average gas mileage

[NViejeP]

I just took a road trip from San Francisco to Los angeles, and I noticed that my mileage seemed low. I drove all highway at an average of 70 mph.

Ive got 75000 on my truck, and I got almost exactly 230 miles with the marker on the 1/4 mark. The light was not on. Im thinking I probably could've got 20-40 more miles on it before I needed to be worried about running out.

Does this seem normal? I know i get like 10 mpg city driving which just makes me wonder.

 

[druuu88]

well 230 with a 1/4 tank left means you would get 307 miles on the entire tank. 4runner tank is 18.5 gallons... so thats 16.6 MPG. not too bad. maybe a little bit low but thats right around where i get usually on the highway.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Do what everybody else does;run the tank down,write your mileage down,fill up and divide the miles by how many gallons you filled up with.

I mostly drive city/suburbs with a little highway driving and I'm a bit of a leadfoot and I see just over 250 a tank. My mom has a '99 limited which sees alot of highway (her commute is 60 miles a day) and she gets about 320 a tank up from 270 a tank from her suburb driving.

 

[locknload]

When I brought my '97 down from MA I was at 350 miles when I pulled in to gas up. I could still see some of the white 'E' line under the needle so I know I could of gone further. Of course I forgot to record the gallons I put in to calculate exact mpg, next time. It did better than I thought.

 

[NViejeP]

Wow, something doesn't seem right.

 

[hulk311]

I ran out of gas on Saturday night.

I used to pull into the gas station after driving a little bit with the gas light on. Several times I drove to fill up with 320 miles on the meter and when I filled up it would only take like 16 gallons.

So I thought to myself - I still have 2.5 gallons left, I can still drive maybe 25 more miles.

So last Saturday I passed the 320 mile mark. With each gas station that I passed I became more and more excited, knowing that at anytime my truck would run out of gas.

330 miles passed.

Then 335 miles.

So finally at about 340 miles my truck starts making funny noises, like shes choking. She turns off and I coast off to the side of the road. I turn her off and turn her back on again and surprisingly she turns back on! So I drive a little bit more, maybe 1/4 mile and she turns off again - so I coast from like 45mph to 0mph in what seems like a good 30 seconds.

I could see the gas station from where I was coasting from.

I turn her back on again and she starts again and I drive into the gas station.

Now, I wish I would have filled up ALL the way so I could be the only member on here who said that he filled up a 18.5 gallon gas tank with 18 or more gallons of gas.

But gas was $2.80/gallon for the cheap stuff so I decided to just buy 5 gallons.

I learned my lesson though - fill up once your reach 300 miles.

Something is not right here though. If I drove 340 miles and the gas tank is 18.5 gallons that means I got only 18miles per gallon which is terrible. I drive the truck like its got an egg under the pedal and on the highway I do 65mph and when I am coming back from somewhere late at night when there is hardly anyone out I do 60mph - and both times use the CC.

 

[derKster]

there's A LOT of determining factors that could change the fuel consumption of a vehicle. Not naming the obvious like spark plugs, fuel filters, air cleaners, o2 sensors....things like ambient air temperature, wind, tire pressure can all alter fuel consumption.. for instance. I live in Canada and i bought my truck in the middle of winter. Every fill up i did i took readings of how many miles i did on how many gallons of gas. The MOST to this date that i've filled up is 15 gallons.

During the winter months i logged at most 220 miles. Now that spring is here and the weather is warmer i'm now hitting 265 miles to the 15 gallons that i put in. I still do the same route as i did in the winter time.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

The majority of 4Runner gas guages seem to show almost empty when in reality your fillup is only going to be about 15.5gal at the most. The absolute most I've ever filled up (not overfilling) with was just over 16 gallons. There is about a gallon and a half ove unuseable fuel left in the tank when you do run out.

95% of my fillups are just over 15gal and my average miles per tank have been between 240-255 which averages out to be about 16-17mpg and that's mostly around town stop and go.

I've only had one all hwy trip and I averaged about 21mpg but I'm just happy when I do see over 17mpg.

 

[NViejeP]

Ya, I might just take the chance in a month or so and replace my O2 sensor. If thats not it, than I guess it has to be normal cause my spark plugs were checked, my air filter is new, my tires are normal PSI.

 

[swatman1331]

my dad has figured out over the past couple years that, driving reasonably, you should get about 300 miles to one tank of gas in any car. he thinks that's the way they figure out how big to make the gas tank...about 300 miles worth of gas.

 

[rytard]

This article is worth reading: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_hypermilers.html
The guy does some pretty absurd things that a normal driver should never do, but I think there are some valid tips in there. One thing I've tried since reading this a couple weeks ago is letting up on the accelerator when I don't need it. For example, there are lots of hills where I live, so if I know I'll be going downhill soon, I'll coast on a straightaway before the hill and then pick up speed again when I start descending the hill without wasting any extra gas. I've only watched this for about one tank and I think I got about 270 before needing to fill up. I usually average about 250. Could be a coincidence or it could work. I'll have to keep on trying it to see if it actually makes any difference.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

my dad has figured out over the past couple years that, driving reasonably, you should get about 300 miles to one tank of gas in any car. he thinks that's the way they figure out how big to make the gas tank...about 300 miles worth of gas.

He hasn't driven a 2nd gen Runner.

 

[rearviewmirror]

Get on www.fueleconomy.com and start tracking your economy correctly. I stopped believing people who say they get 20+ MPG on a 3.4 liter 4Runner.. if it's true show me the proof...

Check this thread:
http://yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=86034

Here's my economy over the last 2 years.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

The only people who get over 20mpg is the ones that have nearly all highway drives. My mom's commute in her '99 Limited went from a suburb drive of 10 miles round trip and she was averaging 17-18 and now has a 60 mile round trip commute mostly highway and she's been hitting almost 320 a tank with the usual 15 gallon fillup which is 21mpg but just barely.

 

[rearviewmirror]

The only people who get over 20mpg is the ones that have nearly all highway drives. My mom's commute in her '99 Limited went from a suburb drive of 10 miles round trip and she was averaging 17-18 and now has a 60 mile round trip commute mostly highway and she's been hitting almost 320 a tank with the usual 15 gallon fillup which is 21mpg but just barely.

There's a huge difference between 16 and 18 MPG on these trucks. All I'm saying is that I never see proof. Look at my chart above, even the EPA estimate is well below 20. Those are saying they're getting 18+ probably aren't figuring it exactly but rather guessing based on how many miles per tank they're getting. I have proven mine gets 15-16 MPG no matter how I drive it. I've proven it over 2 years and ~10k miles. In that 2 year span I've taken many road trips some loaded down and some unladen which still doesn't yield anything near 20MPG. I doubt it's my 4Runner, I had a 1999 LTD 4WD that got the same fuel economy, currently my 2000 LTD 4WD is getting the exact same. So if someone says their getting 18+ take it with a grain of salt that their probably "guessing".

 

[RonMAIDEN]

I'm with ya' man;I'm a bit of a skeptic myself with high claims but my mom takes accurate tab of her mileage and fillups (and has for over 20 years on all her cars) and her fillups are almost exactly what mine are and we compare mileage every few weeks.

I've had a low of 14mpg using 4wd alot this winter (a few miles of off roading tho' doesn't seem to affect overall mileage) but after new plugs,tuneup,upping my tire pressure to 35psi I've been getting a consistent 16.9-17.2mpg. I do get a better consistency when I don't have my basket on top.

There are so many factors that affect MPGs.

Weather
style of driving (jackrabbit starts,hard acceleration uphills kill overall mileage)
tire pressure
type of tire (street vs A/T can really be a big diff)
state of engine tune
Does your gas contain Methanol?

Octane of gas can be a factor too since it oddly seems I get better mpg with 85 vs 87 which is what Toyota recommends.

Also where you live can be a factor like :is your area hilly or flat,do you drive on dirt roads vs paved?

 

[NViejeP]

Yah. I haven't absoluely decided if I'm goign to change my O2 sensor yet. But from the looks of it, I'm definately not getting average gas mileage.

 

[alaskaman]

On my 97 2WD SR5 I get 20 mpg consistently never above 21 and down to 18 if I drive hard.

 

[SnakeS]

you can probably tell why i'm getting a 4runner. right now i', driving a 95 dodge ram 1500 it gets 12mpg and has a 32gal tanks

 

[p nut]

Here is a copy of the spread sheet I made. I commute a lot, so all of these are mostly highway miles (I'd say about 90%). Keep in mind that I had a Gen 1 supercharger. At the end of September, I purchased a set of REVO's that were +1 size, so you can see the MPG dropped about 1-2MPG after that.

Date-------MPG--------------Driving Style
7/19/06 21.0441226 Mellow
7/31/06 18.21711569 Aggressive
8/3/06 19.95009105 Aggressive
8/11/06 20.375 Mellow
8/16/06 20.81247318 Mellow
8/21/06 21.0418862 Mellow
8/24/06 19.56460674 Moderate
8/28/06 19.41056141 Moderate
8/30/06 19.64483907 Moderate
9/4/06 18.82008428 Aggressive
9/6/06 21.05035971 Mellow
9/15/06 20.51773096 Mellow-Moderate
9/15/06 16.88226839 Canyon ride
9/17/06 20.53738944 Mellow, but up a mountain
9/18/06 20.63700234 Mellow
9/19/06 19.60596787 Moderate
9/21/06 18.32433005 Aggressive
9/25/06 17.7647619 Moderate - Aggressive
10/4/06 18.9200716 Moderate - Aggressive
10/6/06 18.40704255 Moderate - Aggressive
10/10/06 18.14087998 Moderate - Aggressive
10/15/06 17.22314549 Moderate - Aggressive
10/17/06 18.84802675 Moderate
10/19/06 17.52469006 Moderate - Aggressive
10/23/06 16.21031746 Aggressive
10/26/06 18.13920455 Moderate - Aggressive
10/30/06 17.85046729 Aggressive