Recap and status
Firstly, I appreciate all the comments and advice. I am unfortunately not a wrench so I can't speak to the technical details. I wanted to recap the series of events and issue.
At my last ToyotaCare service I had on my 2016 4Runner, I was told my rear brake pads were down to a level that would require replacement soon. The dealership I used, I had used for years even with my previous 4th Gen 4Runner. They're a huge Toyota dealership in Southern California, and I don't think they'd try to swindle me with unnecessary work.
Anyway, I decided to save myself a bit of money by going out of the dealership network for this work. I went and bought OEM pads from a dealership and went out to an Econo Lube and Brake last Saturday. I didn't notice the issue until probably a day later when I checked my MPG counter. It was in the 16s when I was consistently getting mid-17s. I reset the counter and confirmed over the next couple of days that I was indeed getting poorer MPG in the low 16s. I've had this car for nearly two years, I know what the average MPG should be.
Yesterday, I took off early from work, drove down to the Lube and Brake, and had them take another look. Before they put it on the lift, I told the guy behind the desk that many (you guys) think that the parking brakes may be rubbing a bit. That's when he said he's never heard of that happening. When the truck was pulled into the garage by the same guy who worked on it on Saturday, I stood right outside watching the whole thing. I wanted to see what he was doing and checking.
After he lifted the truck, he went to each wheel and turned them. I see him putting some effort to see how much they would spin. He grabbed a wrench, went underneath and made a quarter turn on something, I couldn't tell you what. He turned the wheels again and I couldn't tell if the wheels turn more freely or not. After that, I got a bit annoyed because I wasn't sure this guy was qualified to do this work. For some reason, the hood was opened, maybe he was checking fluids, who knows. I asked him to drop the truck because he didn't have any other next steps. I took the truck out and parked it, went into the office area, and had a couple of words with the guy at the front desk. I was pretty pissed having taken time off work and having nothing to show for it.
However, what the mechanic did with the quarter turns kept sticking in my mind. I drove it around for another half hour, and for the first time since last Saturday, I saw the MPG go to the mid-17s while on the freeway. That quickly dropped back to the low 16s once I got off the freeway and drove home. However, I'm cautiously optimistic as I'm starting to see better MPG over the last day. Time will tell. We're heading to the trail this Sunday so the drive there will tell me if they've fixed the problem. I'm crediting the fix to you all. I'd like to think they would have found the issues but based on their attitude that it simply didn't happen, I think it would have taken more effort on my part to force them to fix it.
Much appreciated guys! Sorry for the long rant.
