V6 Gas Mileage...

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mattb2003

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We picked up our 4Runner at the end of October. I drove it back to Colorado from Texas (about 700 miles) and averaged right around 19 mpg's. for the entire trip. We headed south for Christmas, and after another 400 or so mile trip, we averaged right at 19mpg's again (calculating by hand, not the trip computer). Is anyone getting better highway miles on their V6? I don't drive hard at all (and for what it's worth, we averaged between 65 and 75 the entire trip. When I had a new 4Runner back in '06, I thought I remember getting around 21/22 on the highway (calculate, not the trip computer). Is there anything I can check or have checked to improve on what we are getting?

We have an '07 V6 4x4 with about 68,000 miles on it (tires are brand new Michelins and we had it in 2 wheel drive for the entire trip).

Thanks in advance for any input!
 
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When I was doing 900 mile trips with 5-15,000 miles on my '07 V6 SE, I was getting 23-24 on the Interstate. Mileage went up when I took out the Hydrocarbon filter.
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'07 SE Titanium V6 4x4
 
my wife's 06 4x4 V6 gets about 14-15 mpg city, all stock with about 14k miles. used a couple times/month, mostly city driving.
 
i went from colorado springs down to san antonio,texas about 2k round trip over thanksgiving and averaged 70 mph and 22 mpg. but didn't hit and high winds.
 
Thanks for the responses. Sounds like I'm getting less than I should be. Does anyone have any ideas what I can check that could be causing the low mileage?
 
For what it's worth, I've seen a drop in my mpg (always calculated by hand) of about one mpg since mid last month. I've chalked it up to getting the winter fuel formula, but it's definitely a negative trend. I drive 75% on hwys around 50-60 mph (gotta love Oregon speeds :ybrick: ) and about 25% city. My mpg used to average around 20.5 but for the past month and a half I've been hovering around 19.2. No mods, no changes, no nothin'.
 
Well it all depends on how fast you are going. For myself the speed limit around here in Arizona is 75 so I tend to do 79-80mph. I see either 19-20mpg (hand calculated). The faster you go the more inefficient it becomes, due to the higher resistance/drag/physics that the vehicle experiences at that speed.

So if your going faster like I do, I would say that's normal. Otherwise I usually see 21-22 when I average round 50-65.
 
I'm getting 19-20 mpg consistently, with about 20-25% city driving. I've gotten 23 mpg all highway before. If you're going over 70mph, mileage suffers. At 80mph, i'm down to 18-19 mpg. 60-65 mph is a sweet spot for mileage.

On the other hand when we had slightly warmer/hotter temps, my mileage gone up with using the A/C.
 
Bought our '07 V6 4x4 with 35,000 mi on it about 6 weeks ago and have put a little over 2000 miles on it. We are seeing along the lines of 23 MPG on the highway at 65 MPH. With mostly highway driving our last few tanks have been right at or just under 22 MPG. This is on California winter blend fuel which I've found knocks my other vehicles' MPG by about 5% (~1 MPG for most of us). These numbers are using my calibrated ScanGaugeII that matches my fill-to-fill MPG calculations. The dash MPG gauge consistently reads about 10% too high (thought I was busting 24 MPG on the first few tanks until I did the manual calculation).

Simple thing to check would be tire pressure. The tires that came on my 4Runner are Michelin LTX M+S tires. I don't know how these rate for rolling resistance. They have a sidewall maximum pressure of 35 PSI and that's what I've been running them at. Places like Consumer Reports seem to find that the difference between the lowest and higest rolling resistance tires of the same size and category are 2-5%. If you've got a high rolling resistance tire and they are a little under-inflated I could definitely see you losing 2 MPG there alone.

After that, assuming all the fluids are the correct weight and you aren't driving up and down hills that require a lot of downshifting or with a cargo carrier on your roof rack, etc. you'll have to look at your own driving habits.
 
honestly...im getting like 13-15 mpg...little ridiculous huh? my LS1 camaro ss gets better mileage then my 4 runner...figure that **** out
 
There are many, many variables but I'd say at those speeds you're pretty much getting what's average, especially with the winter fuels. All of my calculations are by hand. I do a lot of highway driving and average about 19-20 MPG at speeds of 65 MPH and higher. At a steady 55 however, I'll average 24 MPG or better. Yeah, it makes that much difference. But then again, so does the amount of ethanol. I've dropped 4MPG on the exact same roads and filling from the exact same stations driving at the same speed and similar temps and humidity which I attribute to fuel.

It seems that as I cruise higher than 1500 RPM, the mileage drops.
 
CaliDreamer said:
For what it's worth, I've seen a drop in my mpg (always calculated by hand) of about one mpg since mid last month. I've chalked it up to getting the winter fuel formula, but it's definitely a negative trend. I drive 75% on hwys around 50-60 mph (gotta love Oregon speeds :ybrick: ) and about 25% city. My mpg used to average around 20.5 but for the past month and a half I've been hovering around 19.2. No mods, no changes, no nothin'.
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I've noticed the exact same thing in the last month or so. One of the only theories I could come up with was that it must be the winter fuel mix. I keep a very close eye on my driving style and fuel gauge and was definitely baffled. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
 
I know i have a V8 but its interesting to see that i get the same gas mileage as a V6. During the summer, the computer says a steady 21.2. Granted there really isn't any "city" driving around here, 40mph average with very few stop lights! Recently my mileage has dropped to 18.4 due to warming up my vehicle every morning and driving behind dumb@$$'s going 25 with only a dusting of snow!!:redbrick: Cant wait till i see a 430 mile range again!!:cheers:
 
My mileage seems to have dropped recently by about 1MPG. Previously the dash gauge would run 22-23. Recently it's 21-22. I changed tires from my B.F. Goodrich Long Trails to Michelin M&S/2 and I cleaned my MAS sensor. In addition, speed limits around here just went from 65-70. Too many recent variables. Don't know what to blame it on.
 
Casper421 said:
I know i have a V8 but its interesting to see that i get the same gas mileage as a V6. During the summer, the computer says a steady 21.2. Granted there really isn't any "city" driving around here, 40mph average with very few stop lights! Recently my mileage has dropped to 18.4 due to warming up my vehicle every morning and driving behind dumb@$$'s going 25 with only a dusting of snow!!:redbrick: Cant wait till i see a 430 mile range again!!:cheers:
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I'm willing to bet that if you drove the V6 the same way you drive the V8 you'd get another 3 or so MPG. I'd make that same comparison as you did on the Civic sites as I can almost always beat the regular Civics with the low performance 1.8L engine even though I've got the 2.0L and am putting down at least double the horsepower and don't have the low economy gearing they have nor the economy tires. Bottom line is that if I were driving their car the way I drive mine I'd probably come up with higher numbers than they do so it's not really a fair comparison.
 
claydoctor said:
My mileage seems to have dropped recently by about 1MPG. Previously the dash gauge would run 22-23. Recently it's 21-22. I changed tires from my B.F. Goodrich Long Trails to Michelin M&S/2 and I cleaned my MAS sensor. In addition, speed limits around here just went from 65-70. Too many recent variables. Don't know what to blame it on.
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Is your mileage based on imperial or U.S. Gallons? I get around 17-18 imperial mpg around the city. Hand calculated. Not the computer. I calculate by measuring fuel used between tank fill ups. If anyone here getting around 20 US mpg can answer this that would be great.
Thx.
 
My 06 4WD V6 gets about 21.5MPG on all high way driving. Hand calculated, the trip computer shows about 22.5 MPG. The highway driven was mostly on flat land, not much hill.

One thing I notice about 4runner is not to use the cruise control when driving in hilly terrain. The cruise control greatly underestimates the low end torque of the v6 motor. This result in unnecessary down shifting and high engine RPM. For example, my recent trips to the local mountain with cruise control vs without cruise control is 19MPG vs 12MPG.

B
 
asm said:
My 06 4WD V6 gets about 21.5MPG on all high way driving. Hand calculated, the trip computer shows about 22.5 MPG. The highway driven was mostly on flat land, not much hill.

One thing I notice about 4runner is not to use the cruise control when driving in hilly terrain. The cruise control greatly underestimates the low end torque of the v6 motor. This result in unnecessary down shifting and high engine RPM. For example, my recent trips to the local mountain with cruise control vs without cruise control is 19MPG vs 12MPG.

B
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I wish my onboard computer was that close to hand calcs. I'm actually seeing about 12% difference. The fact that the odometer reads long (98 miles when GPS reads 100, for example) brings the corrected MPG difference down to about 10%. My scangauge is set up to match the number of gallons I see each fillup while matching the distance the GPS shows, giving me my "true" MPG, which has been right around 22 MPG on about a 70/30 split between city/highway with mostly 65 MPH highway.

I also only use the cruise control on the (relatively) flats. Anywhere the engine will need to shift down to to 4th or below I control the throttle as I find I can "even out" small hills and stay in 5th instead of going through a shift once speed bleeds off going uphill and then overshooting my target speed once I crest the hill. Not sure what this is worth on the 4Runner, but I've seen 2 or so MPG improvements on other vehicles.
 
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