12.9 mpg?

[jseabolt]

The other day I bought a '96 5.0 liter all wheel drive. I topped off the tank and put about 170 miles on it then filled it back up and did the math. I averaged 12.9 mpg. This was all around town miles.

The window sticker says this vehicle is supposed to get between 14 and 18 mpg. But those numbers are not always accurate.

There was some controvery over the Jeep Liberty diesel. Supposably they claimed it was supposed to get over 20 mpg around town but averaged 12 mpg in the city by Consumer reports.

My 94 Jeep Wrangler 4 cylinder got a consistant 18 mpg and sometimes as low as 15 mpg. I believe the window sticker said it got between 17 and 21 mpg. Of course the four cylinder was so underpowered I'd run it to redline between gears just to make any power.

On the other hand my Subaru Baja seems to get better mileage on the highway than the window sticker says. Sometimes I can get 28 mpg and the window sticker says it's rated between 23 and 27 mpg.

So what am I asking?

Does this sound typical for a 5.0 liter V8 with 82,000 miles? The engine runs smooth but I'm wondering if it's time to replace the spark plugs. The only maintence guide I have on it is I stopped by the local dealership where it came from and they printed me out a list of when it was in the shop and for what.

From what I figure the only problems with it was a coolant leak and a broken interior item. I was curious if it has ever had a new transmission because I have heard rumours of transmission failures. But apparantly mine has the original drivetrain.

The last time it was at the dealership was back in 2006. I don't know if they did a tune up or not. Who knows it may have the original plugs in it.

So is it time for a tuneup or is this typical?

I'm not complaining about the gas mileage. For what I paid for it, I can buy allot of gas for what a Toyota Pruis would cost. Plus they are ugly and you can't tow with one.

I bought my Explorer mainly to tow with and liked the 5.0 liter engine.

 

[eXcali]

The plugs life span is 100k miles, so you could change them if you wanted, or wait. As for the mileage. The numbers were put together using a lightly populated city formula, so if you live in one of those cities that has a stop sign or stop light every block you won't get nearly what was on the window.

If you jack-rabbit off the line your also going to cut your fuel economy in the range of 20-40% so add this to your city driving and you've got crap. In mixed driving 50% around town and 50% back country roads to work I was averaging 18mpg. Best I had was a 2 stop highway trip to Michigan that was a 400 mile drive and I averaged just shy of 20mpg.

Oh, the tranny issues were mostly 1st Gen explorers, not as frequent with the 2nd gen.

 

[techieman33]

I would go ahead and change the plugs and wires so you know what your working with but that mileage is pretty normal to get much better than thatvyou will have to drive very carefully

 

[mixellmaster]

Put Motorcraft Plugs and Wires in it. There IS a difference.

 

[ericautopart]

My 98 5.0 AWD needs to be filled @ 240miles. I could def. get it up to 265ish but I don't know if the fuel gauge works so I stick to 240ish. When my plugs were bad and before I did wires, fuel filter, etc it needed to be filled @ 170miles.

 

[stangman82]

as far as the tranny goes, I've heard good things and not had trouble with the tranny in mine. The v8 trannies are much beefier than the 6 cyl ones. They were used in the mustang v8 till 2004 iirc and v8 f150s

 

[Turdle]

Let's back up a bit and make sure the torque converter is locking--

You should see about 2200 rpm's , and no more while cruising a steady 68 mph

 

[jseabolt]

One guy I worked with said he had to have two transmissions installed in his. I don't know what year his was or what he was doing with it. I don't think he was using it as a tow vehicle. Not to sound sexist but I never saw him drive it to work so I think he wife was using it.

By the way. I've heard if you tow something to turn the overdrive off to prevent transmission damage but didn't see anything in the owner's manual about it. I thought about turning if off just to be on the safe side.

I'm going up I-81 to PA from TN so there are some slight hills but nothing like crossing into North Carolina on I-26.

 

[ZNathan130]

you turn the overdrive off so you get lower (numerically higher) gearing throughout your gear selection.

 

[Turdle]

you turn the overdrive off so you get lower (numerically higher) gearing throughout your gear selection.

That is not the way it works--
overdrive off just means no 4th gear, allowing 3rd gear torque converter lockup--

the torque converter will have a hard time staying locked while towing ( or climbing a steep incline) in overdrive ( 4th gear) , which will create a lot of heat.

 

[bluestream1]

Let's back up a bit and make sure the torque converter is locking--

You should see about 2200 rpm's , and no more while cruising a steady 68 mph

Yes, a simple check would be to drive on highway and let RPM's settle down to a steady level. Now ever so slightly touch the brake pedal. The rpms should just 200-300. The computer will unlock the TC as soon as it detects the brake has been activated...

 

[chance942]

do you live @ sea level with a constant baro of 29.92 and a constant temp of 59 degrees? mpgs on the sticker are based on these being that,constant as i'm sure you're aware.

no plug in any car will be efficient for 100k miles.maybe you could check the gap on a few. guarantee you they're wide. 82k you say? just change them.