high speed for the last 3-5 minutes and that'll dry out the system and almost eliminate the funk smell.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by vibebob »I've heard spraying Lysol into the AC intake vent helps with the funk odor ... but I have small "how-to" here: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=19575That seemed to have helped... It sucks though, if you're A/C system has had too much funk growing in it. The longer you leave it, the worse it gets to resolve.Quote ».... the most effective method is a mentioned, turn the AC off and to vent at high speed for the last 3-5 minutes and that'll dry out the system and almost eliminate the funk smell.Bingo. It makes the last few miles of the drive miserable, but it REALLY helps! Everyone should do that.