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Gas consumption is bad on 2010

Sambosat

Member
Joined
November 21, 2020
Messages
33
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City, State
Khobar
Year, Model & Trim Level
2010, explorer 4l
Dear all
First I would like to thank all those working here in this forum to help others like me. I used to be an owner of of a honda accord and my dream was to by a big SUV but cash was an issue. I saw an add for a 2010 explorer for sale and luckily had the money but I was a bit skeptical about the condition of the car but after checking it out I decided to buy it as it was in a well taken care of condition. Since I was a 4 cylinders car user and now shifted to a 6 cylinders car I did not know much about its car consumption until yesterday when I was talking to a friend who happens to have a 2019 explorer where I realized that a tank shall last for about 337 miles wile mine only makes 155 Miles per tank. I was shocked that is is down to half. The car is running perfectly but inefficient.
My request to the experts here can you point me to what needs to be checked and or replaced to be able make the explorer more efficient as you know gas prices are getting higher and higher and mechanics are never honest and they try to squeeze every penny out of your pocket.
2- the other issue that I need assistance with is that my car computer broke and I replaced it with a used one where I had the other reprogrammed and everything works fine except one small thing. The car battery comes in even though there is no problem with the alternator. When I click on the reset button inside the car the battery light turns off but after 10 min it would light up. Any hint would be appreciated and thanks again for your assisyance
 



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I don’t know what kind of driving conditions you have, but I regularly get 350 miles out of a tank on my 2006 V6 4WD. I have gotten 425 on a straight highway trip.
 






I don't think that I would compare your friend's 2019 to yours as they are totally different vehicles with different engines. The best way to tell would be to calculate your own MPG and consider if it is local short trips or highway.
 






Thank you guys for reply and no I was not comparing to my friends car it was just an indication for me. The reason why this discussion was raised is that I had a road trip (highway) and during most of the trip I had the cruise control on at 75 mi/hr and the trip length was around 215 miles mainly highway driving. At the end of the trip the gas tank was almost empty and to be honest with you driving in the city would give me 155 Miles per tank and if we want to convert that to MPG then on the highway I would get 9.8 MPG and in the city I would get 7MPG and that is what raised my my brows and made me try to investigate. My tires are properly inflated. I drove the car in a 111F temp. And now it is 68F and it is the same. Mainly I drive in the city because if the COVID19 pandemic but once all that is gone I would be having mixed city and highway
 






You went 215 miles, how many gallons did it take to refill it? I never did a actual check but the dash says 17 mpg average all with local driving (work is only 4 miles away).
 






Gas mileage is a common complaint with those years... If you want to boost it up there are a few things you can do...
Upstream 02 sensors
Make sure you don't have any problems vacuum leak ECT replace plugs and coils. Empty out the interior. Air filter service trans fuel filter new injectors. Clean maf sensor top tier fuel
Up to 13 city 19 highway max on a 22 gallon tank hmm
Fuel injector cleaner is popular here
A thing I do is check the exhaust I put my hand by the tail pipe for a few seconds then smell it if it smells like gas I know it's running rich and got a fuel or ignition issue. You would be surprised I've seen cars on their way to the junk yard put new injectors and plugs coils and they run like new.. People do ridiculous things with the ecu now days idk if they set it up right or to not throw codes.... Did u get it done at the dealer?
 






Thank you for your reply and recommendations. I will try your recommendations. The dealer here unfortunately sucks big time. The car was serviced by the dealer on a regular basis (according to the ex owner who showed me the receipts) but what they do is they check only oil, AC, brakes, tires and other consumable parts but they do not check all. i have a mechanic who does a better job than the dealer. For instance, the spark plugs I'm sure that they need to be replaced (because the car is now at 70000 Miles and the previous owner did not replace them) (just got to know that today by the way) but the dealer never reported that the plugs need to be replaced. I also believe like others have indicated, the coil and the plugs cables and that was never reported by the dealer.
 






What kind of shape is the transmission in? I can get 21 mpg with consistent highway trips with my remanufactured transmission installed. Before that, with my failing transmission with rough shifts, I was getting 11-12 mpg overall. Of course do a complete tune up as has been recommended already: plugs, plug wires fuel, fuel filter, air filter, clean the throttle body and mass air flow sensors, etc.
 






If you're only getting 150 +/- miles per tank, you'd better do some work to that thing....my '06 V8 with ****ty O2's gets 300 miles/tank.

I won't regurgitate what has already been said about what to check on...and I'd be very suspicious of the previous owner's claims that everything was serviced regularly. It wasn't, not with ****ty mileage like that. Fact.

Not being an ass, just being realistic. A V8 gets better mileage than that...something is going on with your rig, and I hope it's an easy cheap fix for ya :)
 






Thank you will check and get back to you
 






Go and get you a set of spiral core low ohm wires for it. I mean low under 100 ohms per foot. Taylor cable Thunder volt 8.2s work well. or any other comparible wires you find. You get better mileage and performance. Think of it like this, your coil pack puts out 100 volts all the time that much period, then as soon as it leave the coil pack its long struggle starts, and meets resistence, at a rate of 100 ohm a foot so on your longest run that 300+- ohms resistance for it to travel through, the as it leaves the wire it hits the! Resister built spark plug that can be any number of amount of reisistance, then it finally reaches the electrode to jump the gap to make its feeble spark. Now with low ohm wires you turn that 100 mile traffic jam into a 1/4 mile drag strip. Better spark better ignition better boom and cleaner burn produces better power per stroke or in other words less throttle needed to produce the same power and that makes better mpgs. Also, i have only started using them in my trucks but have been very pleased is the E3 plugs. I have seen horror storys with them but i dont think there true. They seem to be great so far helped my mpgs ever so little bit, but for sure smoothed idle some. I think the bad reviews come from people ordering them off ebay ect, as thats what my old man did and sure enough when he got down too his last to plugs he realized one was not the same number, looked the same but was not and that company states to not mix match plugs. I hope this helps, you will be in a little money but it Will help your mpg, my findings where, 01 3.0 5speed b3000 +1.5-1.0 mpg 06 4.0 mounty +2.2-2.0 mpg 96 X 5.0 +2.0-1.8 note these all have differnt brand low ohm wires all 3 have differnt coild packs and all 3 are differnt engine size and trans. This works haha
 






Go and get you a set of spiral core low ohm wires for it. I mean low under 100 ohms per foot. Taylor cable Thunder volt 8.2s work well. or any other comparible wires you find. You get better mileage and performance. Think of it like this, your coil pack puts out 100 volts all the time that much period, then as soon as it leave the coil pack its long struggle starts, and meets resistence, at a rate of 100 ohm a foot so on your longest run that 300+- ohms resistance for it to travel through, the as it leaves the wire it hits the! Resister built spark plug that can be any number of amount of reisistance, then it finally reaches the electrode to jump the gap to make its feeble spark. Now with low ohm wires you turn that 100 mile traffic jam into a 1/4 mile drag strip. Better spark better ignition better boom and cleaner burn produces better power per stroke or in other words less throttle needed to produce the same power and that makes better mpgs. Also, i have only started using them in my trucks but have been very pleased is the E3 plugs. I have seen horror storys with them but i dont think there true. They seem to be great so far helped my mpgs ever so little bit, but for sure smoothed idle some. I think the bad reviews come from people ordering them off ebay ect, as thats what my old man did and sure enough when he got down too his last to plugs he realized one was not the same number, looked the same but was not and that company states to not mix match plugs. I hope this helps, you will be in a little money but it Will help your mpg, my findings where, 01 3.0 5speed b3000 +1.5-1.0 mpg 06 4.0 mounty +2.2-2.0 mpg 96 X 5.0 +2.0-1.8 note these all have differnt brand low ohm wires all 3 have differnt coild packs and all 3 are differnt engine size and trans. This works haha
For me low ohm wires and e3 plugs did not do anything with gas mileage in my v6 when I tried them. Here is my experience with them.

I tried e3 plugs (around 100k when I changed the original original plugs) and the first problem I ran into was the length of the thread into the cylinder was not the same as the originals the e3s where slightly shorter if i remember correctly.I installed them anyway because it was not short by much. They ran fine but no significant improvement in mileage was getting 23mpg highway with originals and the same with e3s. Now I changed them about 2k miles later when winter came and the car started showing codes for misfires on startup. Changed the plugs to new motorcraft plugs and the startup misfire code never came back.

At the same time of putting in the e3 plugs I did grantielli 0 ohm wires and accel ignition supercoil again no significant improvement in gas mileage. Now my car is at 160k miles with motorcraft plugs the motorcraft coil i took off and granatelli 0 ohm wires. i switched back to the original coil to see if the accel was causing a separate issue and to see if there was a change in fuel mileage with the original. I don't drive on the highway much but last time I took a highway trip I was still getting 20mpg but my city mileage has dropped a bit to 15mpg max where it was around 16 to 17. I am not trying to say e3 plugs are bad or to turn anybody away from trying e3 plugs, 0 ohm wires, or any other product unless it's an extremely bad product. The plugs worked, the wires worked, and the coil worked I just saw no improvement over stock in my vehicle.

BTW I do think e3 plugs are great in small engines I have never had a problem with them in small 4 strokes or any of the 2 stroke engines I have put them in.









 






Ok. First of all, I would like to thank all of the great people that contributed to this thread with some helpful comments with great directions and discussions. Here is the update so far. I have replaced the spark plugs and their cables and replaced all O2 sensors so far. Cleaned the MAF (according to mechanic there is no problem with it) A feel there is a change now when driving the car and will see if this is going to improve the MPG now the dashboard is showing 177 miles remaining till empty and the gauge is on half tank lets see when it is near empty how many miles will it give me and see if the MPG has improved or still need to do more investigations. Thank you all for your assistance
 






I'm glad it's doing better.Injector cleaner in the gas tank...should max it out haha keep us posted thank you..
 






Not trying to bash on the e3 plugs but they are not good in my opinion. They use a triple ground and what looks like a copper alloy core... That would work awesome in a old car but in a newer car irradium core or better is required for high mileage... Yes the e3 will work but not for 100k and personally I feel like those triple grounds are actually blocking some fuel vapors required for ignition... I really like the concept of these plugs but most are poorly designed. Plugs need to be super hot to burn deposits with those gigantic grounds and short trips they don't get hot enough to burn off deposits. Made in China. Put them In a small engine works great a car....from my experience unfortunately😢they don't work and are worse than irradium.

p1020905_thumb.jpg
 






Side note.... E3 will work better than irradium in a carbureted motor idk why just does.
 






I run a small engine shop and that is how i got started on e3 plugs. Customer brought them in with mower. They do work well in small engines, most help is at idle i feel, gives it that extra umph till the next rotation. I will say this with cars, they have to be the exact plug due to there design, if they where to short even by a small amount those where the wrong ones, in the 3.0-4.0-5.0 they where a exact match in length Maybe thats what made them not help? being coupled with low ohm wires and still no change, thats just strange, now the sparkplug side of this is for sure the whatever side of this but the low ohm wires should have helped, in any application. Ive never changed the coil pack, no real reason unless you have massive compression no need the stock have plenty juice. No im not saying your wrong or they didnt work or whatever just curious as to why they didnt. As far as the fouled looking crusty one that doesnt make sense either when my merc fps went out i had to force it to a gas station and when i went in to repair it the cylinders where full of fuel all the way up into the lower intake. I cleaned those plugs and there still in the truck today getting 17.5-18 daily driving a rough 70% city 30% high way drive. Again not trying to say they didnt work for yall just wonder why since ive had such great results in three differnt applications, and its not like my truck where running bad before the swap it was just for better mpg.
 






I run a small engine shop and that is how i got started on e3 plugs. Customer brought them in with mower. They do work well in small engines, most help is at idle i feel, gives it that extra umph till the next rotation. I will say this with cars, they have to be the exact plug due to there design, if they where to short even by a small amount those where the wrong ones, in the 3.0-4.0-5.0 they where a exact match in length Maybe thats what made them not help? being coupled with low ohm wires and still no change, thats just strange, now the sparkplug side of this is for sure the whatever side of this but the low ohm wires should have helped, in any application. Ive never changed the coil pack, no real reason unless you have massive compression no need the stock have plenty juice. No im not saying your wrong or they didnt work or whatever just curious as to why they didnt. As far as the fouled looking crusty one that doesnt make sense either when my merc fps went out i had to force it to a gas station and when i went in to repair it the cylinders where full of fuel all the way up into the lower intake. I cleaned those plugs and there still in the truck today getting 17.5-18 daily driving a rough 70% city 30% high way drive. Again not trying to say they didnt work for yall just wonder why since ive had such great results in three differnt applications, and its not like my truck where running bad before the swap it was just for better mpg.
Few years back, posted here bought fancy new stuff, mileage reduced, replaced them with the OEM plug, mileage back. There was lots of discussion that the engines have been tuned to get the most out of mileage so switching plugs unlikely to imporve things.

I would love to get past the 14mpg thing as my mix has always been 50/50
 






I have an '07 2WD Sportrac with the V6. in my opinion, you don't buy these for the gas mileage.
That being said, my mileage has been as high as 22.4 mpg on a pure road trip, and as bad as 12 MPG in very short trip winter in town driving. These things are big, heavy, and just not built for mileage. Comparing with a 2019 Explorer is a very apples and oranges comparison. Just keep it in tune, tires properly inflated, wheels aligned, and it should do OK.
 



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Dear all
First I would like to thank all those working here in this forum to help others like me. I used to be an owner of of a honda accord and my dream was to by a big SUV but cash was an issue. I saw an add for a 2010 explorer for sale and luckily had the money but I was a bit skeptical about the condition of the car but after checking it out I decided to buy it as it was in a well taken care of condition. Since I was a 4 cylinders car user and now shifted to a 6 cylinders car I did not know much about its car consumption until yesterday when I was talking to a friend who happens to have a 2019 explorer where I realized that a tank shall last for about 337 miles wile mine only makes 155 Miles per tank. I was shocked that is is down to half. The car is running perfectly but inefficient.
My request to the experts here can you point me to what needs to be checked and or replaced to be able make the explorer more efficient as you know gas prices are getting higher and higher and mechanics are never honest and they try to squeeze every penny out of your pocket.
2- the other issue that I need assistance with is that my car computer broke and I replaced it with a used one where I had the other reprogrammed and everything works fine except one small thing. The car battery comes in even though there is no problem with the alternator. When I click on the reset button inside the car the battery light turns off but after 10 min it would light up. Any hint would be appreciated and thanks again for your assisyance
I picked up 2mpg on my f150 by checking my brakes. They were giving no sign of wear or trouble but I checked them anyway. Only drive about 5.5k per year. Took a monkey wrench for a grip and a ball joint remover to beat the slide pins out. Dried up grease, no rust. No not me, bought it from a dealer like that. The claim was they had done a brake job prior to sale, guess brake grease really is different than moly.
 






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