5k Mile service resulting in lower MPG

Hi all,

I recently went to the dealer to perform an "interim" (tire rotation) service. All they literally had to do was rotate the tires, perform their inspection, etc.; however, the car has been constantly getting 3-4 mpg LESS than before. My initial thought was tire pressure, so I immediately checked and added the extra psi that they had prior to the service, but it hasn't done much for MPG.

I recall the service advisor saying something along the lines of "all looks good, but you'll have to start thinking about brakes during your next visit". Now, driving a car with 72k miles on which I use the brakes minimally, I find this difficult to believe when many people are still on the original set of brake pads at 150k+ miles.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking they may have "adjusted" my brakes resulting in the loss of efficiency - hopefully an honest mistake and not a dealer tactic to get clients to return. Planning to go back first thing tomorrow morning to have it corrected.

 

Thank you for the troubleshooting recommendations - will do.

And I agree, most dealers bank from brake services. I had the service performed a month ago, however, I live downtown and don't drive my car much since I get around on an electric unicycle lol. I was waiting to go through at least 2 gas tanks, resetting the MPG's every single time to see if I noticed any improvement.

Let's give this a whirl!

 

Yeah, I’m not a hypermiler by any means, but going from seeing 47-48mpg to 43-44mpg is alarming. Would it take an entire month’s worth for the 12v battery to recharge? I’d think that is a bit excessive, no?

 

Thank you. I’m headed to the dealer first thing in the morning tomorrow - just for my own knowledge, is there anything that they typically do to the brakes without me asking, during a tire rotation service? This was my first time at this particular dealer, but I’ve never had this happen in the past while having the car serviced at the other dealer I used to go to (farther away).

 

This is very puzzling then - my guess is, as mentioned above, they probably kept the car on READY mode for long, and it threw off the numbers.

 

Will do. The invoice was for $29.99 - they charged me $10 for rotation of all tires and $20 for patching a tire that had a nail in it; these are lower than their typical prices but I negotiated for them to honor the pricing that I used to get at the other dealer. For that little money I can’t foresee them doing much labor voluntarily.

 

Yes sir, on every gas tank I make it a point to do so, which is why I noticed right away.

Some people will argue that taking off the hubcaps may have affected mileage, but they have been off since I purchased the car almost two years ago, and I was seeing 47-48mpg’s until this last service.

 

Very good points lol - but simply because it wasn’t a money maker, I can’t think of them touching anything past a tire rotation - unless of course, “adjusting” something that will guarantee my return with a money maker.

 

Mendel, it was a full inside/outside tire repair - they had to dismount and remount the tire.

 

Technically it was just tire rotation (I get them rotated every 5k miles) - every other service includes an oil change (for which I pay $60 total), but this was a short one.