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Kia Sedona Gas Mileage

161 messages,  Last post on Apr 15, 2011 at 9:01 AM

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What is this discussion about? Kia Sedona, Van

Messages Page 14 of 17

#122 of 161 07 Sedona with terrible mileage by gcuff

Jan 22, 2008 (5:35 am)

just bought an 07 Sedona and have put just over 700 miles on it. All city driving. I first got 12 mpg, then 10, and now 9.5 mpg on my last fill-up. My previous call to the salesperson and visit to the service manager concluded with nothing wrong with the car. What do I do now??

#123 of 161 Re: 07 Sedona with terrible mileage [gcuff] by jim314

Jan 22, 2008 (6:19 am)

Replying to: gcuff (Jan 22, 2008 5:35 am)
Very disappointing, and will cause you some trouble to get to the bottom of the matter, but I think you can.
 
If you are sure it is not your driving based upon your experience with other vehicles driven the same way on the same routes, then you could go to the dealer and insist that they put it on their diagnostic computer. But remember that this is an approximately 4400-lb (?) vehicle with a 240 hp gasoline engine. It is a little silly to call these vehicles minivans. Short trips in winter, in stop and go traffic, heavily loaded, are each and together going to be mpg killers. If you have the heater in the windshield defrost mode the a/c compressor will be on (to defog the inside of the windows), unless the ambient outside temperature is extremely low. But this comment is not a suggestion that you drive with a fogged up windshield to keep the a/c compressor off!
 
But you may have to do some experimentation and record keeping to persuade the dealer that there really is a problem. If it has a trip computer which shows instantaneous, and average mpg, then your job will be a little easier.
 
First check the tire pressures and see that they are at the specificed pressure on the vehicle sticker (not the max inflation pressure on the side walls of the tires). What is the outside temperature where the van is being used? Is the engine warming up properly as evidenced by good heat inside the vehicle and the engine temp gauge?
 
You want to establish that the poor mpg is not your driving habits. I believe that one could possibly get such poor mpg in a properly functioning van if one drove short trips, drove the van "agressively" , i.e. with high acceleration and heavy braking in city streets. Take the van out on the highway and drive with minimal braking and not exceeding 60 (or at most 65 mph) and see what the mpg is. If you don't have a trip computer, you'll have to fill-up, drive 100 miles, fill-up, and calculate the mpg.
 
If you have a trip computer, then get the vehicle up to 60 mph in a fairly level area where you can keep the speed constant without braking, reset the average mpg function mpg and drive for a mile or a few miles for the average mpg to stabilize. Record the value. Repeat at 65 mph, 70 mph, 55 mph and record all the values. How do these values compare to the EPA highway estimate for this vehicle?

#124 of 161 Re: 07 Sedona with terrible mileage [gcuff] by lavrishevo

Jan 22, 2008 (6:46 am)

Replying to: gcuff (Jan 22, 2008 5:35 am)
Don't worry everyone is pretty much in that same boat when the van is new. You will get the advertised city mileage when the motor has about 6,000 miles and you drive pretty conservative. Try to keep the rpm's under 2400 for good MPG. The mileage will get better with some miles on the van.

#125 of 161 Re: 07 Sedona with terrible mileage [lavrishevo] by mickeyrom

Jan 22, 2008 (7:45 am)

Replying to: lavrishevo (Jan 22, 2008 6:46 am)
NOBODY will get EPA milage in the city,not on short trips.You probably will match the highway mileage as long as you drive the speed limits.Heck on really short trips,less than 2 miles,even my 4 cyl Optima gets less than 15 MPG.

#126 of 161 2002 Sedona gas mileage by rusdorf

Mar 14, 2008 (5:31 pm)

I live in the hills north of San Francisco and have found these gas mileage messages very interesting. My 2002 Sedona used to get about 15 mpg city driving, but recently dropped to 13.6 on average. I have almost 51,000 miles. I removed the rear seats long ago and use the car for my handyman work. The tools and supplies I carry weigh less than the four seats.
 
I recently had the spark plugs and the timing belt replaced. New tires (2nd set). The car has been thoroughly checked by qualified mechanics who report nothing wrong with it.Now that the average price of gas here is nearing $3.75 a gallon, can anyone direct me to the top 10 recommendations on improving the gas mileage?

#127 of 161 Re: 2002 Sedona gas mileage [rusdorf] by lavrishevo

Mar 20, 2008 (7:50 am)

Replying to: rusdorf (Mar 14, 2008 5:31 pm)
Spark plugs are the most important. Did you use a high end platinum plug?
 
You should also do your fuel filter and run a few bottles of Lucas Oil fuel injector and top end cleaner.
 
K&N Washable air filter is a great addition.
 
About all I can think of, might want to run your tires a little above 35, maybe about 37 or 38 and you could see a little better MPG though a bit harder of a ride.

#128 of 161 2006 mileage by hersbird

Mar 21, 2008 (9:58 pm)

We bought a used 2006 Kia LX with 18,000 miles. It now has 20,000 miles and is really only driven around town, stop and go, short trips. We usually get 15mpg but that's over a cold icy winter with studded snow tires and long, idle, warm ups. I'm pretty happy so far. Now I got regular tires on and am leaving for a trip to Seattle and back next week. I'll keep the gas receipts and mileage and see how it does. Our well broken in 2000 Dodge 3.8L Grand Caravan with AWD would get 24 mpg on the Seattle trip so I'm hoping to match or beat that.
 
I'd say if your getting much less then 15mpg there is something out of whack. DO you calculate the mileage? Does the odometer seem accurate? Maybe the tire size got programmed wrong and you are actually driving more miles then it's reading out. Our 99 Suburban was that way even thought the speedometer read correctly the odometer was about 10-15% lower then what the mile markers indicated. In other words after going about 9 miles only 8 showed up on the odometer. I figured after 100,000 miles that would actually increase resale a few hundred dollars so I lived with it!
 
Maybe and independent shop could do a few checks on the air to fuel ratio to see if it's running to much fuel. Also try a coast down test to see if something is dragging like the transmission or a brake. Get it up to 60 and let off the gas and see how fast it loses speed on a flat road. Then try it from 60mph and shift it to neutral and see if its much better at rolling. If all that seems good then it could also be a really loose/slipping transmission or torque converter. In which case it will surely fail long before the warranty expires if that's any consolidation! LOL!

#129 of 161 highway mileage by hersbird

Apr 01, 2008 (9:06 pm)

Just an update, we got an average of 22.5 mpg (by calculation) over a 1000 mile average on the highway to and from Seattle. Conditions were not ideal, we had a pretty full load, and I drove 70-80 mph the whole way. Still that's not as good as what we got with our old 2000 AWD Grand Caravan but it's close and the Kia has way more power. Hopefully with some more miles on the Kia it will loosen up like the Dodge did after it got more mile on it. The Dodge picked up about 2 mpg over it's life especially right around the 40,000-100,000 mile range.

#130 of 161 Re: Kia Sedona MPG - Real World Numbers [claires] by ptink

Apr 08, 2008 (10:51 am)

Replying to: claires (Jul 04, 2006 10:10 pm)
my milage sucks i was driving a pt cur for 5 years great milage i got the 2005 sedona in march and it is twice what i was spending in the pt

#131 of 161 Re: 07 Sedona with terrible mileage [gcuff] by dogwaggin

Apr 12, 2008 (2:18 pm)

Replying to: gcuff (Jan 22, 2008 5:35 am)
To say that one has to wait 6000 miles to get tolerable gas mileage is unacceptable!!! It would take me nearly a year to get to that point and I refuse to live with such lousy gas mileage for that long for no good reason! I got my '07 Sedona in Oct and the mileage absolutely stinks!! It got as low as 10.2 in town during the cold months and is now only around 12.5. As for highway driving - I recently went on a 250 mile round trip only to avg 16.65 (and yes I am keeping a log for my attorney!!). The Yukon XL that I traded in "so I could get much better gas mileage" got 13-14 in town and 17-18 on the highway...and I kept it loaded down. Now, not only am I spending more on gas, I have to load and unload my gear constantly in the hopes that it will help the mileage a tiny bit. The local dealer's service dept has actually been very good about the whole thing. They have worked on it multiple times trying to figure out what is causing the problem, but they finally gave up (not to mention the fact the the front roters had to be replaced twice and the rear once within the first three months of ownership). The dealership fo purchase, however, refused to even acknowledge the problem and manufact. cust. serv. spewed the bit about the 6000 miles and basically hung up on me after being very condescending! I also had a very peculiar problem in the winter months...every time it rained, the INSIDE of the windows would be covered with condensation! They ran it under water at the body shop for an hour with no success at finding any leaks. I was later told that the inside condensation was due to the humidity in the air..........PLEASE. This is my fourth vehicle for hauling multiple dogs and I have had soaking wet dogs in all of my other vehicles - in their crates, on their beds which absorb water - in both the winter and high heat of the summer with out ever having that problem. One would think if that was going to happen it would do so in the summer when the vehicle is closed up with the wet beds in it and left in the sun (which gets done on a regular basis when we are training for dock dogs). Anyone else out there had this particular problem? Anyone been successful in fighting back over the gas mileage?
 
Signed....obviously VERY frustrated!

Messages Page 14 of 17

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