Miles Per Gallon????? | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Miles Per Gallon?????

If I treat the gas pedal nicely I can get a solid 19 around town and 22 on the highway. As soon as I tow I get 17 (but that is a heavy camper).

If I start sinking into the pedal my mileage instantly plumits to about 18 hwy and 15 - 17 city.

It's all in how you operate that pedal on the right, and also keeping things in tip top running condition.


Oh my specs are below and my tires are michelin AT's that run 35psi air

I have been playing with the whole acetone thing lately (the jury is still out)
 



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What can i do to better my gas mileage.The best i have ever seen is 16 highway. I have a 2002 xlt FFV 4.0L 3.55 gears, Custom exhaust, and a K&N drop in filter, which i'm thinking of changing to AfE oil less filter.And i'm about to change the muffler to a flowmaster 70 series. I think there rated at 16-20mpg????? And the best on the highway i saw 16.

I've got an '02 Limited with the 4.6l V8. Mine is going to be heavier than your 4.0 XLT and your 4.0 should be more efficient than my V8. I put a Flowmaster 50 and a K&N intake on mine (the Flowmaster 50 is too loud for me btw) and that improved my mpg by about 1mpg on averaage. I'll get about 20 mpg freeway if I drive 65-70. If I drive with traffic (70-80 mph) then I'll get less. I'd get a lot more if I kept it at 60 mph.

I've only got 50k miles on the truck. It still has original plugs and wires. I'm running Mobil 1 5-20W synthetic. I've not yet changed the diff fluid. My point is that you should be able to get MUCH better mileage than you are now.

FWIW, by driving very easy, I get only about 14.5 mpg in residential driving. Most trips are 2.5 miles to and from the office.
 






i get 15mpg no matter what i do.

I set the cruise to 90 on my last 100 mile trip and I got 15. Thought I would run a little test set it at 70 for the way back.

15 every flipping time.
 






Sorry i haven't responded been very busy at work, I have new plugs as well as fuel filter.Tires are 30 front 35 rear as stated by ford. Highway speeds Aldive is aound 65-70mph, and tach reads 1800-2000 rpms. I was going to pm you, since you are the mileage king. My city driving i keep it below 3000 rpms.I was thinking of pulleys or electric fans??? I have third row also.
 












21-22 with no mods

Just calculated my average for the past 6 months, November-April, and I averaged just a bit over 20 mpg. That includes 4+ months of "winter gas" which they use up here in Ohio. This stuff costs me 1-2 mpg. For April and so far this month I am getting high 21's. Last fill got me 508 miles, but that is going 15 miles after the "check gauges" fuel light dings. Mine is a 2003 XLS 4.0 2WD with 3.73 Limited Slip. I have no mods except removing the roof rack crossrails, other than that it is bone stock. I drive 4K per month, run 38-40 PSI, and try to keep it just under 70 with the tach at 2100-2200. I make an effort to stay out of the throttle, and coast when possible, but am not a "hyper-miler". My goal is to get 22 for an entire year.
 






i get about 24-25 miles to the gallon on the highway with a stock 4.0 and 3.73 gears, and heavy use of the cruise control, i set it at just under 100 kph which is about 60, but i have done a few things, like synthetic oil, and tranny fluid, and front and rear diff fluids, most of these are from Aldives thread, , ,, i run my tires at 40 psi, i would like to do the electric fan thing, but just cannot find one yet (i live in the middle of nowhere ),,
but i have one road here, and so all my driving is highway, we don't have any stoplights at all,:D:D:D
 






I have been getting 18.8 mpg the past 4 fill ups. I have a 2004 X with the 4.0 running 3.73 gears. I try not to run over 66mph on the interstate and when running around town when taking off from a stop or even just speeding up I try not to let the RPM's go over 2000. So needless to say my X moves rather slow in town...LOL
 






Alrighty I am adding new spark plugs and a new fuel filter. I am getting way lower gas mileage than what most of you folks are claiming.
 






Your MPG is right in line with what I'm getting. I too can't see how it's possible to get consistent mileage in the 20s. Unless you're constantly going downhill or something. :confused:
 






I just bought a popup camper. It weights about 1200 pounds. I towed it home and got about 18mpg doing so. It was mostly interstate coming home. I was pretty happy with that mileage, better than I expected. I was doing good to get 10mpg with my old hybrid camper. It only weighed about 3500 lbs but it presented a much larger wind drag than the popup which tucks in nicely behind the explorer.
 






Geez, I must also be doing something wrong.

I could get close to 20 with very gentle driving downhill with a tailwind and cruise control at the minimum 'don't run over me' speed.

My lifetime average was 15.7 in Virginia and is 14.7 in Hawaii. I conclude that the main reason that my rates are lower here is that there are no long trips to help get the average up, unlike many long trips on the mainland.
 







that's your problem. OHV's suck a lot more gas. 21-22 is pretty close to the max you'll get with an OHV.

Lots of people have argued with Al, but check his modifications, the amount of time he's put into doing everything. You reallllly think he'd get off just by lying about getting good mileage for years?!
 






With all the vehicles I see we are getting around 14MPG highway. We have 10% ethanol here in East Tennessee, and I am thinking its' a factor.

-Shawn
 






EB. I'm not sure why you cannot get in the 20's with your SOHC, I have the towing package with the 4.10 gears and I still get 20 mpg consistently (sometimes better) and that's a mix of city and hwy. I actually get better mileage on side roads I think due to my 4.10 gears than I do on the hwy. But I still average about 20. I do know that when/if I use Ethanol my mileage suffers greatly. And Since I have been playing around with mixing acetone in the tank it has been an even more consistent 20 to 21mpg.


If your not seeing that I would start to interrogate the sensors and make sure they are all registering properly, specifically the MAFS, Intake Air Temp, Coolant Temp, and O2's. A few months ago I was suffering through 17 to 18 mpg so I went through everything, all it took was a can of MAFS cleaner, I pulled into the auto parts place averaging 18. 5 minutes later after cleaning the MAFS pulled out and averaged 21 for the trip into DC and back I couldn't believe it was that simple :dunno:

The only things that I have done so far are
1) K&N filter
2) opened up the OEM air box a bit (removed the snorkel and enlarged the opening)
3) Trans go shift kit setup for towing (much snappier shifts)
4) Borg Warner test EPC valve (seems like an improvement over stock, the jury is still out)
5) Modified the throttle body by removing the vains and then polishing the entire inside to mirror finish
6) 198deg thermostat

that's about all that I could think may effect fuel mileage, I am currently waiting on the shipment of a UD pulley and am thinking of also going the electric fan route. However I do not want to compromise my cooling at all since I do a fair amount of towing with a 5000lb camper.

edit: I also wanted to add that my mounty is the 4x4 so it has the added weight :dunno:
 






For best results

I don't live on the top of a hill and coast to work, only to have a helicopter bring me and the X home! I do live in rather flat Ohio, with an overall elevation change over the day of probably less than 600 feet. I also drive 150+ highway miles everyday. I've found that paying more attention to the tach than the speedo plays a VERY large part of increasing mileage. I can accelerate from a stop to 50 mph at 1500-1700 rpms if no one is behind me, I can also stomp on it and get to 55 in 8 or 9 seconds. Guess which one burns less fuel? I truley believe that other than the few mod's mentioned, it all comes down to driving style. My wife drove the X for it's first 3 years, averaged about 14 mpg, and killed the brakes in about 30K. I've driven it ever since, avearge about 20 mpg, and the brakes were still in the "green" at 60K. Driving Styles!!!
 






Like the rest of you, I've been trying to squeeze every fraction of a mile per gallon out of my 2002 Xsport. The only mod I've done is a K&N drop-in filter. I run 35 psi all around in tires. When driving 65mph on highway, I'd get between 19.5 and 20.5 mpg. I've been trying 55mph and I am getting about 23 mpg mainly because at that speed the engine is runing about 1900 rpm.

Just changed plugs and coil pack (101k miles). Going to change wires and fluid in auto trans next. At the rate gas prices are increasing, the old xsport may end up a "driveway queen" before too long.
 






'02 XLT 4.0. I hav had a heavy foot since i started driving, it was normal for me to creep near 90 everytime i was on a highway. Never thought twice about till gas started going through the roof. then i started noticing i could never break 300 miles on a full tank mixed highway and around town, mostly around town. (292, 294, 298) but never 300. which figured out to be about 13.3mpg which shocked me for a V6. I know its heavy, but it still seems really low. So the last two tanks i kept my speed below 60mph. tough i know, and i finally broke 300, actually 345. which puts me in the 16 range. 50 miles=3gal x $3.55 = $10.65 per fill x 5 = $53.25 per month savings. Tune up next. Doubt ill break 20but 19 would be nice.
 






I played around with air filters, but saw no difference in MPG, which proves my theory correct...A higher flowing air filter is a moot point when the throttle blades are mostly closed when cruising down the highway. Having less restriction in front of the throttle body isn't going to matter when the throttle blade itself is the restriction. The only place a better flowing intake really matters is at WOT, where you're obviously not getting maximum MPG.

I also personally feel that the FFVs don't get the mileage that a dedicated gas-burner will. Kind of the old "jack of all trades, master of none" problem. The system isn't really optomised to either gasoline or E85, but will run fine on either fuel. If it were like the early FFVs which had an actual alcohol sensor in the fuel tank, that might make a difference, but the new ones just "guesstimate" the amount of ethanol in the fuel, so I'm pretty confident it's not as good as it could be. The system is accurate however...I scanned mine with a full tank of E85 (winter blend), and it said I had 72% ethanol content...Perfectly in line with what was being dispensed from the pump at that time. The blend of E85 changes throughout the year, having as little as 70% ethanol in the cold months for easier starting.
 



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I agree with Mr. Cornburner! The FFV's don't get as good mpg's, and the grade and type of gas has a similar effect. This is most noticeable for me when I lose 1.5 - 2 mpg's in the winter with the E85. If you are getting even more Ethanol, than your mileage will also suffer. If however you are PAYING less for E85 than perhaps it is a wash. Check out this website to see current gas prices around the country, www.gasbuddy.com and select the "Gas Price Temperature Maps. Looks like the E85 states are definatley cheaper.
 






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