Horrible mpg. Help!

bought a 2011 dclb v6 last summer with 64,000 miles. Drove it home on the highway and got 22.5 mpg. I was impressed with that. A few months later I put 5100s in the front at 1.75 and put good year wrangler 265s on. It dropped to about 17 around town which I expected. Well I live in maine and since winter has started I've been getting between 11-12mpg! I changed air filter, plugs, and ran injector cleaner and high grade gas and nothing has changed. I only drive 2.5 miles to work which I know isn't good for mpg but I think a v6 should get better than that. Anything else I can look into changing to help? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Winter blend gas

 

That's about right for driving short distances in the winter. Are you letting the truck idle to warm up before driving? That's what kills my fuel economy the most in the winter.

 

Winter fuel will drop you a couple mpg. Also, you're probably letting the truck warm up significantly longer than when it's warm out. Take it for a longer drive once a week to save from having to replace the cats.

 

Oh boy. Well first, Welcome to Tacoma World!
Actuallt cleaning the throttle body might be a good idea, not just "injector cleaners" and like the previous person, winter gas sucks in very cold climates. But 22.5mpg is a very high bar set by your Tacoma, assuming it was calculated properly. High grade has won't do anything for your Tacoma, other than make the gas station more money. Better luck in the summer!

 

Ya I let it warm up for about 10 min. I did get better in the summer and fall. Was just seeing if there was something wrong with it. Guess I'll just wait to see if it gets better with warmer weather. Thanks for the help

 

OP, when the weather gets a little warmer give your truck some love. Change the plugs, oil and air filter... clean the throttle body, MAF sensor. May or may not make a difference but it's easy DIY stuff for peace of mind. Tons of DIY threads on this forum for almost anything you need to do...

The 22.5 mpg you got sounds better than any I've ever gotten in this truck and I'm at 124,000 miles. Best I do on the highway is around 20ish at 72 mph. Around town in hilly western Pa. I get around 13-14 give or take.

 

I think with these trucks you really only have to let them startup idle for about 1-2 minutes regardless of weather. Unless of course your trying to get yourself comfortable with the heater, then that's a different story.

 

Not when it's really cold out.

 

^^^This^^^

It says in the manual no warm up time is needed. Just start, and drive.

 

Warm up is much harder on the motor than just driving it carefully until warm. If you drive it, it will warm up much quicker.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.road...-you-shouldnt-warm-up-your-car/?client=safari

 

Its not just the winter blend that causes the bad gas mileage, there a lot of factors that contribute. Longer idle time to warm up, cold causes alternator to work harder to charge battery, lower tire pressure from cold, increased rolling resistance, richer fuel mixture because of lower engine temps, thicker oil makes engine work harder, and more aerodynamic drag. Most people just say oh its the winter blend and call it a day but there's a lot more to it.

 

One thing I never hear get mentioned is the density of cold air. Anyone that has ever ridden a streetbike in cold weather, will know what I'm talking about. You can feel that it's harder to move through. I'm sure that also has an effect.

 

Look one post above yours. I mentioned aerodynamic drag.

 

Change your plugs.

 

That's true where most people live and consider 20 degrees to be cold. Not True where it actually gets cold.

 

Yeah, looks like you had it covered.

 

Consider that for that 10 minutes you are getting 0.0 mpg...

 

Get a cheap ELM327 bluetooth OBD adapter, and install torque on your phone. Watch the value of the coolant temperature sensor during your drive.
With a 2.5 mile commute, you probably aren't even getting the coolant temperature up over 75-80C. That means that you will be running an incredibly rich fuel mixture and getting absolutely HORRID fuel consumption. One easy thing you can do to improve this situation is to block off the grill (and don't neglect the air channel through the front bumper cover and between the bumper and the splash pan). And keep in mind that the main radiator isn't the ONLY part of the vehicle where it can be cooled. The other two big sources of coolant heat loss are directly through the block (reducing air flow past the engine helps this too), and the cab heater.

This morning on my way in to work (my drive is a lot longer than yours), I observed a 5 degree C swing in coolant temperature just as a result of having the heater on maximum or medium. Any time I put the heat up to maximum, I couldn't get the coolant temperature over 85 degrees. Back it down to medium and it would go up to 90.

 

My MPGs take a hit in winter partly due to crappy gas blend but mostly due to longer warm-up temps. Open loop kills fuel economy. So do lifts and big tires