Nice! That's the kinda milage numbers I'd like to hear more of.
Horrible Gas Mileage
- Thread starter JMEJKE
- Start date
Nice! That's the kinda milage numbers I'd like to hear more of.
WFO_Racer
New member
///AIRDAM
New member
it mostly depends on your driving, i have been a fuel mileage fanatic for years, i have calculated every tank i have ever filled up. in my 4runner mileage varies rather drastically depending on many different conditions.
letting your vehicle idle, and warm up, burns alot more gas than you think, when you "run into moms house to say hey" and let your vehicle idle for twenty/thirty miuntes or so, you may burn up to a half a gallon of fuel
when you are the all city driving kinda guy, and seem to have a lead foot and quick accelerating from one read light to the next, you can expect 15-16mpg. one trick i learned, that will drastically cut your fuel consumption in the city is to drive smarter. in order to conserve gas, #1 dont be in such a hurry #2 drive around and pretend you have a 2liter coca-cola bottle sitting upright in your rear cargo hatch and you dont wanna knock it over. accelerating fast from a redlight will knock it over (bad driving habits) and if you are the kinda guy that is running 40mph and waits 150ft from your stop and slams on breaks hard will also knock the drink over (also bad driving habits) start off slowly enough that you wont knock the imaginary drink over and slow down more with the engine braking than you slamming on the wide pedal. if you will pretend you are driving around with a 2liter coke bottle in the rear hatch, and try not to spill it over, you'll net about 18-18.5 city.
on the highway, you are driving a huge brick that has the aerodynamics of ....... well a huge brick. the faster you go, the more wind resistance your enging is fighting to overcome, and the more fuel you will burn. if you are a 100% freeway driver, and accelerate slowly like the previously mentioned person driving like you have a drink standing in the back you dont wanna spill, and you drive 65mph on the freeway, you will net about 21mpg. BUT when you bump it up to 70mph on the freeway and the mileage drops to about 20mpg and the numbers keep dropping as you increase the speed. when you bump up to 75mph constant your mileage drops to around 19.2-19.5 and for the in a hurry guys who drive 77-78mph you can expect about 18.4-18.6 i know there is a large number of people on here that do not understand what the "ECO" light is or what it means, or how it works. if you'll notice that sweeping bar that keeps sweeping back and forth as you drive, that bar indicates "load" how much load your engine is seeing. as you accelerate from a red light, in the lower gears you'll see the sweep peg out and the green light go off. that means your load is rather high trying to get all your weight moving. when you get up to speeds, and start backing off the throttle you'll see the sweep descend and the green eco light come on. this means that the load is not so great once you get rolling and have yourself maintaining one set speed. as you start to hit an incline at freeway speeds you'll see the sweep start creeping upwards. that means the engine is seeing more load and therefore having to work harder to maintain your speed, and burning more fuel. that sweeping bar has absolutely nothing to do with throttle %. you can be running 6% throttle at 45mph, and be on an incline and seeing 75% load and the sweeping bar be pegged out. meaning even though you are going slowly, and not using alot of throttle, your load can still be high and burning alot of fuel. the toyota ECU senses throttle percentage, and load, and RPM to calculate its rate that the computer adds fuel to make power. the more load you see, the more your mileage goes down cause the more fuel you are burning. if you watch the sweeping bar, at 65mph flat freeway speeds, you will only see about 3-4 bars, meaning very little load, not a whole lot of energy used to keep you moving at 65mph. for about every 6mph you increase that, you'll add 1 bar to the sweeping graph and if you are running 78mph, you'll only be 2 bars away from the eco light going off. meaning its taking a whole lot more fuel to overcome the load and wind resistance your vehicle is seeing at 78mph. so your fuel consumption is more, and your mileage is less.
my advice, if your fuel economy is bad, change your driving style for 2 tanks, drive like you have a huge wedding cake in the back, that you just cant tump over, or in my case i have always thought of a 2liter coke bottle. try to accelerate slow enough, and let out of the gas long before you have to stop, let the engine decellerating slow you down rather than your brakes and use the brakes sparingly and drop your freeway speeds by 5mph. if you currently run 78 everywhere, back your max speed down to 73 and watch your fuel mileage climb.
another few points to note out about toyotas fuel management systems. when you decellerate, toyota tunes the ECU to cut fuel while you decellerate. if you are on a freeway at 75mph, rather than keep your foot on the gas all the way up the ramp and slam on brakes to stop at the intersection, you are basically burning gas all the way to the intersection. how about this: let off the gas about 1/4 mile before the intersection and let your engine braking slow you down. when you let off the throttle and begin to decellerate, toyotas engine management system cuts your fuel, and turns your engine into an air pump to help slow you down. as you decellerate you are not burning fuel, which means for that 1/4 of a mile before the off ramp when you let out of the throttle, and the 1/4 mile of the off ramp, you just gained 1/2 of a mile on your tank of gas, that you did not burn a drop of gas to travel. this will save you more fuel mileage. use the engine braking to slow you down as much as possible wherever you go, you are not burning gas when you do this, so your fuel economy goes up, and your brake pad useage goes down. i typically get 150,000 miles out of a set of brake pads because of this. the more you let the engine decellerate and slow you down, the better your fuel economy will be and the longer your brake pads will last.
letting your vehicle idle, and warm up, burns alot more gas than you think, when you "run into moms house to say hey" and let your vehicle idle for twenty/thirty miuntes or so, you may burn up to a half a gallon of fuel
when you are the all city driving kinda guy, and seem to have a lead foot and quick accelerating from one read light to the next, you can expect 15-16mpg. one trick i learned, that will drastically cut your fuel consumption in the city is to drive smarter. in order to conserve gas, #1 dont be in such a hurry #2 drive around and pretend you have a 2liter coca-cola bottle sitting upright in your rear cargo hatch and you dont wanna knock it over. accelerating fast from a redlight will knock it over (bad driving habits) and if you are the kinda guy that is running 40mph and waits 150ft from your stop and slams on breaks hard will also knock the drink over (also bad driving habits) start off slowly enough that you wont knock the imaginary drink over and slow down more with the engine braking than you slamming on the wide pedal. if you will pretend you are driving around with a 2liter coke bottle in the rear hatch, and try not to spill it over, you'll net about 18-18.5 city.
on the highway, you are driving a huge brick that has the aerodynamics of ....... well a huge brick. the faster you go, the more wind resistance your enging is fighting to overcome, and the more fuel you will burn. if you are a 100% freeway driver, and accelerate slowly like the previously mentioned person driving like you have a drink standing in the back you dont wanna spill, and you drive 65mph on the freeway, you will net about 21mpg. BUT when you bump it up to 70mph on the freeway and the mileage drops to about 20mpg and the numbers keep dropping as you increase the speed. when you bump up to 75mph constant your mileage drops to around 19.2-19.5 and for the in a hurry guys who drive 77-78mph you can expect about 18.4-18.6 i know there is a large number of people on here that do not understand what the "ECO" light is or what it means, or how it works. if you'll notice that sweeping bar that keeps sweeping back and forth as you drive, that bar indicates "load" how much load your engine is seeing. as you accelerate from a red light, in the lower gears you'll see the sweep peg out and the green light go off. that means your load is rather high trying to get all your weight moving. when you get up to speeds, and start backing off the throttle you'll see the sweep descend and the green eco light come on. this means that the load is not so great once you get rolling and have yourself maintaining one set speed. as you start to hit an incline at freeway speeds you'll see the sweep start creeping upwards. that means the engine is seeing more load and therefore having to work harder to maintain your speed, and burning more fuel. that sweeping bar has absolutely nothing to do with throttle %. you can be running 6% throttle at 45mph, and be on an incline and seeing 75% load and the sweeping bar be pegged out. meaning even though you are going slowly, and not using alot of throttle, your load can still be high and burning alot of fuel. the toyota ECU senses throttle percentage, and load, and RPM to calculate its rate that the computer adds fuel to make power. the more load you see, the more your mileage goes down cause the more fuel you are burning. if you watch the sweeping bar, at 65mph flat freeway speeds, you will only see about 3-4 bars, meaning very little load, not a whole lot of energy used to keep you moving at 65mph. for about every 6mph you increase that, you'll add 1 bar to the sweeping graph and if you are running 78mph, you'll only be 2 bars away from the eco light going off. meaning its taking a whole lot more fuel to overcome the load and wind resistance your vehicle is seeing at 78mph. so your fuel consumption is more, and your mileage is less.
my advice, if your fuel economy is bad, change your driving style for 2 tanks, drive like you have a huge wedding cake in the back, that you just cant tump over, or in my case i have always thought of a 2liter coke bottle. try to accelerate slow enough, and let out of the gas long before you have to stop, let the engine decellerating slow you down rather than your brakes and use the brakes sparingly and drop your freeway speeds by 5mph. if you currently run 78 everywhere, back your max speed down to 73 and watch your fuel mileage climb.
another few points to note out about toyotas fuel management systems. when you decellerate, toyota tunes the ECU to cut fuel while you decellerate. if you are on a freeway at 75mph, rather than keep your foot on the gas all the way up the ramp and slam on brakes to stop at the intersection, you are basically burning gas all the way to the intersection. how about this: let off the gas about 1/4 mile before the intersection and let your engine braking slow you down. when you let off the throttle and begin to decellerate, toyotas engine management system cuts your fuel, and turns your engine into an air pump to help slow you down. as you decellerate you are not burning fuel, which means for that 1/4 of a mile before the off ramp when you let out of the throttle, and the 1/4 mile of the off ramp, you just gained 1/2 of a mile on your tank of gas, that you did not burn a drop of gas to travel. this will save you more fuel mileage. use the engine braking to slow you down as much as possible wherever you go, you are not burning gas when you do this, so your fuel economy goes up, and your brake pad useage goes down. i typically get 150,000 miles out of a set of brake pads because of this. the more you let the engine decellerate and slow you down, the better your fuel economy will be and the longer your brake pads will last.
///AIRDAM
New member
also, one more note, a toyota engine management system also learns your driving habits. a more aggressive driver will have his computer adding more timing and more fuel, which means his mileage will be far worse than some one who is a conservative driver which his computer is more lienant on the timing and fuel consumption. if you drive aggressive and are seeing 16mpg, and take my advice and drive like a total gram-ma for one tank and only see 2mpg better, dont get discouraged. it takes as much as a month of solid easy driving to get the computer to change to a less aggressive timing map and fuel consumption map. thats why i said take it easy for at least 2 tanks. you'll notice a quick bump the very first tank, and a little more the 2nd tank, and a little more the 3rd tank. after a month or two of solid smooth easy driving you'll be getting a good bit different mileage than with a bad driving habits. and it only tanks about 1 tank of driving bad again to wipe the month of good out.
///AIRDAM
New member
yes you are correct. i did fail to mention that. the indicator shows you the average consumption based on the total miles traveled versus gas consumed since the last time you reset the MPG average indicator. so if you have traveled 10,000 miles since you set it last, its averaging out 10,000 miles of driving so driving good "today" wont show you an instant reading unless you clear out the MPG average. i believe you put it on the MPG indicator and hold the button on the cluster down and it resets itself if i am not mistaken. this can give you an accurate consumption for short trips based on what you have consumed at that particular time on that particular trip.
i have seen the calculated mileage be within a few tenths off the MPG that i figure out longhand so yes i agree the calculated mileage seems to be spot on.
i have seen the calculated mileage be within a few tenths off the MPG that i figure out longhand so yes i agree the calculated mileage seems to be spot on.
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diverscale
Member
So you have not purchased the 4runner already ...
So, you want to "hear" good numbers? Well, I am getting 35 MPG with my 4runner. There you have.
Sad reality, though, is that people tend to post their "bests" on internet forums, which is sometimes far from attainable for average people.
Trucks in this segment all get approx. the same fuel economy, lets say in a 10% margin. Whichever you get, you will find that it costs more money that a honda civic, and what you will hear here won't change a thing on what mileage you will get depending on your driving habits, location and route you take.
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Bay33saw
New member
I have a 12 LE and I drive 16 miles to work each way with about 3 miles of that surface streets once I get off the freeway. I use the "ECO" light and the bar thing as a kind of a game, plus I drive like an old lady as the drivers in Las Vegas Suck Nuts, (I even quit riding my motorcycle on the streets because of how bad people are out her.....but that's another story)
Anyway on the 5 days I drive to work, I average 21.3 - 22.1 MPG at a cruise control set at 65 MPH, it's only on my two days off that my MPG drops down as I am driving on the surface streets, considering how aeordynamic the Runner is not, I think it gets good gas milage, better than my GMC Sierra anyway.
Anyway on the 5 days I drive to work, I average 21.3 - 22.1 MPG at a cruise control set at 65 MPH, it's only on my two days off that my MPG drops down as I am driving on the surface streets, considering how aeordynamic the Runner is not, I think it gets good gas milage, better than my GMC Sierra anyway.
1engineer
Moderator
Disconnect battery for 10 minutes or so.
MeBe4running
New member
Near 6 digits on the ODO...
So, Im 1456 miles away from 100,000 mile mark. Which is quite a lot when you think about it certainly considering the truck is only 3 years old. With that being said it has come to my attention to work out what that has cost me in gas/ its overall consumption (I blame 1E for wanting to find out). Well here you (roughly) have it:
Mileage: 100,000
Average MPG: 15
Average Gas price: $3.36 (87 Regular)
Gallons of fuel Consumed: 6,667
Total cost of gas: $22,436
So, Im 1456 miles away from 100,000 mile mark. Which is quite a lot when you think about it certainly considering the truck is only 3 years old. With that being said it has come to my attention to work out what that has cost me in gas/ its overall consumption (I blame 1E for wanting to find out). Well here you (roughly) have it:
Mileage: 100,000
Average MPG: 15
Average Gas price: $3.36 (87 Regular)
Gallons of fuel Consumed: 6,667
Total cost of gas: $22,436
1engineer
Moderator
Perfect! Not bad for your mods. On my SR5 I had right near 70K at 19.96 mpg, call it 20. So 5 mpg better. If I would have went 100K like you I would have used 5K gallons at a cost of $16,800 or approx $5,600 less. That tidbit should be helpful for new guys wanting to know how much mods cost in efficiency. I do think 15 mpg for you is a good figure though Ollie.
MeBe4running
New member
Me too! Though the thought of saving $5,000-$6,000 is appealing
I posted it here for the excat reason you mentioned.
4runner_20
New member
How do you reset the mpg? I've only had mine for 1 month....
diverscale
Member
Once your MPG id displaying in your instrument cluster, press the knob for 3 seconds. It will reset.
JayceeP
New member
Just had my worst full-up the other day. First tank with a fuel economy at or above 14L/100km (below 16.80mpg). It was 14.95L/10km (15.73mpg). Usually I get around 13.75L/100km (17.10mpg) for a tank of general day-to-day driving and my 8km/5mi commute. I fill-up every 2 weeks if I don't travel anywhere outside of the city.
aintgonnahappn
New member
I hate for my first post to seem troll like, but did anyone ever think that the gas mileage is bad because its a big SUV, I am lost as to the purpose of this thread! :sorry::hiding:
If you want gas mileage get one of the CUV's or a car. I mean really its not that complicated!!! Also the right foot has a lot to do with it.
If you want gas mileage get one of the CUV's or a car. I mean really its not that complicated!!! Also the right foot has a lot to do with it.
bzizzi
Member
Poor fuel mileage
Don't give up on your 4R so soon, I have a 2011 and the same thing happened to me. Toyota uses synthetic oil from new in the 4.0 V6 and my engine took 20K mi to break in and get what the sticker says.
I took a trip to Cape Cod this past summer in my 2011 SR5 4X4 and got over
23mpg calculated not using mpg computer. I was driving between 70-80 mph.
I do not agree with using full synthetic oil until engine is properly broken in.
I was also burning Shell 87 octane fuel.
Don't give up on your 4R so soon, I have a 2011 and the same thing happened to me. Toyota uses synthetic oil from new in the 4.0 V6 and my engine took 20K mi to break in and get what the sticker says.
I took a trip to Cape Cod this past summer in my 2011 SR5 4X4 and got over
23mpg calculated not using mpg computer. I was driving between 70-80 mph.
I do not agree with using full synthetic oil until engine is properly broken in.
I was also burning Shell 87 octane fuel.
Is mine the worst?
I have just purchased a used 2011 LE with 46.3K miles and I am getting 9.4 miles in city. From what I have read in the threads, mine is the worst? What could be happening? My country's weather averages 68F to 82.F and 75.2F been the most contant all year long. I am not going over 32+ miles of the road's limit. Engine cold and warm starts smooth, drive mainly in D, never feel knocking. What is wrong with it?
I have just purchased a used 2011 LE with 46.3K miles and I am getting 9.4 miles in city. From what I have read in the threads, mine is the worst? What could be happening? My country's weather averages 68F to 82.F and 75.2F been the most contant all year long. I am not going over 32+ miles of the road's limit. Engine cold and warm starts smooth, drive mainly in D, never feel knocking. What is wrong with it?
