Explorer Gas Mileage - including Ecoboost

[KayGee]

I get about 18 avg mpg in mine with 60-70% city driving, but I tend to drive with a pretty light foot about 90% of the time. I can get a ~24mpg when I can drive consistently at 40-65mph with no or very few stops. The more stop and go driving, the worse the mileage. The heavier my foot, the worse the mileage. I have 3.65 gears and at normal freeway speeds of 70+, my mpg drops to ~20.

I only have a little over 3K miles on mine, but I noticed the dash display seems pretty accurate. The gas used per fillup per the computer is always within .1 - .4 gallons of what I actually end up putting in the tank (usually the computer reads that I used a little more gas than I can put in the tank).

 

[JAPeterson]

Don't ever trust the lie-o-meter in the vehicle, always do the math. It isn't that hard. Just divide the miles by the number of gallons and with everyone having a cell phone now days that have a calculator in them it is even easier.

 

[613GT500]

I'm averaging 17mpg on my Sport 70/30 highway/city.

 

[peterk9]

Don't ever trust the lie-o-meter in the vehicle, always do the math. It isn't that hard. Just divide the miles by the number of gallons and with everyone having a cell phone now days that have a calculator in them it is even easier.

As a member of Fuelly.com I just punch in the numbers and it does the figuring and keeps a record of your fill ups and MPG changes. I have found that the actual MPG is always a little less than what the vehicle shows.

Peter

 

[peterk9]

Hi,

I've got a Explorer 2017 Limited and although Ford advertises 19mpg city and 22mpg highway, I'm averaging 17.3 when our driving is 3/4 highway. I've gotten this average from the car's fuel economy screen in the dashboard.

V6 Engine, 4,500 Miles

What gives? Any suggestions?

Welcome to the Forum.
As I mentioned in my post above, the MPG reading the vehicle shows is usually higher than the actual MPG. At least that has been my experience.

Peter

 

[ExPlat]

Mine has averaged 17.7 on the lie-o-meter since I've owned it, mostly local driving over 15k miles. Last week I finally took it on a 1,100 mile vacation that showed me what the 'trip mileage' was. Began at 1,500' elevation, up and over 8,500', several days at 6,000' driving local mountain roads and back home, I drove speed limit plus a little. The final tally was 1097 miles, 22:44 hours in the saddle with 21.5 mpg overall showing on the dash.
BTW, my Garmin GPS shows the exact same speed and trip mileage as the ExPlat's digital dashboard.

 

[furyous3]

Hi guys, I recently found this site and enjoy reading about different solutions people found to their vehicle problems. I have a 2016 explorer titanium, awd, with the ecoboost motor. I am very disappointed in the poor fuel mileage this vehicle gets. I drive it around town with a very light foot to Sam out the best mileage I can get and still only see about 22 mpg. My one ton diesel pickup gets that much mileage and my corvette gets 28 mpg. So is the poor mileage normal for this ecoboost motor?

 

[peterk9]

Hi guys, I recently found this site and enjoy reading about different solutions people found to their vehicle problems. I have a 2016 explorer titanium, awd, with the ecoboost motor. I am very disappointed in the poor fuel mileage this vehicle gets. I drive it around town with a very light foot to Sam out the best mileage I can get and still only see about 22 mpg. My one ton diesel pickup gets that much mileage and my corvette gets 28 mpg. So is the poor mileage normal for this ecoboost motor?

Welcome to the Forum.
Are you sure you have a Titanium? I'll bet the badge on the back says "Platinum".
I haven't gone back through this thread but it seems 22 MPG is about what most are getting. BTW, the MPG shown on the dash is usually a bit generous. I found out by using www.fuelly.com to track my fill-ups and mileage that the actual mileage is at least 1+ MPG less than the readout.

Peter

 

[Odrapnew]

Hi guys, I recently found this site and enjoy reading about different solutions people found to their vehicle problems. I have a 2016 explorer titanium, awd, with the ecoboost motor. I am very disappointed in the poor fuel mileage this vehicle gets. I drive it around town with a very light foot to Sam out the best mileage I can get and still only see about 22 mpg. My one ton diesel pickup gets that much mileage and my corvette gets 28 mpg. So is the poor mileage normal for this ecoboost motor?

What’s the EPA estimate say on your window sticker?

If you have the 3.5 Ecoboost engine and getting 22MPG, I would say you are doing pretty good. My lifetime average for my 14 Sport with the same engine is 20.4MPG(hand calculated).

Also, not sure why you are comparing mileage of a diesel truck or a vette to the Explorer.

 

[dx492]

Got a 2017 4WD NA (v6) a few months ago. At ~1500 miles, it gets 13.8 avg mpg (mostly city), per the dashboard HMI. EPA advertises 16/23/19 (city/hwy/combo), but even subtracting 1-2 mpg from those numbers for real-world use, this truck still runs low. The person driving it has a very light foot (no fast starts or abrupt stops).

My 5.4L v8 F150 gets better fuel efficiency. Both vehicles use 87 octane.

Should I expect the fuel efficiency to go up a bit after more use? I'm thinking I ought to get the oil changed, even at 1.5k miles (mostly to get the factory machining debris out of the system). Should I try 89 or 91 octane? Should I be using full-synthetic oil?

Thoughts?

 

[bigtexan99]

My 16 Sport AWD with the turbos get 17.8 avg with a heavy foot. It gets 19 if I light foot it.

I'm in a 18 XLT 3.5 NA 2WD for the last week as they debug a hiss in my bluetooth, and its only showing 20 avg, with heavy foot driving.

Thought the NA would get better mileage, makes me glad I got the Sport AWD as I really like the power and torque experience in the Sport.

 

[dkean]

Speed = $$. Going 60 = 3% more fuel as going 55 Going 70= 17% more fuel as going 55. So you decide how much you want to spend to go fast. Then you have to factor in your speeding tickets, points, increased insurance. EMT fire rescue. I did that 17 years volunteer.

 

[peterk9]

Got a 2017 4WD NA (v6) a few months ago. At ~1500 miles, it gets 13.8 avg mpg (mostly city), per the dashboard HMI. EPA advertises 16/23/19 (city/hwy/combo), but even subtracting 1-2 mpg from those numbers for real-world use, this truck still runs low. The person driving it has a very light foot (no fast starts or abrupt stops).

My 5.4L v8 F150 gets better fuel efficiency. Both vehicles use 87 octane.

Should I expect the fuel efficiency to go up a bit after more use? I'm thinking I ought to get the oil changed, even at 1.5k miles (mostly to get the factory machining debris out of the system). Should I try 89 or 91 octane? Should I be using full-synthetic oil?

Thoughts?

Your thread was merged with this existing one on the same issue.
There is little difference in mileage using the higher octane. Definitely not near enough to offset the extra cost. There are existing threads on both the octane and synthetic oil use. Being in the U.S., you already have a synthetic blend oil in the Explorer.
3.5 Ecoboost - What type of fuel are you running?
Is synthetic oil worth it? , full synthetic oil
You can find additional threads/posts by using the Forum's 'Search' feature (upper right).

Peter

 

[fly300kts]

Hi Guys,

After 15 yrs with a German ride and mainly 2 back surgeries, I just bought last week a 2018 Explorer 2018 XLT V6.

So I want to say Hi to everyone and ask 2 questions:

Do you mind sharing your average fuel consumption because I find pretty high but again, I might be wrong. My daily drive is 4 times / day, 7 city miles with 5 stop lights. Average 13 miles/gallon and I do not drive like a maniac.
I am running E85. Does fuel type has any impact on mileage?

Thank you

Phil

 

[blwnsmoke]

E85 will drop you 10% in mpg. My overall average is 20-21mpg per tank with about 80%+ highway.

 

[aypanthony]

Yeah, you will take a mpg hit with e85. Are you relying on the explorer to give you your mpg or are you hand calculating? Hand calculation will be more accurate than the Ex's mpg computer.

I get around 18-20 mixed driving.

 

[fly300kts]

Thank you so much for the feedback
I am just reading the on board computer but I will make sure to do the math as well.
Will do the same with regular as well

Phil

 

[peterk9]

Thank you so much for the feedback
I am just reading the on board computer but I will make sure to do the math as well.
Will do the same with regular as well

Phil

Welcome to the Forum.
Fuel consumption depends on so many variables such as speed, terrain, type of fuel, weather, tire pressures etc. that it is a difficult thing to compare. For example, in mixed city/highway driving I'm averaging about 18 mpg (US) using 91 octane over the last 10 months. Today, on the highway I reset my Instant Fuel Mileage readout and with cruise control ON and driving at 75 mph I managed to get 28.69 mpg over 15 miles on an overall downward slope and just about 25.5 at 70 mph on the way back. Also, the humidity was high since there was a light rain falling.

Peter

 

[jhu8]

Still doing a lot of testing but after each tank of my 2.3, I've been between 20-22 with mostly city. I'd say 75-25. I guess it's okay. Kinda disappointed but I think it's just because I'm coming from my cx5 that would average 27-28 and do 32 hwy. Plus I'm ending up with less miles to empty in my explorer than my cx5. When I reset my 2.3 on the hwy, I'm getting about 26. That's driving lightly with hilly highways. Nothing is flat here in central Maryland.

Looking at other similar vehicles in this class, it seems to be about right. Guess it's just this jump up in weight and size where gas mileage just really tanks. So I'm okay with it.

EDIT: Going to work this morning, highway I achieved 30mpg with cruise control set to 65. Same hilly highway route. No a/c or windows down. 70 degrees.

 

[Russell707]

hello folks. Just recently bought a 2015 Explorer with the 2.0 ecoboost. Decided to go with the 2.0 for the mpg. Don’t really need the extra hp and my wife commutes with it mostly. Dash says I’m only getting 19.5 mpg avg. shouldn’t I be getting way more than that? Supposedly these are supposed to get 28 mpg on the highway. This thing mainly sees highway. Making me wish I got the v6 since the new ones get about the same I’m getting right now. And for some reason also when I fill up my tank sometimes it would read 390 mile til empty or sometimes it would be 350? Some advice please fellow 2.0 owners