Another gas mileage thread..

I have an 06 Tacoma. About 150k miles on it. V6 automatic. 3' lift. Running 285-70-17 10ply TOYO RT tires. I got about 160 miles on 18 gallons. Puts me around 8-9 mpg. I'm usually hearing similar set ups getting 12-13mpg. Need some recomondations and input on what can be done to fix this or if this sounds about normal. I know my tires are on the heavier side but just seems low to me. Thanks in advance!

 

That sounds awful. Last time i saw that low was on the beach in my ‘93 fullsize bronco in 35’s wth a 351 for a solid week.

 

There's many factors that will influence fuel economy. A few that I can think of:
1. Tire pressure
2. Driving conditions(hills, heavy traffic, headwind, excessive idling, driving habits)
3. Engine condition: plugs, air filter, dirty injectors, bad o2 sensor, clogged catalytic converter

 

Dragging brakes also kills milage. I had my front calipers starting to seize up. I could pretty much watch the needle fall. Took care of that quick.

Make sure your front and rear brakes are clean, clear, and well lubricated appropriately.

 

I used to think my 22RE pickup had stuck brakes. It was just slow, I soon realized.
All kidding aside, this totally makes sense.

 

Also you may have a clogged fuel filter, with 150k miles I'd change it anyway. Unfortunately it's in the tank.

 

Are you compensating for the difference in tire size in your mileage? 285/70/17 is about 7% bigger than stock, which means fewer revolutions per mile. So 160 miles on the odometer is more like 171 miles. But even then, that would still put you under ten mpg.

Anyway, I would suggest keeping your speed down when you can. I've gotten almost 23 mpg at 55mph and 17 mpg going over 80mph with a stock truck.

 

What I would do if I were you is this:

Fill your tank to the tippy top.

Reset a Trip meter to zero.

Drive the whole tank like this truck is brand new and like you are 90. Don't take the truck over 1500rpms unless you are going higher speeds (ie highway). So no taking off at green lights.

Also don't drive over 60 mph. (Seriously, above 60mph mileage drops).

Use a tire size calculator to figure out how much larger your tires are now percentage wise from stock. FOR EXAMPLE: my tires are 3.3% larger in circumference than stock.

Take trip distance X 1.(what ever your percentage is= actual miles on that tank.
Then calculate your fuel economy.

For me it would be for example (lets say trip meter reads 315):

315 X 1.033 = 325.4.

So my actual distance on that tank is 325 not 315.


After you get a baseline of where your fuel economy is, if its still low then start doing things like spark plugs, air filter changes etc.

 

MPT isn't a valid calculation. It's a guess-timate.

Have you compensated for your speedo/odo error in your calculations?

MPG is much more accurate if it's figured for each tank fill, then averaged together over several tanks.

 

This X 1 MILLION

 

Didn't even think about that. I'm sure another big issue is I only due driving around town. Last month I drove about 200 miles. My work is 3 minutes from my house. I keep air around 32-35. Maybe I'll try about 38. Just had a tune up done. Don't remember exactly what was done but I'll check plugs and filters and see how the condition is. Will report back with results

 

Switching the rear diff oil over to synthetic made a huge difference on my truck

 

Seriously???

 

I switched to synthetic and noticed my penis was 1.5” larger afterwards. YMMV

 

My wife's at the auto parts store buying me two quarts of synthetic right now!!

 

Difference in MPG’s? No. Switching to synthetic gear oil makes a huge difference on your wallet, that’s about all it does.

 

I dunno the truck clearly rolls a lot better, now compared to before with the original mud that was in the diff but ya don’t change it if you don’t want to

 

Some good advice here,especially the penis size increase. Make sure you clean your mass air meter as well. Also clean your throttle body.

 

It's just that I've seldom ever changed to an 'improved' fluid and felt or recorded any kind of improvement. The one exception is switching to Lucas gear lube in my 6 speed manual after I had the truck about a year. The transmission started shifting much smoother and improved slowly over the following two weeks.

Other than that, I've never seen a mileage gain or thought the vehicle ran smoother. Back in the 80's, I think it was, when they first came out with Slick 50 and other crap like that, I gave it a shot. I reset my trip meter every time I fill up so I'm constantly checking my mileage. About the only thing I've ever found that helped, was airing my tires up a few PSI over standard on long trips.

If you can honestly say you gained some mileage, I'll really switch to synthetic on this next rear diff lube change. Hell, I probably will anyway just to see if I think it helped. I am switching to Redline MT-90 on my next tranny fluid change.....tranny fluid sounds funny when you think about it.....

 

Seems to roll better off throttle (which to my twisted thinking is better fuel economy) but probably not