Gas mileage...frustrating me.

[unpredictable1]

It seems like lately my Explorer struggles to get 350 kilometers to a tank. Other cycles it gets around 400 or just over. Anyone experience the same?? We never leave our vehicle idling and its always subjected to the same driving.

I just read a forsale ad for a 94 Chevy Blazer (4.3) and the owner is claiming around 500 kilometers a tank (70 liter tank). Is he talking out his @ss?

 

[alexefron]

conversion to us units...

you typically get 220 miles a tank (350km). if the tank was empty that would be just over 11mpg. how empty is the tank at this point? how many liters do you have to put in to fill it back up? 11mpg isnt unheard of with first gens. Im also assuming you have the stock 237/70/15's on it?

Doing a tuneup can help increase this number signfigantly. When were the plugs and wires last replaced? when was the MAF last cleaned?

500 km/tank is in that case would be just under 17mpg, your explorer should be well capable of this (with the stock tires anyway) if its properly tuned (we are talking some highway too right?)

 

[unpredictable1]

You've mentioned some intersting points that I've questioned myself on as well. The truck still has the stock size tires on it.

Soon, maybe even this week, an open cone filter will be installed.

But I'm beginning to wonder if the plugs were ever changed. it only has 79k miles on it, and it had 56k on it when I bought it 1.5 years ago. The truck is spotless, never goes off road, and I change oil religiously. The previous owner has every single record of maintenance logged in a folder (the actual workorders) - I should scour that to see what was ever done maintenance wise.

We normally let the needle get to almost the red zone when we refill - but my wife fills the truck more than I do and she wouldn't have made note of the amount put in.

There is some highway driving definitely on every tank. How would I clean the MAF (whats recommended?)

Even on a complete highway trip, cruise set at 120kph (75mph?) we might get 420 to the tank....again the need almost on the red if not touching it. That highway drive is on a large freeway, with hardly ever having to increase throttle for passing.

 

[alexefron]

in my all highway driving i can do around 370 miles before i feel the need to pull over and get gas (just short of 600 kilometers). If you do a search on cleaning the maf there are a ton of posts, most people recomend an electrical contact cleaner

 

[unpredictable1]

do you have anything done to your X at all? anything in the slightest from being stock?

 

[alexefron]

stock cept for the exhaust leak. its a manual trans though. but I can do about 21mpg highway, which is about 9km/l if my conversions are correct.

 

[unpredictable1]

I hope to do this this weekend, I have a highway trip tonight that i'll do that normally takes a tank. Then after the weekend I have to do the same trip. Just hope it warms up a bit or I won't be attempting it!

 

[Maniak]

When you on the trip, keep track of how many miles/km you drive and then how many gallons/liters it takes to fill it up.

The gauge is not the way to check mileage and over time it can read differently. I know mine has changed a few times.. Now when it reads 1/2 tank its actually only 8 gallons used.. Last year it was 10 gallons used.. I'm sure my gauges are getting weak.

~Mark

 

[Rhett]

When you on the trip, keep track of how many miles/km you drive and then how many gallons/liters it takes to fill it up.

Yes, Maniak is right on lbrowne, that is the accurate way to determine your kilometers per gallon..or liter/litre (!)

Size of your tank doesn't matter a bit. When you get gas, write down your odometer reading. Then, next time you get gas, look at your odo again, and subtract to figure out how many miles you went on that tank of gas...say 238 miles for sake of example... Then, when you fill up, take that distance and divide it by how many gallons you put in (say 17.325). You get 13.74 miles per gallon.

 

[ma96782]

FYI, try calculating your MPG the "old fashion way."

There is going to be some variance, though I did say it was the "old fashion way." Start by filling up your gas tank, fully.......on level ground........first click off (second click off or whatever) or until you see the gas is it at a certain level in the filler neck (some stations will not let you look some won't).........sometimes you'll have to wait a little for the gas to settle in the tank........or the tank to "burrrp." You don't need to record how many gallons were needed (this time). Though you must record your odometer reading (or set the trip odometer) and remember this fill up procedure.

Any way..........now, drive it...........fill it when needed (don't have to be exact about filling it), log the number of gallons that went in.............drive it some more...............fill it when needed…………………………always logging the amount of gallons that went in............repeat the procedure several times.

After a couple of cycles: of driving, and filling, and logging the number of gallons...........this last time, you're gonna go to the same gas station and follow the same procedure that you used to fill your gas tank the first time that you started your quest for truth. Record this last odometer reading.

So, all done filling her up..............how many gallons was it this time? OK, now add up all of the gallons since you first recorded the odometer. So, how many gallons was the total?

Now, take the beginning odometer reading and minus it from the ending odometer reading………………this number is the total number of miles that you've traveled.

One more calculation left..............now, divide the number of miles by the number of gallons you used..................that number, is your MPG. Use a calculator, if you have trouble.

Now, like I said it's the "old fashion way"............and this method doesn't take into account for an odometer that is not functioning correctly.


Aloha, Mark

 

[unpredictable1]

just did the highway drive, 330 kilometers on the odometer, 1/8th of a tank left. There was a bit of excessive idle time on that tank because of wife n kids waiting for me to get out of work, but definitely not enough to make it go that low.

I hope my intake adapter is here tomorrow, and then its time to clean the MAF.

 

[Maniak]

When you finished your drive, how many gallons/liters did it take to fill up the tank?

~Mark

 

[DeRocha]

As the others have already stated the fuel gauge is Never used to calculate fuel consumption; It is only used to indicate the approximate fuel level within your tank. As such to calculate fuel consumption the person getting fuel needs to fill the tank, record the vehicles current mileage and the amount of fuel added to the tank.. The next time you get fuel you subtract the current mileage from the last mileage to get total distance travelled.. You then divide this number by the amount of fuel added and you have your fuel consumption...

Example:

Initial fill up at 79,000 miles.
* You next fill up the tank at 79,280 miles and add (17.4 gallons)
79,280 - 79,000 = 280 miles traveled on 17.4 gallons of fuel
280 / 17.4 = 16.09 MPG

* You next fill up the tank at 79,400 miles and add 7.1 gallons
79,400-79,280 = 120 miles traveled on 7.1 gallons of fuel
120 / 7.1 = 16.9 MPG

You can then average all MPG results to find average mpg 16.09+16.9= 32.99/2 = 16.49 avg MPG Obviously the person getting fuel needs to record this info each and every time, otherwise the results are meaningless.

Note: Consistently letting the tank get below 1/4 is not good for the fuel pump.. The pump sits inside the tank and is actually cooled by the gas (sort of like a sump pump in your house). Anyway letting the tank get low causes the fuel to drop below the level of the pump causing an increases in the temperature within the fuel pump.. Heat is the enemy of all electrical motors and will gradually deteriorate the electrical windings within the motor. This will translate into an ever increasing amp draw (power needed to run the pump) until it blows the fuse under the hood).. As such keeping the fuel tank under a 1/4 tank will hasten the death of the fuel pump.

 

[unpredictable1]

When the wife fills up today - I'll get her to note the amount she puts in.

We don't drive around below 1/4 tank, once it gets below 1/4 we fill up. We're not "put 5 bucks in just for now" type people. However there are times its driven below a 1/4 on the way to the nearest gas station.

 

[drstein]

I used to get crappy mileage in my 94 Ex, but I cleaned the MAF really well, yanked the battery cables for 20 minutes, replaced the O2 sensors, and put it all back together. I can hit 250-260 miles per tank of gas with normal driving 'round town. Much improved over what I could do before.

So, clean the MAF, and consider the o2 sensors. that's what helped me out a lot.

 

[celly]

Winter gas always contributes to crappy mileage. That's my guess. I have the same issues. I'm in Alberta too, FYI.

 

[unpredictable1]

Winter gas always contributes to crappy mileage. That's my guess. I have the same issues. I'm in Alberta too, FYI.

Nice to see another Calgarian

Wife put in 63 liters today, but she marked down the odometer reading, not the trip counter. It should have been around 330-340 kilometers when she went to fill up.

 

[alexefron]

340km would be around 12.7 mpg

 

[rtbrjason]

I'm only on my 3rd fill up in the new_to_me 98 EB AWD 5.0, and I've seen milage ranging from 13mpg to 18mpg depending on driving. I've also run a can of Berrymans Chemtool through each of my last fillups in an effort to make sure everything is cleaned out. 13mpg seems rather poor and 18 seems more acceptable. I did hit 19.2 mpg last night while doing a 30 mile trip. That was as per the info center. This is all on winter gas in the fairly cold/snowy climate of upstate NY. I'm anxious to get started with some basic breathing mods and see if I can get a consistent 20+ mpg. What kind of mileage are other withe an AWD 5.0 getting?

 

[unpredictable1]

bought a new filter today and a can of electrical cleaner for the MAF. Doing this tomorrow.