Re: '90 V8Q: A few odds and ends...

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

On Sat, 13 Apr 1996, Chris King wrote:

> 1)  Is the sunroof switch supposed to light up, because mine does not.  It
> works fine, it just isn't illuminated.

mine lights up on an intermittent basis.  it is too minor for me to bother
to do anything about it.

> Same thing goes for the power mirror
> control on the driver's door.  Neither the 4-way pad or the R and L buttons
> light up, but they work fine.  Are these also supposed to light up?

not that i know of.

> I have noticed that the outside
> temp led blinks for about 60 secs. whenever I first start the car.

press the "outside temp" while the "off" button is depressed and read
off the value displayed.  this puts the system into diagnostic mode.
i think that if you check in the archives someone has posted all the
CC failure codes.  sounds like there's a fault in there.

> 4)  I too have noticed the surging at highway speeds that some of you have
> mentioned.  Most said a new oxygen sensor solved this problem.  Well, mine
> was replaced not quite 30k ago by the dealer, so would it need to be
> replaced already?  Do these things really wear out that quick?

possibly.

> 5)  The "miles until out of gas" feature on my MFA is very erratic.
> Sometimes it will have what appears to be a correct guesstimate, but if I
> turn off the ignition for a while and then start her back up, it will have
> usually a real low number.  Say for instance I have half a tank of gas, it
> will say I can only go 80 miles, which obviously is incorrect.  This really
> is not that important, but if it is a quick fix I guess I will have it done.

this fix involves replacing the entire dash.  lots of v8s have replaced
odometers because of this.  lots of $$$.

> 6)  And last but not least, what kind of fuel mileage do most of you get
> with these cars?  I get about 275-315 miles out of a full tank of 93 octane
> gas.  This is all with city driving, stop and go traffic, etc.  The MFA
> computer states that I am getting about 17.7-18.0 MPG.  How does this
> compare with everyone else?  Maybe my mileage would improve with a new OXS?

i get about 380 miles per tank before i decide to fill up, which i can
stretch to 400 if i want to risk running out.  this is mostly highway
driving.  the computer sez 23.5-24.5 mpg typically, but is at least
10-15% off.  there are a row of dip switches behind the dash to fine
tune this readout, btw, but it's too much hassle for me to rip
everything out.  i got a 10% improvement in mileage after the OXS
replacement.

eliot