Gas Mileage and what not BS.
 

I travel in and about North Caculaca and my mileage has always been 16 or 17 miles to the gallon.

I tried every thing to get it to come up. 40 psi in the tires, manual locker hubs, dumped the brush guard, easy on the gas, but to my dismay, my mileage has always been 16 - 17 mpg.

Anyway, Took a trip to NY a couple days ago (just got back) and my first tank netted my 20 mpg, the second tank went up to 22 mpg then the third came back down to 21 mpg. I was pretty shocked.

Apparently, I must do a lot of stop and go when i drive locally to give me the 16 or 17 that I am use to seeing.

I KNOW this town (Raleigh) is hell on gas mileage.
I only get about 12.5 mpg average, that is doing 99% city stop & go driving.

I bet if I lived in Kansas or some other flat state with few stop lights I would get at least 16-17mpg city.

From where I am I can not go in any direction more than 1 mile tops before going UP hill and usually have to stop at a stop light or sign twice just to go that 1 mile.
I think the stop lights are set bad around here also, I can look up a street and see 2-4 stop lights ahead and can pretty much rest assured I will have to stop at most of them.

I would be doing back flips if I got 16-17mpg around here.

Yea there are certaintly areas with more congestion though

I get ~22 only if I do a highway round trip ..

otherwise i normally get 15-16 avg.

I know guys brag about getting over 20 all the time. but they must live in a area without any hills or stop lights/signs..

Turn your overdrive off :biggrin2:

I get 17.5 driving around kansas...

I live in florida with virtually no hills, my commute is 16 miles each way mix "highway"/city, mostly rush-hour, and plenty of stop lights and stop-and-go. I'm pretty delicate with the gas pedal, because let's face it the 4runner isn't going to go anywhere fast anyway, and I'm conscious of traffic ahead to gauge my driving habits (I get passed by the impatient people, but I'm ok with that).

2002 2wd 5VZ auto, stock everything and my first full tank I got 309 miles on a 16.3 gallon fill-up (works out to just shy of 19MPG on 87 octane). Just about what I was expecting, not amazing and not terrible. Although I'm used to having to fill up with 93 octane in my daily driver, so I'm still saving on gas and happy about that. :reddance:

:shrug: just adding my experience to the thread.

man kansas isnt as flat as you think, yes its boring the drive through but driving all the dirt roads, they r hilly.

I commute about 50 miles a day. I was a little worried when I purchased the 4runner because about half of the commute is rural, hilly roads, and the other half is straight fairly flat driving with minimal stops. I've been averaging about 17 miles per gallon. I can't complain since they put a brand new set of BFG A/T's on the truck right before I bought it. I think if there was a more street friendly tire on the truck, I would hope to squeeze out an extra mpg.

Manual hubs on a 3rd gen 4runner? Wow, I looked into that when I had my Taco and the quotes I got on cost were in the $1000+ range (removing all the ADD plumbing, changing out the hubs, etc.)

That's a lot of money to spend to save a few bucks on gas.

Between the hills, the twisty roads and the heavy, stop-and-go traffic (I was stationed at Fort Bragg for 6 years so I know how densely populated the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area is) I would say 16-17 is actually pretty good for a 4runner with an automatic.

Regardless of city or highway I almost ALWAYS get 17-19mpg with your occasional 20mpg tank...

I gained 2-3 mpg when I swapped my fuel filter out.

I put in a new fuel filter, new 02 sensor, cleaned the MAF and the air filter.
Replaced ALL fluids with synthetic, got a Ultra Gauge so I see exactly when I am using the most gas etc.
The only thing so far that has saved me ANY mpg is switching the ECT button ON, I get about 1 MPG better with it ON.

I have all the parts to do my water pump, timing belt and all belts, thermostat, and going to change spark plugs and wires plus clean the throttle body and replace the PCV valve.
Was going to do that this week but came down with the flu so will have to wait until next week or so.
After that if no change then I give up and accept that I get 12.5 mpg city.

Another MPG thread. :bash:



Last week I only got 14.5 MPG. That's 95% city. ~3 mile commute to campus each way. 3 stop signs, 3 traffic lights, and hilly.

I did the Manual locker hubs because I found a complete set for $100 or so (hubs, lockers, cv shafts and mounting hardware) . I spent more on buying bearings.

But the main reason was to save wear and tear on the CV's. Gas savings is a plus. (.5 to 1.5 or so :moping:)

When I went to NY, I actually used my 4wd and pulled some fallen trees off some family's land. Work great. Locked the hubs, locked the diff, let the air out, and put it in 4 Lo and went to town.

Solid 18.5MPG since purchased a year ago, stock. 285's didn't change anything for the worse. 182K on it now. The wife uses the 'runner mostly for grocery gettin' and kid taxi. Glad I shopped around for a 5-speed!