So I washed my outlander yesterday and poped the hood to wipe out the salt around the engine bay. I wiped off the box where the air filter goes in and noticed it had alot of play on the bottom of it. I grabbed it moved it around and the bottom actually wasnt cliped in right. It took a few minutes to get it to snap back together right, getting the plastic tabs on the bottom to line up is a pain. But the real kicker is I have never touched the box or opened it before. I also noticed my gas mileage has been down the last 3 fill ups from 24 to 20. So I filled back up today and drove my normal route and noticed the read out to be 25.6 which I have never got that high before. Nothing abnormal with the route, hit red lights and stop signs like normal. I know the read out isnt perfect but to go from 23 something up to almost 26 is a big difference. My miles left till empty is also at 390 and I drove 30 miles already. Usually its at 320 when I fill up. I even used the same gas station and the same grade gas.

So to sum it up, check your air box and make sure the thing is properly secured. Loosen the top two metal clips and make sure the bottom is locked in. This could be the reason why some of you complain about the lower gas mileage compared to the rest of us. Or wash your outlander like I did and it will improve your gas mileage haha. No check engine lights were thrown either.

 

Thanks a lot for the heads up, I will go check on mine right now!

 

The airbox is a strange design that's not very user friendly. I checked my filter and it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get it back together

 

Took me more than 10! due to a frustration breack I had to take..lol, could not get the darn things to lign up at the bottom. Well, everything seemed just fine, I'm guessing anto's problem was due to someone just giving up at the darn thing and leaving the bottom portion missaligned. I'm really not looking forward to replacing this filter.

 

Yea the frustration of putting it back together actually topped the frustration from finding it half put together. I was pissed to find that it was either left apart or actually fell apart while driving but after putting it together I was just mad at how hard it was. Really bad design.

 

Hmmmmm....

OK, the misaligned box is strange, indeed. However, I have the following question:

Why would that affect gas mileage? I understand automobile engine pretty well, I do most of my own work.

The housing holds your filter. It filters the air. Does this misallignment in any way restrict the airflow going to the throttle body? If so, I would understand. If not, there is no connection with your improved mileage.

If your airflow was restricted, you should have had power issues. Did you feel more power after replacing the box in the right position?

 

I dont know how it would affect the gas mileage. I will keep this trend updated when the tank runs empty. I can say that the filter box was open and probly sucking in dirty air I dont know if that would affect it or not. I have been going to the same gas station since I bought my outlander buying the same gas and just within the last 3 tanks of gas my mileage dropped. I cleaned my engine bay, put the air box back together properly and the mileage went back up. So unless cleaning the salt out my engine bay helped, I am going to have to say something with the air box falling apart had to do with the gas mileage going back up.

Anyone in here know how dirty air going in would affect gas mileage? Maybe its missing a sensor before the filter? Maybe reading more air (from not being restricted) it dumped in more fuel to even out the mixture??

 

That makes a lot of sense, thats probably why you were wasting more gas before.

 

That might make some sense. If there is an airflow sensor (and there probably is), it might have had a misreading. Therefore the ECM may have sent too much fuel to the injectors. Interesting.