Poor fuel mileage

@Tacoma girl 2021

OP, just another data point for you since were located in similar parts of the nation. If your truck is still drinking like a alcoholic there is something obviously wrong. You should be able to get within the 18-22 mpg threshold if your Tacoma is completely stock now with the warmer spring weather.

I just hauled my Aluma motorcycle trailer (~530 lbs) to the Aluma dealer for a axle check. Winds less than 7 mph, temps at 40f and on a metro freeway with a speed limit of 65 mph, relatively flat. I drove 65 mph to 70 mph and the distance included 2 miles of stop/go under 40 mph to transition to the freeway drive with a 20.6 mpg overall.

Warmer weather has completely changed my Tacoma with 91 non-ethanol and 265/75-16 Michelin Defender tires mounted on ultra-light Koenig Countersteers at 17 lbs. 2" F, 1" R of lift with Bilstein 6112/5160.

 

It is fact.

 

Flexin’ my gas mileage:


Hahaha 36.2 mpg
Going down snowy mountain—I keep this image to flex to this day

EDIT: I just saw some guy's post in page #1 with 66 or so mpg--Holy SH*T
EDIT: I usually get 19-21 mpg btw

 

Guessing this has been noted, but the AVG MPG digital readout factors in 0 mpg while sitting at red lights or stops. If you drive around town, and get stuck at a train or long light you can watch it drop and drop the entire time you're sitting. I think that's a bit misleading since we're really looking to know how economic the truck is while driving - you don't want moments where you're essentially parked to factor into a rating that is designed to illustrate fuel economy of a moving vehicle.

If you reset the AVG MPG when you get on the highway (or a long road with no stops), it definitely shows higher than 14-16 for me. I'm now getting readings over 20mpg consistently for drives between 60-70 mph (even in cold weather in MN winter).

 

35 trip miles and you're surprised it says 14?

 

60 MPH on a relatively flat road

 

I’m not familiar with fuelly so don’t know how to verify that. I’m just saying, I’m US based too and my Tacoma was set to the wrong unit when delivered. Took me almost 3,000 miles to realize and see this trucks true gas mileage.

 

Another issue to understand if you calc your MPG after fueling with a calculator. The Odometer does not factor in larger diameter tires. So if you upgrade with a larger diameter you have actually traveled more distance than the odometer indicates. Generally speaking, one size up (265/70-16, stock to 265/75-16) results in about 2 to 3% more distance traveled. The display showing MPG results after a drive does not factor this in either.

 

I generally just use the tire calculator on here. Use the percentage difference in tire height and then calculate that into what the truck is claiming your fuel usage is. It’s not 100% accurate, but gets you really close.

 

true on that.. I used the rolling circumference numbers from Michelin and Goodyear and calculated the % difference. I validated that difference with my GPS over 30 miles and found that I traveled about 2.5% more than the odometer indicated.

Really the main point for those that might not be aware,, Distance traveled on the odometer does not replicate the distance traveled if you install larger diameter tires. Your actual MPG is better than what is portrayed on the display, by a small margin.

 

Just did a double take...that looks a lot like my aluma utility trailer.

 

The Alumas seem to last and the torsion axle is nice. The one I own is a 2003 production MC10. It has been many places around the nation hooked to the back of my, now sold, standard cab Tacoma looking for the promised land..

 

People should also be aware that tire size changes the speedometer, sometimes by a pretty large margin (around 70MPH mine is off by around 6-8MPH). The same can be said for stock tires, the difference in new and used tires also changes the speedometer slightly. To me calculating MPG is easier to do by using the difference in tire size. Mine is 10.7% so I simply multiply my average MPG by that number and then subtract the difference.

 

yup.. simplest way is to run a stand alone Garmin GPS to determine what actual speed and distance traveled are after size changes.

My speedometer with factory Goodyear tires was reading faster speeds than actual and now with 265/75-16 reads dead on at freeway speeds.

 

When I bought my 16’ and started my account on here, many reported the same thing. That with either 265/70/17 or 265/75/16 their speedometers were more accurate. Not sure if Toyota planned on using the larger size and then ditched that idea or what.

 

Haha! You like to drive with the yellow light on I see

 

lol No, I actually rarely let it go down below 2/3 empty. I've never seen the light. It doesn't take much to reset the tank MPG - at least on mine.

 

Same here, I never go below the quarter though.

Thats strange that yours resets so easily. I live in a very hilly area and never once had my fuel tank average reset. Also never happened on steep hills off-road.

 

We use litre, not gallon.

Also, I usually get 16mpg (or 14.5l/100km) around, and have been on 2 Tacoma. My 2017 got a bit better with time. Never really got that much better on highway.

Good thing is it doesn't really get that much worse towing my 12 foot pop up camper...