If you keep running your van out of gas your mileage problem is bound to
get worse. Imagine how much sediment has collected on the bottom of that
tank since it was new and now your forcing all of that crap through your
fuel lines and (hopefully) into your fuel filter. By they way does
anyone know the best place to get a new fuel filter? My local chain
store wants $28 (US) for one.

Jason Kirk
87 Vanagon Weekender

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Ryan Dawson
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 1:48 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Gas Mileage Problem

I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice on the situation.

As a follow up, I filled the tank again once the needle was dipping into
the
red.  I put in 51.107 litres or 13.501 gallons.  That means that there
was just
under 9 litres left in the tank when the needle entered the red zone.  I
drove
the van approximately 160 miles on the full 16 gallon tank and drove
until I
ran out of gas (I kept a spare can in the van so I could make it back to
the
gas station).  This means that I'm getting approximately 10 mpg!  This
is all
with the van unloaded, only me and a can of gas (propane tank was empty
as
well).

I'm going to check the fuel lines for leaks tomorrow when it stops
raining.
Also, there are no dents in the fuel tank either (someone suggested
that, but
the tank is taking on its full capacity).  Any other ideas are
appreciated.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance,
Ryan