Terrible Fuel Mileage

My worst measured mpg's were 14.8, mostly city driving. Best was 19.7, all interstate at 70 mph. Have about 10,000 miles on a stock truck, auto transmission, 35 PSI tires.

 

In Georgia we have been hovering around 1.80 where I am at. My record was this with a .40 cent discount at Kroger lol:

 

And that is hilly too. Wow. Nice.

 

$1.69 here in Central Ky.

$1.79 closer to Louisville.

 

Mine has the s/c, with 255/75r17 bfg mud terrains c load. I drive about 60/40 hwy/city. I'm averaging 18 right now. Make sure you're running premium. My first tank was on the dealers dime and I'm sure they probably used e85. I got just over 16mpg on that tank.

 

Wow! I saw 1.95 here today and was excited to see it dropping.

 

I paid $1.38 early last week in Indiana.

 

A good friend runs a BP station in town. He claims the stations around here are selling gas cheaper that they're paying for it, relying on a 3% kickback from parent company. I have a rather difficult time believing that. All I know is, 13 months ago, I was driving a Dodge 2500 that got 9-1/2 to 10mpg, and gas was almost $4. Now I'm getting close to 20mpg and gas is under $2. With the amount of driving I do, I'm saving almost $125 a week. Did I mention I'm loving the Tacoma's mileage?

 

Cool.

 

bj's? Thats where i get mine. I never thought i'd see gas below $2.00 in my life again. Its great.

that means gas in SC must be in the $1.20's. Keep on dropping!

 

No. It was at the Mobil on South in front of Sweatland.

 

great stuff!! Little me wants to take a Fl roadtrip this spring.

 

Cool. Would be fun. Did a trip back from there years ago, in a UHaul, loaded beyond capacity. Took about three days. NC was a place I have always wanted to go back to.

 

the carolinas are beautiful. Driven through many times. I got gas once in some s.c small town and the lady was smoking a cigarette behind the counter

 

When guys just say "oh, I get about 19 average" and that's based on checking a tank now and then, I wouldn't pay much attention. As you can see on my graph, I ranged from 13/14 to 21/22 depending on ambient temp, gas blend, city vs hiway, etc. Keep that in mind when checking your own. An isolated tank now and then isn't gonna tell you much.

 

All I can comment on is what I have witnessed. When I pulled that filter out you could not see through it. And I change air filters regularly. Power and MPG increased noticeably and immediately. Maybe my truck is an odd ball??? But it is what happened. The only major other change I noticed is that at a fast take off, the exhaust smell is stronger. 1 more thing, I have dual GPS speed monitors. With OEM tires, when speedometer reads 70MPH I travel at about 68.5MPH. With 33's at 70MPH showing on the speedometer, I am roughly traveling at 74MPH. When doing calculations, you need to factor that in. So running OEM tires, if you clock 100 miles you only got at most 98-99 miles. With 33's when odemeter reads 100 miles I actually traveled almost 106 miles.

 

I check at every fill up.

 

Witnessed but not measured accurately, those that have measured found zero gains in power.

As for MPG, accurately measured test find even a nearly clogged air filter doesn't reduce mpg. The carbon filter isn't a significant restriction even though you can't see through it. It's filled with black carbon, it's not getting dirty, that's the way it looks brand new.

I have over 50K miles on my current toyota filter with the carbon filter still in space and still get awesome mpg.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/Air_Filter_Effects_02_26_2009.pdf

Summary

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of a clogged air filter on the fuel economy of vehicles operating over prescribed test cycles. Three newer vehicles (a 2007 Buick Lucerne, a 2006 Dodge Charger, and a 2003 Toyota Camry) and an older carbureted vehicle were tested. Results show that clogging the air filter has no significant effect on the fuel economy of the newer vehicles (all fuel injected with closed-loop control and one equipped with MDS). The engine control systems were able to maintain the desired AFR regardless of intake restrictions, and therefore fuel consumption was not increased.

Exhaust smell is stronger?, you must have an exhaust leak into the cab?

 

The TRD install should include an ECU remap at a loss of 2 mpg's.

 

OP - Add 5 psi to each tire to lower rolling resistance.