Just got 22.377mpg with my 01 SR5 V6 4WD!

[spazzyone]

I've had the truck for about 1.5 years now and it's never been good on gas. The best I've ever gotten was 16mpg. This weekend, I averaged 22.377mpg!

This winter I was averaging 10-12mpg per tank in mixed driving, mostly city with autostart to warm up the truck. I decided to try out all the DIY fixes on the forum around early March and cleaned the MAF & throttle body, used some injector cleaner, replaced denso spark plugs, air & fuel filters, toyota pcv valve/grommet etc. I had replaced my tires also with A/T tires - Kumho Road Venture AT51 for stock spec for the 5-stars. I blamed some of the MPG on winter gas & A/T tires.

At first after all that work, it really didn't give me more MPG until my roadtrip this weekend. Maybe they switched off winter gas, maybe it finally cycled new readings.. who knows. Anyways, I drove ~251 miles roundtrip and made it back with 1/3 the tank showing on the fuel gauge. I've never gotten more than 200 miles on the tank before the gas light went on.

About 20 miles of that was city and 10 of the city driving I put it in 4WD/AWD for heavy rain.

I used cruise control for a majority of the highway driving and it wasn't all clear roads. I had to +/- 10-20 mph more often than I would have liked due to traffic and random slowdowns on the highway. I basically never went more than 5 over the posted limit at any given point. A few road trips ago in a rented Suburban, I got a ticket 91 in a 65 in a different state. Not fun to say the least.. I didn't realize I was going that fast on the downhill until it was too late. I now pretty much rely on cruise control.

Anyways, sorry for the long post but I had to tell someone that would actually give a

I have a longer road trip coming up the first weekend of June and then a cross country trip starting mid August.

Side note, I just remembered last weekend I removed the running boards. Sneaky suspicion now that it not only makes Gaston look better, it probably did help with air dynamics and about 50-60lbs.

 

[JZiggy]

It's amazing how keeping the speed limit helps gas mileage. Doing 65 my 3RZ will get ~23mpg, but at 75 it easily goes to 20mpg or less.

Sounds like the maintenance you did helped out your mileage. Good fuel economy is often a good indicator that things are working well in a vehicle.

 

[nc-grayson]

So how did you come up with this math?

251 miles on 2/3 of a tank = 22.377? I didn't do the math just wondering where your numbers came from.

Need to cycle through at least one full tank empty to empty to get some accurate reading.

 

[phattyduck]

So how did you come up with this math?

251 miles on 2/3 of a tank = 22.377? I didn't do the math just wondering where your numbers came from.

Need to cycle through at least one full tank empty to empty to get some accurate reading.

If he filled up with 11.217 gallons, that's 22.377 MPG. The gas gauge isn't the best at showing actual fuel remaining...

If your truck is in good shape, you should easily be able to get 20mpg+ on the highway.

My truck new got 24-26mpg (V6 auto, 2WD, 15" wheels) - cruise always set at 67 mpg
My truck with 260k miles and 265/70-17 K02 tires gets 22-23mpg
My truck after the 4WD swap and same tires gets 21-22 mpg

This requires following the speed limit though! Gas mileage is probably best around 55mph, though I generally set the cruise at 67mph (indicated 2k rpm - just seems right?).

Around town (6 mile commute and weekend trips around Los Angeles) I get 18.5mpg.

-Charlie

 

[spazzyone]

So how did you come up with this math?

251 miles on 2/3 of a tank = 22.377? I didn't do the math just wondering where your numbers came from.

Need to cycle through at least one full tank empty to empty to get some accurate reading.

At the start of the trip, I filled my tank to full at a local station and reset my trip meter. On my way back, I filled at another local gas station about 2 miles from my house. I took the mileage from my trip meter and divided it by the gallons of gas I purchased to fill it. Not a truly scientific method but good enough for me.

My fuel gauge on the dash was showing around 1/3 full but I filled so I could know for the specific trip and was worried my gas gauge maybe wasn't working.

I don't have the receipt in front of me but it was a little over 11 gallons of gas to fill it a bit over the F line. It confirmed to me the gauge was working. With 7 gallons in the tank left, I could have gone another 154'ish if I had continued with the same MPG if the trip was farther. Around 400 miles for the tank. I've never gone more than 210 miles on a tank (with gas light on) previously.

I've had several trips with just highway and never got anything remotely close. I don't expect to always average 22 but to get anything over 16 is short of amazing to me.

 

[Unner]

Sounds about right. I got 23 MPG on an all highway trip once before, that was when I was stock though. Even with my 32" tires are all my armor I could still match or beat the EPA ratings if I was driving sanely. Driving into a head wind though, forget it... Driving back from Moab going through SD at 80 MPH (80 MPH speed limits) with a 20-30 MPH head wind I was getting 12 MPG if I was lucky...

Even with 33's I still seem to get at least 17 MPG on the highway, but I've only had these tires for 500 miles or so.

 

[frodiesel]

Worked a month all over rural Louisiana and saw a consistent 23-24 with 32s on my 99 4x4 with speedy lift. If i got impatient or on the highway it went down to 22.

 

[Mark_BC]

Check your odometer against google earth over a section of freeway that is easy to measure like 5 miles between exits. You tires could affect your actual distance.

 

[JZiggy]

Check your odometer against google earth over a section of freeway that is easy to measure like 5 miles between exits. You tires could affect your actual distance.

This.

Calibrate your odometer before trying to get an accurate MPG. There are apps and stuff you can use to measure actual distance travelled.

Example: on my truck, my odometer reads 10% slow. So if I travel a real 100 miles it will only show 90 miles. Because of this, if I simply divide gallons by odometer change then my MPG will be 10% low. When I calculate gallons/miles I then multiple by x1.1 to correct of the odometer being slow.

 

[bwarren]

My 3rz always get's a least 20 mpg. In the summer it's usually closer to 22-23mpg.

 

[etc.]

Last trip in my 97 w/ 3.4 4x4 got 22.4x mpg. Lowest was 19.xx, but I believe that to be the cause of winter gas and/or steeper inclines. I cruised at 63 mph which put me at ~2200 rpms. The trip was 1400 miles of highway and I had a light load.

Around town I average 13-15mpg.

On a side note, my 2015 Trail got a high of 24.87 mpg when doing 65-70 on the last cross country trip. Prior best was 22.xmpg.

 

[Lindenwood]

"Winter Gas" is not an actual factor in the cold weather MPG losses. In the winter, there are trace amounts of more volatile substances that are left in the fuel, because at cold ambient temps they actually stay liquid. In the summer, the EPA requires those extra substances to be refined out, which costs more moneg, but creates "summer gas."

The real kicker: it actually only has about 2% less energy density than EPA-standard "summer" blends. That is, with all else being equal, you would only see a 2% reduction in fuel efficiency with the swap.

Bad MPG in the winter comes from the long warmup times where the ECU runs very rich and with retarded ignition timing. And it gets that much worse when you let the engine idle to warm up.

 

[catrains]

"Winter Gas" is not an actual factor in the cold weather MPG losses. In the winter, there are trace amounts of more volatile substances that are left in the fuel, because at cold ambient temps they actually stay liquid. In the summer, the EPA requires those extra substances to be refined out, which costs more moneg, but creates "summer gas."

The real kicker: it actually only has about 2% less energy density than EPA-standard "summer" blends. That is, with all else being equal, you would only see a 2% reduction in fuel efficiency with the swap.

Bad MPG in the winter comes from the long warmup times where the ECU runs very rich and with retarded ignition timing. And it gets that much worse when you let the engine idle to warm up.

older vehicles are not all that good to adjust on the alcohol % in the fuel .. I noticed on a road trip 700 miles per day that the MPG changed after I filled up. I also found E85 vehicles with a scan tool can measure the alcohol in the fuel and they stated more alcohol lower MPG.

my MPG varies from 18-20 MPG... same driving but the fuel is the only change. I can see it immediately on the scan gauge.

 

[NegroTundra]

Check your odometer against google earth over a section of freeway that is easy to measure like 5 miles between exits. You tires could affect your actual distance.

Thats a good thought. I've watched mile posts over the course of hundreds of miles and found out I lose a mile over every 50 "mileposts miles" or so. So that means my indicated speed is a hair faster than I'm actually going, and my distance traveled on the odometer is less than I actually traveled.

I dont really factor it into my gas mileage figures, just use mileage as a frame of reference for how everything is ticking.

I roll on factory tire size, so this info may pertain to most 4runners out there, maybe not.

 

[Lindenwood]

older vehicles are not all that good to adjust on the alcohol % in the fuel .. I noticed on a road trip 700 miles per day that the MPG changed after I filled up. I also found E85 vehicles with a scan tool can measure the alcohol in the fuel and they stated more alcohol lower MPG.

my MPG varies from 18-20 MPG... same driving but the fuel is the only change. I can see it immediately on the scan gauge.

I promise, whatever difference you were seeing was due to changing circumstances for various legs of the trip (more hills, higher speeds, more traffic, etc), rather than any difference in E10 fuel quality.

How would you even know whether you were getting "winter" gas vs "summer" gas at any given station?

 

[19963.4lsr5]

Traffic and temp have a lot of effect on mpg.


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[19963.4lsr5]

Traffic and temp have a lot of effect on mpg.


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November 15 to March 15 is winter blended fuel.


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[catrains]

I promise, whatever difference you were seeing was due to changing circumstances for various legs of the trip (more hills, higher speeds, more traffic, etc), rather than any difference in E10 fuel quality.

How would you even know whether you were getting "winter" gas vs "summer" gas at any given station?

NO difference in driving when you do 700 miles on a trip on the same day. scan gauge shows all this immediately !!!.. one tank 18MPG , fill up engine running continuously then start driving 20 MPG...................

no math errors everything running continuously for 12 hrs......

gallons / miles match the scan gauge extremely accurate..

I NEVER MENTIONED WINTER/SUMMER GAS...

I did do some octane testing and it did not change the MPG but that was last year. the gas quality and ethanol % does make a difference but we cannot actually measure this on these trucks . NOT E85 capable.

 

[Lindenwood]

NO difference in driving when you do 700 miles on a trip on the same day. scan gauge shows all this immediately !!!.. one tank 18MPG , fill up engine running continuously then start driving 20 MPG...................

no math errors everything running continuously for 12 hrs......

gallons / miles match the scan gauge extremely accurate..

I NEVER MENTIONED WINTER/SUMMER GAS...

I did do some octane testing and it did not change the MPG but that was last year. the gas quality and ethanol % does make a difference but we cannot actually measure this on these trucks . NOT E85 capable.

Are you saying you suspect the second station was using gasoline with 11% greater energy density and nobody noticed it but you and your scangauge?

Driving 700 miles at one time doesnt mean anything. My point waa changing soeed limits, changing terrain, changing drivers, or perhaps decreased AC use or rolling up the windows made the difference you saw.