Fuel Mileage???

I have an 2001 Tacoma, originally bought from California. It's now up here in Canada. I've owned it for 3 years now and totally not impresssed with the fuel to mileage ratio that it's getting, compared to say my former vehicle which was a '93 4Runner.

It has about 168,000 miles on it.

My Tacoma, if i'm lucky gets 200 miles/tank. (360km/tank). (My runner on average got 540km/tank).
At our ridiculous gas prices (3 times the amount of yours), this gets really expensive to drive. $70-$80/tank.

Has anyone else had any issues like this with their Tacomas? Is there anything I can do to increase the fuel mileage? preferably something that won't cost me an arm and a leg.

I've always wanted a truck, but now i'm regretting ever getting one. If I could find myself a 2nd gen 4 Runner, I'd probably go back to it.

 

*search*

and ye shall find about 10,000 posts.

clean the MAF, clean your TB, clean your IAC valve, run some fuel treatment, reset the EFI.

driving has a lot to do with mileage. open road you'll get more. city sux.

right now with "winter blend" and mostly city driving I get about 220 when I fill up (15-16 gal avg), I have lots of small hills and side streets that I traverse on a daily basis

 

my best was worn suspension, 31s flat road 75mph on cruise, got ~368 miles and could have gotten a little more but dodn't want to chance it

edit: found my record

8/4/14 (date)
368.30 (mi)
17.359 (gal)
21.22 (mpg)
3.269 ($/gal)

 

I went from a 2008 Wrangler on 33s to my tacoma. I expected a huge increase in fuel efficiency, but I get about the same (14-18 mpg, depending one where I've driven). Lift, wheels and 33s are on their way to my house. It will be interesting to see how much my mpg drops then...

 

Waqs you 1993 4 runner a 4 cylinder? If so the biggest difference will be that. I wouldn't expect such a large difference without something drastic like switching from a 4 cyl to a 6 cyl.
Do you primarily do city driving or are you getting 200 miles/tank doing highway driving?
Are you running 33s or is it all stock?
MY 3.4L just got me 17 mpg but it's typically closer to 19-21. It's been really windy here lately and driving into 25 mph winds at 70 mph (speed limit) hurts the wallet. I'm at 156K miles and I'm all stock.

 

2000 3.4 5 speed 235/75/15 tires

Loaded @1000 pounds

Morning idle time 20 to 30 minutes if I get a phone call

10 to 12 mpg depending on type of driving

 

I do 100% city driving with short hilly trips and I'm getting about 12-13mpg with 265/75/16E tires. On the highway it almost doubles and I'll go from 200miles to 350miles a tank!

 

Here we go again

 

lets see. I drive about 5 miles/day for work + maybe 6 on my days off. 25,31,62. 62 miles between visits to the gas station for me. i always put 25 bucks in every time. last time was about 2.40. so lets say 10 gallons of gas every 62 miles. im getting about...... 6 mpgs?...... lol

 

501 miles to a tank at 18.667 gallons is my best tank mileage wise... ran bone dry and add one gallon to get to the gas station to fill as a test of fuel tank capacity.

 

3.4 263k miles 35x12.5 and 4.88gears
Avg 20.1mpg

 

I get 17 mpg average with 31's, a TRC s/c, URD 7th and 2.2" pulley.

I lol'd

 

Currently I'm running 31" Wrangler Duratracs. They have about 70% tread left on them.
My driving is all flat prairie driving, mostly city.
It's about 10 miles 1 way to work. Mostly between 30-40mph. (city speeds)
My old 4Runner was a V6, so that wouldn't be the issue.

So I did some work on my truck...
replaced, plug wires (NGK), put in 6 Iridium plugs (NGK), replaced the fuel filter (ACDelco), replaced the air filter (Wix). Found some items thaat needed to be replaced as well. (Timing Belt, other 3 serpentine belts, water pump, muffler/tailpipe was shot)
$1200 later, still getting low mileage per tank. I run Injector cleaner and fuel treatment through every couple of months.

Running low grade fuel I'm still getting approx 200 miles/tank, I ran it until the fuel light came on from a full tank.

Now i'm trying something bizarre and running premium through it, and it looks like my mileage has improved a great deal on the 1st quarter of the tank.

Next in line is $600 on smaller size tires.
Looking at Toyo Open Country AT II's 235/75R15. (Which are slightly bigger than stock, stock tires being 225/75R15). Dunno what else to try.

 

Don't forget to add 3% to mpg for 31" tires. Your odometer readings will be 3% lower than actual.

 

I'm not sure about the 15's but my truck with the stock 265/70/16's the speedo said 68 when my GPS said 65... when I upgraded to the 265/75/16's the speedo and the GPS read identical out to about 80mph.
it seems that I have heard of others around who have noted the same thing...

 

Seems like I remember my old 88 P/U ran 31s stock. Maybe some Tacoma's do too or maybe they were regeared.

 

How are your drive lines? Could be losing a lot of energy there.

 

a 265/70R16 is 1/8" larger than the 31-10.5R15 so it would be the logical size equivalent... I have a buddy with a K5 blazer on 31-10.5R15's and we measured them both with his tree calipers. we both had hancook dynapro M/T's with very low tread. I think I had just slightly less tread than he did.

 

31's are 5.9% larger than 225/75R15's...

 

My engine RPM's never go above 2500, city driving acceleration is about 2200, crusing around 1500. Highway RPM's @50mph about 1700.

I know with the 31's my speedo is out by about 5mph at 60mph. I have to do 65 to actually be doing 60.

Although running the premium gas (91 octane) It has improved and I've always known that as a highway truck it gets great mileage, usually about 400 miles per fill.

Oh and for those guys that keep asking what's my MPG, if i'm getting 200 miles per tank and the tank is about 18 gallons, then using math it figures out to be about 10-11 MPG. (sorry not trying to be snarky)

@Clay_916 , I replaced my driveshafts and ujoints last summer.

@CStoy , In the last line of my post. I stated I was looking at downgrading to 235/75/r15. my stock size is 225/75r15, those are about a half inch bigger than stock. (My current tire is 31"s, which i'm thinking may be causing my gas mileage issues, more rubber width and height. Engine has to work harder to maintain normal speeds)