City / Hwy
- Thread starter 5thGenJenn
- Start date
westwind77
New member
Something is not right here. When I drive in ECO, even just on the edge, I get a minimum of 17MPG on the system. A couple highway trips and it bumps up 18-19+ overall. Majority of my driving is short around town trips.
If you leave your 4R parked and idling that will drop your MPG's also. Do you start it and let it warm up for long periods? Based on what I can see your MPG's match up to how fast you are going through fuel, doubt you have a leak.
I personally have a heavy foot, at half tank now, and i'm at 16.5. I can easily back off and get it above 17-18. I have just under 2k on it now, picked it up in November and the milage was just the same when new, and getting better.
doodman
New member
no sir! i do not leave it idling for more than 4-5 minutes. at first, i left it idling for 10 min and did this on 3-4 occasions. but since i started worrying about this gas issue, i've not been idling for more than 4-5 min at a time, and even then i've only done it this for 4 or 5 occasions.
SeattleMike
New member
So at a minimum you've been idling for 46 minutes, but it might be as much as 65 minutes... and you wonder why your MPG is in the toilet? What about the guys doing the alarm install? Did they idle it and for how long? When idling, did you have any accessories running like the defroster or the A/C?
Before placing to much into the mpg calculation displayed by the computer, I would be interested in knowing how people are finding the accuracy of the computer upon tank filling. After my first fill up, the computer displayed my mpg as 18.something. Using traditional calculations (miles traveled/gallons inserted to fill tank), my mpg came out to be around 21 mpg. Notable difference.
SeattleMike
New member
I would check the air filter/intake. Using that much fuel doesn't sound right.
ralphpolo88
New member
I'm not sure if I'd say it's not right, he reset his calculator an hour ago. Besides, it depends on whether or not it was city or hwy driving.
On my last tank, I hand calculated my MPG's and I got 13.7 - that was 100% city. For reference, my family says I drive like a grandmother. I drive very economically, in the city I never get the engine up to 2k, even off the line.
poolzer
New member
Drove 554 miles today from Fallon, NV to San Diego, mostly highway (6-7 stop signs/stop lights through towns on the highway), with 2 main stops, once for gas and got 22.3 MPG out of it.
ave cruising speed of 75 mph, no faster than 80 which was passing people.
~2200 miles on it now since Presidents Day.
ave cruising speed of 75 mph, no faster than 80 which was passing people.
~2200 miles on it now since Presidents Day.
yea, 10-14 mpg seems low. when i make the 410 mile trek between fort benning and ft campbell i average between 19.5 and 23. i've found the truck does awesome right at 70mph. as long as i dont have too much stop and go or run into too many idiots around atlanta, i do pretty well. when i also have the high mpg, i tend to not like to reset my pc otherwise i'll see it hit 16 and 17 before slowly climbing back up.
SeattleMike
New member
After getting tires this morning, I took my TE out for a run to Baker Lake in the Mt. Baker National Forest. It was a 200-mile round trip, covering freeway, highway, city streets, and USFS mountain "roads". I reset the meter and averaged 19.5 MPG for the whole trip.
doodman
New member
so my empty fuel light came on today, and at 297 miles i refueled a total of 20.121 gallons. assuming that the dealership gave me a FULL tank at delivery, that means my mileage should be 297/20.12 = 14.7mpg ... pretty crappy for someone who drives ECO almost ALL the time.
i took my truck to the service dept and they were not very helpful as to what the problem could be. didn't say anything about it being normal for the truck to use more fuel when brand new and did not offer any possible explanations (EVEN after being prompted to provide them) as to why my mileage may be suffering (thanks a lot First Team Toyota service dept!)...
they did mention that i should keep a ledger of my fueling, mileage at such fueling, avg mpg, etc... which i am already doing and did not need them to tell me this common sense obviousness...
when i refueled today, i also reset my MPG counter for the SECOND time, and this time, i'm actually getting decent readings. i am currently sitting at 18.5mpg and earlier today was at 19.7 or something like that...
i'll update here the next time I refuel with the results...
i took my truck to the service dept and they were not very helpful as to what the problem could be. didn't say anything about it being normal for the truck to use more fuel when brand new and did not offer any possible explanations (EVEN after being prompted to provide them) as to why my mileage may be suffering (thanks a lot First Team Toyota service dept!)...
they did mention that i should keep a ledger of my fueling, mileage at such fueling, avg mpg, etc... which i am already doing and did not need them to tell me this common sense obviousness...
when i refueled today, i also reset my MPG counter for the SECOND time, and this time, i'm actually getting decent readings. i am currently sitting at 18.5mpg and earlier today was at 19.7 or something like that...
i'll update here the next time I refuel with the results...
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My GTI reads "full" with nearly 3 gallons less than full. I'm going to guess that you probably got a certain amount to where the tank looked full. My first tank in my GTI was also at 26mpg where I've averaged over 30mpg the other 54000 miles I've driven it. Basically, don't put too much stock in the first tank. If I were the service department, I'd want more data showing poor fuel economy before I dove into a deep investigation. Give it a couple tanks and see how things are going after that.
Things that kill your mileage:
- several hundred pounds of extra weight in the vehicle (especially in urban driving)
- lots of stops on your normal route. Remember, you are turning all this fuel into energy just to turn it back into heat when you have to slow down or stop. Even "eco" mode isn't going to help too much here.
- look ahead and anticipate traffic. If you see a light that is green 1/4th of a mile away, it will probably be red when you get there. Just coast to the light instead of trying to make it.
- drive smooth and predictable. The transmission is trying to anticipate what you're going to do next. It is a computer that can only do so much w/ the inputs it is given.
Is your S.O. driving any? My GTI fuel economy drops like a rock when my wife gets in the driver seat.
Good luck.
sandcrawler
Senior Member
i realize you're already keeping a log of your mileage... just wanted to say that if you have an iphone there's a smart little app called "gas cubby" that does a good job tracking that stuff. also tracks maintenance, etc.
good luck and hope your MPGs rise to meet your expectations.
doodman
New member
My GTI reads "full" with nearly 3 gallons less than full. I'm going to guess that you probably got a certain amount to where the tank looked full. My first tank in my GTI was also at 26mpg where I've averaged over 30mpg the other 54000 miles I've driven it. Basically, don't put too much stock in the first tank. If I were the service department, I'd want more data showing poor fuel economy before I dove into a deep investigation. Give it a couple tanks and see how things are going after that.
Things that kill your mileage:
- several hundred pounds of extra weight in the vehicle (especially in urban driving)
- lots of stops on your normal route. Remember, you are turning all this fuel into energy just to turn it back into heat when you have to slow down or stop. Even "eco" mode isn't going to help too much here.
- look ahead and anticipate traffic. If you see a light that is green 1/4th of a mile away, it will probably be red when you get there. Just coast to the light instead of trying to make it.
- drive smooth and predictable. The transmission is trying to anticipate what you're going to do next. It is a computer that can only do so much w/ the inputs it is given.
Is your S.O. driving any? My GTI fuel economy drops like a rock when my wife gets in the driver seat.
Good luck.
After your last suggestion to give it a couple tanks, I decided to take a log of the progress and do just that. I'm feeling better about things now as my mpg shows >18mpg. And I think you were probably right about the dealership filling it up NOT QUITE to full but that it appeared full on the guage. Thanks for your reassurances!
My SO does not drive it, I am the only one - I'm too paranoid to let anyone else drive my new trophy :trophy:
That's awesome! I'm going to download that app bc right now I'm keeping track of things in the Calendar app under a "Gas" entry that I put in every time I refuel. Thanks for sharing!
GhostRunner
New member
When i got the truck with 70 miles on it the meter read 13.7 mpg. I drive very economically, split highway and city, and the meter is sitting at 14.2 mpg now at 550 miles. I was not expecting this poor of gas mileage, i will hand calculate next time i fill up but with the way ive been driving that mpg is piss poor.
probably a stupid question, and i havent tried yet but how do i reset that mpg reader on the dash there?
probably a stupid question, and i havent tried yet but how do i reset that mpg reader on the dash there?
