Explorer Gas Mileage - including Ecoboost

[Va_SHO]

I think the concerns about the gas mileage valid! I don't think it is unrealistic to expect to get what is advertised on the Explorer.

If Ford had not said that it will get 23 on the highway then no one would expect that.

Mine is only getting 16 combined and its ridiculous.

 

[peterk9]

My Limited is not AWD, however I cannot improve my gas mileage- I am stuck at 19.4. This happened after hubby drove it, and I still cannot recover any higher. I have tried Shell gasoline and babying my car.

This weekend I went to the airshow- way across town, all highway miles. I think my Explorer is still shocked over the way hubby drove it-driving with cruise control and 65 I cannot improve it at all. In Arizona our temps are in the low 80's so no reason weather is the issue. I am stumped.

Anyone have any ideas?

You can force the 'relearning' process by disconnecting the battery for a while. That will cause the transmission to go back into Adaptive Learning and the also the fuel trim and idle points will reset. There is also a way to set the trim and idle points manually. The procedure is in the Owner's Guide on page 330. Page 211 covers the Transmission Adaptive Learning.

Peter

 

[peterk9]

Hi, I have a new 2014 Explorer AWD with 1800 miles. It is listed to get 17 to 23 mpgs, but the best I have done on any tank full is 15. Any thoughts?

Welcome to the Forum tahoetom.:wavey:
As indicated in my PM, I have merged your thread with this one on the same topic. There are many things that affect mpg with speed being the biggest. Mileage should improve somewhat over time in most vehicles.
Good luck.

Peter

 

[Explorer0204]

My Ex that is getting 13.5 city in not a turbo. I was referencing my Saab that gets quite good mileage with a high output turbo and where I tend to drive rather aggressively in sport mode. The Ex being babied at 2,000 rpm or below only gets 13.5 city, and it's not a new car that needs to be broken in or one so old you might expect problems. Like I said, I'll be looking into it.

Gotcha. I thought you had the Ecoboost. I was on my phone so I couldn't see you had an XLT

 

[Ryan327]

I think the concerns about the gas mileage valid! I don't think it is unrealistic to expect to get what is advertised on the Explorer.

If Ford had not said that it will get 23 on the highway then no one would expect that.

Mine is only getting 16 combined and its ridiculous.

VA, I avg 16-17.5 and am right in the same area. This thing is a pig in stop and go driving unfortunatley, and that's most of the driving around here.

On longer road trips i can get 22-24 on the highway but as soon as I get off the high way and hit a light or two it starts dropping fast!

 

[principalpony]

I recently completed a couple of trips involving long distances on fairly level roads with light to no traffic at a consistent 65 mph (cruise set) and consistently averaged 26 mpg. The Consumers Reports testing of an EX w/V6 AWD on the road at 65 mph also achieved 26 mpg. Based on that, how can Ford say the Ex w/Ecoboost engine has "best in class fuel economy"? My plan is to have the dealer test our Ex and a V6 model back to back, same road, same driver, same day for a comparison.

I'll let you know how this turns out. BTW - I may be a month or so before I can arrange it.

 

[peterk9]

I recently completed a couple of trips involving long distances on fairly level roads with light to no traffic at a consistent 65 mph (cruise set) and consistently averaged 26 mpg. The Consumers Reports testing of an EX w/V6 AWD on the road at 65 mph also achieved 26 mpg. Based on that, how can Ford say the Ex w/Ecoboost engine has "best in class fuel economy"? My plan is to have the dealer test our Ex and a V6 model back to back, same road, same driver, same day for a comparison.

I'll let you know how this turns out. BTW - I may be a month or so before I can arrange it.

I think when they say 'Best In Class' they mean compared to other SUV's with the same type of engine. A regular 3.5L V6 engine would not be considered the same class. Even the mileage figures that Ford advertises shows the Ecoboost with a slightly lower rating (1 mpg).
The Ecoboost engine is more about power than mpg when comparing similar sized engines.

Peter

 

[AZmom]

Peter-

Just an update- my vehicle is official re-learning! I am getting 25 MPG! WooHoo! I am absolutely thrilled! It worked and I am so happy! I was getting 26 on the highway- but 25 is nothing to cry over- much better than my 2011 Honda Odyssey! So for combined city/highway driving- I will take it.

My commute is rush hour-lots of stop and go and it's 32 miles one way....so this gas mileage is completely acceptable.

Thanks again- not bad for a straight up V6-missing the turbo action.

Jenn

 

[LukerDooker]

Ford lowering fuel economy on 6 vehicles

No Ex's are in this list of cars but...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-lowering-fuel-economy-6-185128305.htmlhttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-lowering-fuel-economy-6-185128305.html


Ford lowering fuel economy on 6 vehicles

Ford lowering fuel economy on 6 vehicles; customers will be compensated
Associated Press
By Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writer 7 hours ago

Related Stories

Ford lowers fuel economy rating for six vehicles Reuters
Ford cuts fuel economy on 6 cars after new tests CNBC
'CR': Honda Accord hybrid mpg rating way off USA TODAY
Ford to compensate customers over mileage CNNMoney.com
Think a hybrid's really that efficient? Think again CNBC

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford is lowering the fuel economy estimates for six models, including hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Fusion sedan, after internal tests found errors in the way they were calculated.

Except for the Lincoln MKZ hybrid, the fuel economy estimates will fall between one and five miles per gallon. The subcompact Fiesta's combined city and highway fuel economy drops by 1 mpg to 36 mpg, for example, while the C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid falls 5 mpg to 38 mpg. But the combined fuel economy for the MKZ hybrid has been reduced by 7 mpg to 38 mpg.

Ford will compensate approximately 215,000 buyers with payments of between $125 and $1,050 each, depending on how much their vehicles were overstated. Most of those customers are in the U.S.; around 15,000 are from Canada and elsewhere.

Ford said it discovered the problem during internal tests in March and alerted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA supervised the retesting of the vehicles and is now confident that their fuel economy is accurate, said Chris Grundler, head of the EPA's office of transportation and air quality.

Grundler said the EPA is still investigating why Ford made the error.

He also said the EPA is considering requiring all automakers to do the same kind of internal testing of production vehicles that Ford is doing. Grundler said not all companies do fuel economy testing after vehicles are in production.

Ford has previously restated the mileage for the C-Max hybrid for an unrelated issue. Last fall, the company dropped the combined fuel economy for the C-Max from 47 mpg to 43 mpg. In that case, Ford used the numbers from a similar vehicle, the Fusion hybrid, and applied them to the C-Max instead of calculating the C-Max separately.

The C-Max's fuel economy has now dropped to 40 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

Raj Nair, Ford's product development chief, said engineers were incorrectly correlating wind tunnel results in their computer models, which are used to help calculate fuel economy because it's difficult to repeat exact conditions in real-world vehicle tests.

Nair said no one at Ford has been dismissed because of the issue.

"This was our mistake, plain and simple, and we apologize to our customers for it," he said. "We are taking steps to improve our process so this doesn't happen again."

 

[principalpony]

I think when they say 'Best In Class' they mean compared to other SUV's with the same type of engine. A regular 3.5L V6 engine would not be considered the same class. Even the mileage figures that Ford advertises shows the Ecoboost with a slightly lower rating (1 mpg).
The Ecoboost engine is more about power than mpg when comparing similar sized engines.

Peter

Peter, with all due respect, your statement that Ford's claim for "best in class fuel economy" is based only on vehicles with "the same type of engine" is like saying your home-schooled student graduated at the top of his class, or you finished first in a race in which you were the only one running. No other manufacturer makes a full size SUV with a turbo 4 cylinder engine.

Now for an update, if anyone is interested. After the testing showing poor fuel economy was submitted to Ford, their response was "everything is operating within normal parameters". Escalating the matter from Customer Service to Consumer Affairs (which will only communicate through snail mail) their response in the first letter was the same. My second letter pointed out that one parameter not "within normal parameters" is fuel economy and I asked for an answer to my question of why Ford even offers the 2.0L Ecoboost engine when all you get for your $1k investment is less towing capacity, no manual mode on the transmission, no Flex-fuel option, and, at best, the same fuel economy as the standard V6. I got a stupid form letter back thanking me for contacting them.

Now I will be requesting an Executive Liaison to review my case. I have stated to Ford that, based upon the response to my concerns on this issue, Ford is running the risk of losing me as a Ford customer FOREVER. So I guess I'll find out if Ford values my business or the word-of-mouth and social media publicity that will come out of this.

 

[plumbago]

Principalpony: I'm very interested in Ford's response to you, or lack there of, concerning poor fuel economy with your 2.0L EB.....In fact it brightened my day and gave me a good laugh....Seems this is very nearly the response I've also gotten on some of the same issue...My guess, based on similar responses, is plain and simple Ford does not value you as a customer nor do they care about your future status. Sorry to say but I've pretty much washed my hands of Ford products, this vehicle, and their lack of any concern. best regards Plum

 

[AZmom]

Principal pony- I went through this with Honda going from 32mpg to 11-12mpg. Through the process of different dealers, tires, inspections and 4 sets of struts (being told that was the issue). It was determined Honda reset the computer and would not do a thing about it. Complaints and unanswered emails for a year. So the fact you have acknowledgement with a response is huge. Honda vehicle at 44k and getting worse gas mileage than our diesel truck was beyond belief. It's disheartening that these things happen but everyone has their opinion and life's lessons. I personally have no luck with Chevy, Dodge, Toyota and Honda. My BMWs have been decent but my luck with Fords are superior to any other. I have 5 vehicles and 4 are Fords as these have treated me well. I hope Ford continues to respond to you as Honda gave us the finger and we learned our lesson- we traded it in for the Explorer.

For the record the Sport is pulling nothing short of 20 mpg no matter if hubby drives it or I do. It now has 1200 miles and yes I do drive it in various scenarios which includes a heavy foot.

Good luck to you!

 

[Virgilp316]

I think there is lots of Explorer owners with different engines that are receiving bad mpg. I personally have a 2013 Ford Ex Sport and after seeing what some people are getting I am one of the most unluckiest!!! My wife drives 20% city 80% FWY and we can't get better than 14.9mpg. Around the city is horrible as well. There is weeks that I pump a full tank on our EX sport on a Friday morning and got the excite weekend we drive it city only about a 5 mile radio us from our home and we get a whopping 11mpg.
At 22k miles on it now we are completely dissatisfied with this vehicle. We have watched our driving habits to see if we saw any change and it hasn't improved a bit. The longest road trip we have had has been 200 miles one way and the highest that mpg went up to was 18.5mpg but once we drove a few miles around town it dropped drastically to its 14.9mpg.
Complete nightmare. We end up paying about the same if not a bit more in has per month than for the actual monthly lease payment on this vehicle.

 

[PlatinumSport14]

Virgilp316:

What octane fuel do you use? Have you had your vehicle checked out by a Ford Dealer?

That kind of mileage is absolutely atrocious and uncommon. I've read a considerable amount about average fuel mileage for both the NA V6 and Ecoboost and an overwhelming majority of people are getting 18 MPG +. I currently have average 18.5 MPG on my last 3 fillups and thats about 40% highway 60% city. I know in Cali you can only get 91 octane fuel, I'd suggest trying that if you don't already and see if you get some improvement.

I regularly use 92 or 93 octane fuel. I did not purchase a 2.5 ton, turbocharged SUV for the fuel mileage. At 18-20 MPG depending on how much I drive on the highway I'm perfectly happy with that.

Good luck getting your vehicle sorted out, I sincerely hope it improves and/or there was an issue causing that poor of mileage.

 

[BMan5150]

We've got about 1200 miles on our 14 ex sport now and am very satisfied with the mileage. In 90% local driving with lots of super short trips! we are averaging about 16.4. I find that is stellar considering our 2011 honda pilot with 250 horsepower got about 14.9-15.5 with the same driving habits. Way more horsepower and torque; better handling, better interior, excellent towing experience with my 3600 lb boat....we are very satisfied overall right now. I even get decent mileage towing my boat....slightly better than the pilot. On a 250 mile highway round trip, I averaged 24.5 mpg with the cruise set at 69 and about a 30 mile stretch of construction zone 60 mph.

Stellar in my book when you factor in the size and power of this big brute.

 

[principalpony]

We've got about 1200 miles on our 14 ex sport now and am very satisfied with the mileage. In 90% local driving with lots of super short trips! we are averaging about 16.4. I find that is stellar considering our 2011 honda pilot with 250 horsepower got about 14.9-15.5 with the same driving habits. Way more horsepower and torque; better handling, better interior, excellent towing experience with my 3600 lb boat....we are very satisfied overall right now. I even get decent mileage towing my boat....slightly better than the pilot. On a 250 mile highway round trip, I averaged 24.5 mpg with the cruise set at 69 and about a 30 mile stretch of construction zone 60 mph.

Stellar in my book when you factor in the size and power of this big brute.

BMan - That kind of MPG on a Sport Ex is great, and adds to my issue that the $1k we spent on the 2.0L EB was nothing but a waste of $$$. As I've stated b4, my brother gets the same hwy mpg that we do on his standard V6 EX. We have over 17k miles on ours now and I have never experienced,on any car we've had in the past, improving in mpg over time, from the first miles to 100k miles or more. If Ford ends up losing me as a customer, they will be losing a life-long Mustang enthusiast who has been an ASE Master Auto Tech for 25 years and Auto Tech instructor for 15 years. If I were to buy a Corvette, 370Z, or ??? to replace my Mustang, people will take notice and want to know why = very bad PR for Ford.

 

[LukerDooker]

Principal pony- I went through this with Honda going from 32mpg to 11-12mpg. Through the process of different dealers, tires, inspections and 4 sets of struts (being told that was the issue). It was determined Honda reset the computer and would not do a thing about it. Complaints and unanswered emails for a year. So the fact you have acknowledgement with a response is huge. Honda vehicle at 44k and getting worse gas mileage than our diesel truck was beyond belief. It's disheartening that these things happen but everyone has their opinion and life's lessons. I personally have no luck with Chevy, Dodge, Toyota and Honda. My BMWs have been decent but my luck with Fords are superior to any other. I have 5 vehicles and 4 are Fords as these have treated me well. I hope Ford continues to respond to you as Honda gave us the finger and we learned our lesson- we traded it in for the Explorer.

For the record the Sport is pulling nothing short of 20 mpg no matter if hubby drives it or I do. It now has 1200 miles and yes I do drive it in various scenarios which includes a heavy foot.

Good luck to you!

Ii think the loaded software as a whole is the cause of many issues in newer cars.
The software stack listed in the Ex details in the owner acct is not just MFT. Its a list of firmware versions loaded into the various control chips in the car.

If the Ex is not functioning correctly and parts are ok, likely a reload of part or all the current firmware could solve certain problems like;
-gas mileage
-ambient lighting
-tail gate operation
-HVAC problems
-rough shifting

But I have never heard anywhere that something like this was/is going to be performed and it is strange, as even WindowsCE components/PCs/devices need to be reformatted to work right.
In my experience its not usually WinCE that is bad, but the components added on top of WinCE that need to be reloaded.
(typically retail POS system).

I wonder if certain problems can be diagnosed and fixed by using a Tune and reviewing carefully the tune software prior to installing a new stock OEM trim/engine specific tune in the Ex.

 

[BMan5150]

BMan - That kind of MPG on a Sport Ex is great, and adds to my issue that the $1k we spent on the 2.0L EB was nothing but a waste of $$$. As I've stated b4, my brother gets the same hwy mpg that we do on his standard V6 EX. We have over 17k miles on ours now and I have never experienced,on any car we've had in the past, improving in mpg over time, from the first miles to 100k miles or more. If Ford ends up losing me as a customer, they will be losing a life-long Mustang enthusiast who has been an ASE Master Auto Tech for 25 years and Auto Tech instructor for 15 years. If I were to buy a Corvette, 370Z, or ??? to replace my Mustang, people will take notice and want to know why = very bad PR for Ford.

I see your point. I too would be disappointed if I could not get the EPA fuel mileage. So far with my sport it is dead on. I just returned from a 240 mile round trip 98% highway and got 22.7 mpg. Actually a bit better than the EPA numbers. And that was with the cc pegged at 75mph the entire trip. Relatively flat terrain to be sure but that's great.

I'm very lukewarm about the new stang styling. I'm hoping it will look better in person. I love stangs as well and had a heavily modified n/a 2001 gt five speed that ran 13.8s in the 1/4 mi. I also liked the last gen stangs looks but I could not get comfortable in the drivers seat at all. The lack of telescoping steering wheel pretty much prevented me from getting one. Don't give up on it yet! They sure sound good on paper!

 

[Virgilp316]

[MENTION=251781]PlatinumSport14[/MENTION]

I currently use 87 octane. But I have tried 91 octane aswell for about 1500 miles and no better results!! So I went right back to 87 octane. Saw it pointless to keep spending $5-$10 more per full tank since it's been so much more expensive that anticipated when we first picked it up.

I have had so many bake problems with it that it has been to 2 different dealers for the brake issue more than 5 times with no fix. So since the brake issue hasn't been fix I have postponed to have them check out the gas consumption problem. Can't afford to be too long without our EX sport.

I just tried resetting the ECU hoping it would help since I seen few members have success with that but no improvent what so ever.

 

[snowbird]

In the last 4 weeks we have driven our 2014 XLT from Florida to Minnesota then from there to North Carolina and back to Minnesota. It was a total of 4750 miles and the trip computer showed 23.5 average. Can't beat that. A lot of that was in the mountains and on the freeways we drove 75 to 80 Mph. Our prior 2011 Xlt was similar and usually averaged 22.4 on long trips all with the air conditioning going .
Ford did reduce the EPA mileage from 25 to 24 on the 2014 from the 2011 model.
I think Ford is dead on with the mileage stated.
I had a 2011 Explorer which was an early model built in the first week and it had multiple problems. Nineteen times to the dealer to be repaired to be exact! All were fixed to my satisfaction. It was a new model so I expected some problems. Our 2014 Explorer is flawless with no problems so far at 9000 miles.