bad gas mileage, need help

[J_Uhrig87]

hey everyone, so my wife's car get's terrible gas mileage and my local mechanic/friend and I can't figure it out.
it's a 94 DX automatic. completly stock except for a cheap ram-air intake.
she's had the timing belt replaced, all the suspension has been replaces(anything that was getting bad) we recently had a fuel system flush(a good one not a cheap one) and we replaced the fuel filter hoping that would help. she's currently getting about 22-25 miles per gallon. mostly 22 though. I've tried to do everything i can think of to get her better fuel economy but i'm out of ideas. her transmission is shifting kind of hard and when we're on the freeway doing about 60 it feels really sluggish and when you take your foot off the gas it decreases in speed quite rapidly. so i was thinking maybe we could try the cheap route first and just have the transmission flushed to see if that would help. I have a friend who owns a transmission shop and he said he' d get me a good deal and said it might help, i just don't know if it would help the MPG's.
any thoughts or other ideas?
I'm just starting to think my wife's car is one of those random honda's that for no reason at all can't be fixed after 150K, she's currently at 170K miles and it just seems like a long road down hill from here.
any help is appreciated.
thanks

 

[Rountreesj]

o2 sensor?

 

[MajEK]

Like he said, the o2 may be bad but not throwing a code yet. But if you want cheap options just do: fluids, air filter, oil filter, pcv, and plugs. Maybe even seafoam on the fuel tank and brake booster before you replace anything.

 

[EGHseries]

o2 sensor or i have seen the map sensor go bad believe it or not

 

[ak_thrylls]

when is the last tune up you had? plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, PCV valve, oil change (5w30 - lighter, ive heard of some guys runnning 0w), and a tranny fluid change never hurts. also, driving style has a LOT to do with mpg, and unfortunately for you a 5sp (driven correctly) will get better mpg vs. auto.

 

[J_Uhrig87]

my wife doesn't rev at all cause she knows her car is slow so i'm not worried about driving style. full tune up hasn't been done yet, oil get's changed every 3k, just put a new ram-air intake on less than 5 months ago so i know the air filter is good. plugs and wires are going to be done soon. i don't know about a sensor because wouldn't the dummy check engine light come on if it was bad? i'll keep that in mind. we're actually going to be selling it to a friend of ours and her boyfriend is pretty mechanical so i'm sure he'll replace all that stuff. we're just tired of dumping money into it with no results.
thanks for all the help.

 

[cmaylo]

The car slows down rapidly at 60 when you take your foot off the gas because the transmission is locked, so it behaves like a manual. You'll notice that the auto tranny almost seems to shift into a 5th gear when you get up to cruising speed--its actually the torque converter locking.

Having said that, have you checked the tire pressure? Also, you might want to put the stock airbox back on. I noticed that I got crappier gas mileage due to the loss of low end torque.