2017 Taco gas mileage falling

Thank you. Would have never guessed that in 15 years.

 

That’s OK, we’re all here to learn and share… my bad. I didn’t know the difference between sliders and skids when I tried ordering some when I was new here so welcome to the site.

This is why my gas mileage sank so much…my truck is a pig due to TW!

 

Updating: After running a whole bottle of Techron in a half full tank; drove 84 highway miles. Mileage for that trip was 21.4 MPG. And that was with the ECT button active. Yesterday went out to eat, city driving, 5.4 mile trip, mileage came in at 17.9. The dash shows an average mileage per tankful at 17.1. Short takeaway from this is that it must have been dirty injectors causing low mileage issues.

 

Thank you for the successful suggestion. As you may have noticed from the afore comment, I'm seeing what I consider normal mileage for using February gasoline.

 

with short test sample trips like that, you will always be chasing your tail.
Also, $20-30 bottles of snake oil are going to consume gas money much faster than 1-2 MPGs.

GL

 

Clean air filter and M.A.F.S. ?

 

I was under the assumption that RTT stood for "Recreational Toyota Tacoma".

Who knew?

 

Good deal. Yeah I would get around 20-21 mpg for a 25 mile trip pretty much flat ground a few small hills. I think this is normal mpg.

 

Typical winter gas blends. I've been averaging 17-18 with the occasional low 20s.

Not much you can do other than clean the MAF/throttle body, check air filter and plugs, adjust tire pressures and add fuel system cleaner.

https://lucasoil.com/products/fuel-treatments/lucas-oil-deep-clean-fuel-system-cleaner

 

Look! Not to brag on myself but I've been an engineer for over 20 years. I know a little about statistics.

Let's be clear: Short trips in the past and overall tank-full mileage has been down for over half a year. Summer and winter blends of gasoline. The short trip reports have been low, as I just said. But with the past several trips I've been seeing a big improvement. No, it's not my imagination, what I'm seeing is backed up by hard numbers. So it's not "Snake Oil". You may believe it to be - and that's fine. You can believe as you like. Nobody can make you change your mind. But I'm not chasing my tail. Consistency is a pretty good indicator of trends; and trends are up. I know that right now I can fill my tank at my favorite gas station and then drive three miles down hill and hit close to 27 MPG for that trip. I'm not so stupid to think I'm getting that kind of mileage. I can attest to the fact that there has been a huge improvement. I will continue to use the ECT button for the duration of this tank-full and for the next. Beyond that I will drive as normal as I have always driven. Expectations are that I will get close to what I've traditionally seen for mileage.

 

You mention plugs and air filters. Air filter is fairly fresh and clean to inspection. Plugs have less than 29K on them. I had considered plugs, but the cost versus the benefit at present doesn't make sense.

One thing I have had in the back of my mind is either turbo charging or supercharging the engine. Not that I want to race it, I just want a little more responsiveness from the engine.

 

Cool, well I do hope it works for you. Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult or upset you.

 

Wasn't insulted. Just felt like I was being spoken down to.

Personally, I respect all opinions whether I agree with them or not. If a person believes that putting potato peals in their gas tank helps them - who am I to say they don't. I don't believe they help and would never recommend such an action, but I wouldn't speak down to someone who was suggesting that. Rather, I'd say "Interesting take. Personally I don't think that will do anything good, and may actually hurt your fuel system, but I couldn't say for sore one way or the other."

So I respect your opinion on additives. I've had good luck with them. Well, almost always. Slick 50 worked well in numerous vehicles over the years but I no longer look for it. Don't even know if it's still available. Nor do I care to try. Toyota makes such a good product I don't think such an additive is necessary. The only additive I've ever regretted was the oil that had graphite in it. Was supposed to have superior lubrication but what it did for me was wear out the main engine seals and caused leaks. So some products are a waste of time, others are an outright bad idea. Some work. This one has worked for me (Techron). I can only speak to my experiences. I'm an electronics engineer, not an automotive engineer. That's why I asked this dumb question in the first place. It has a plausible reasoning that the O2 sensor could cause fuel mileage issues, so that's why I thought to ask before I acted. Nothing worse than fixing something when you don't know what's wrong. Always say "Fully diagnose the problem before you start throwing parts at it." Which is where I was coming from with this post.

 

As a person that has been a processor chip manufacturing equipment technician for 31 years, and working with electrical or chemical engineers this entire time, I sensed you were some kind of an engineer based on your troubleshooting approach.

Not saying good or bad, just came across with an engineer mindset, and not mechanical mindset.

It's all good!

 

It's my belief that the best answer to a question one doesn't know the answer to is to say "I don't know." Reason for that is first to not look stupid, not knowing something isn't stupid it's just 'not yet informed', and the second is to not give people reason to think I'm stupid by saying something that is patently not true. I've made a lifetime of turning not knowing into knowing. My journey is not yet complete. If I'll die when that journey is complete then I'll live for thousands of years. Or longer.

 

JUST TO UPDATE ON THIS: After two bottles of Techron Fuel additive (1 2/3 tanks) mileage is back up where I am used to seeing it. This is average for about 60% highway driving. Even in short driving I'm seeing 19 plus miles.


This is with late March fuel. Don't know if or when they changed from winter gas to summer gas; but this is what I'm used to seeing. Even short trips can be quite good. I have one other picture but am not posting it because it's a mostly down hill drive and shows 27.4 MPG (3.4 miles). The picture directly above is the uphill return trip from Lowe's. So 27 MPG going to Lowe's, 19.6 MPG coming home. Just a few pieces of plumbing parts - no significant weight. Also with luck of catching a lot of green lights.

My driving habits are to look ahead and see what the traffic lights are doing. If I'm approaching a red light a ways off I'll take my foot off the gas. Especially if there's nobody behind me and try to slow the truck enough so that when I arrive at the signal it has already turned green and traffic has begun moving. That's so I don't have to step on the brakes and waste that foreword momentum I've put into the vehicle.

As it stands right now, the tank is down to less than a quarter tank and the reported average mileage for the tankful is 21.5 MPG. No pictures at present.

 

If I try ECT my trucks fuel mileage will drop like a rock...be very lucky to get 17 mpg.

 

I rarely use ECT. Yes, it does drop mileage. But I've also noticed that using it when getting on the freeway there are advantages. Once up to speed turn ECT off and use cruise control.

 

I've always went with the medium grade gas then after 5 or 6 then go with premium. I'm averaging 21 to 24 mpg but I'm not hauling anything. And I think having a tonneau cover helps too.

 

Never question the mpg gods. I usually get crap mpg, but I towed my trailer up a mountain, unhitched and drove around all day, rehitched, and went back down, and I was at 25mpg. I usually get in the teens