What's Normal mpg?

[sabatosh]

This Ford explorer is getting terrible gas mileage like 10mpg city, I'm thinking the oxy sensors will help the matters but what is it supposed to be normally? Someone told me that 10mpg is what he gets on his new Ford, I find that rediculously bad, as I get very very good mpg on my VW.

 

[jimbo74]

judign your truck is 11 years old, have you done a tuneup lately? what about a fuel injection service? try some seafoam?

 

[sabatosh]

Yeah I replaced the spark plugs a few months ago, I know the oxy sensors are way past due probably were never changed. Running a tank of super premium thru the injectors should do the job most of the time to clean the injection. Just felt like this guy made me feel pessimistic about gaining more fuel economy. What is the normal fuel economy for this vehicle, I'd think at least 18-19mpg city?

 

[dreamr]

What is the normal fuel economy for this vehicle, I'd think at least 18-19mpg city?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah

Don't we all wish !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[spindlecone]

you can get 30MPG, with a oil cooler, I read that somewhere.

 

[PHL Flash]

I have a 93 with 145k and the California emmissions package. Generally, it gets about 19-21 on the highway, and about 15-18 in city driving. It has been very consistant over the years, usually about 17.5 mpg overall average for the year. I do change the plugs and air filter, but never have changed to O2 sensors.

 

[jayhawkexplorer]

You're doing extremely well. Normal overall mileage, in my estimation, is 13-18 for a 4.0 OHV equipped Explorer.

 

[sabatosh]

you can get 30MPG, with a oil cooler, I read that somewhere.

You mean there's no oil cooler on this car?

Geeeee, I dunno about this car, maybe best kept for a deep snowy day only. The handling is lousy, the mpg is terrible, the practicality is very bad. What do you Ford fans see in these things?

 

[prerunnersvo]

I get 20-22 on the freeway with my 94 with 182k and 31" tires. around 16 in town.

 

[have2goski]

My '91 has 204,x.. miles on the ticker and am getting 17-18 mpg with mixed driving.

was getting 18-19 before my dad was feeling ambitious one morning and did a favor for me while i was sleeping in. Took my explorer into a shop to get the exhaust replaced.

Its so bittersweet. hey, he paid for it and i didn't have to climb under my truck or anything , but then again he took it somewhere that dropped the diameter down to 2" from the 2.25" i had :thumbdwn:.

oh well, he's my dad and i'll keep him even though he is getting a little crazy in his old age. it should only be like what another 2-3 years before it rusts out again and i can bump it back up to the 2.25"

 

[jayhawkexplorer]

You mean there's no oil cooler on this car?

Geeeee, I dunno about this car, maybe best kept for a deep snowy day only. The handling is lousy, the mpg is terrible, the practicality is very bad. What do you Ford fans see in these things?

You bought an 11 year old truck who's basic architecture reaches back even farther then that. So the handling is going to be trucklike. The gas mileage is about par for the course; drive an old Blazer, Pathfinder, 4 Runner, or Cherokee and you'll do about the same. The practicality is still there; you can carry 5 people, you can carry a good amount of cargo, and you can tow a pretty good sized amount.

We see the practicality in our Explorers. We also see decent off road ability, good reliability (with a few exceptions), and a vehicle that we can work on ourselves. I'm amazed at how uncomplicated my truck is for being a '97, while still working well, having the options I want, and being reliable. Somebody else is bound to chime in, but there's a lot to like about these trucks. I don't know you expected, but perhaps you were expecting way too much.

 

[Christobal65]

You mean there's no oil cooler on this car?

Geeeee, I dunno about this car, maybe best kept for a deep snowy day only. The handling is lousy, the mpg is terrible, the practicality is very bad. What do you Ford fans see in these things?

I could be wrong here but dont the Exploreres equiped with the Tow package come with oil coolers? I know the Trany cooler is embedded in the radiator and my Explorer has what looks to be a small oil cooler infront of the condencer and radiator.

 

[Mbrooks420]

The smaller cooler is for the power steering fluid. We have Explorer's because they are good SUV's, built on a real truck frame. If you want an SUV with stellar handling, and MPG, then you really want a station wagon. Hit some ice, and go into the median with it's 2 foot of salty snow, and when you get it out, by yourself with no shoveling, and still make it to work on time, you will realize the beauty of having a truck.

 

[aldive]

You mean there's no oil cooler on this car?

Geeeee, I dunno about this car, maybe best kept for a deep snowy day only. The handling is lousy, the mpg is terrible, the practicality is very bad. What do you Ford fans see in these things?

I see that you hate your truck, maybe you should get rid of it.

 

[off-road97Xplor]

Well it seems to me you came here already knowing that no matter what we said you weren't going to like the explorer anymore than you originally did. Since you mentioned VW I would suggest this car......

It has a powerful 4cylinder powering the big tires so you can get through the worst weather.
AND all for only $4,000 on ebay.
Enjoy!

P:S: If you want the link for ebay Private Message me

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

Please don't feel bad about your 10mpg - i'm currently pulling 8-9mpg in my '96 4.0 - and there are no obvious problems to fix - i've done all regular (and not so regular) maintenance and a few mods and that's where i am.

The wife wants to get rid of it in the worst way, but i love the b!tch (my X, not the wife ) and won't get rid of her. I'm doing my damned'est to fix random (inexpensive) things to get her back to the 13avg. i had in '01.

With my conversion package, i'm carrying a few extra pounds, and i've got "leadfootitus" at times. 90% of my driving is City - stopsign-to-stopsign - and recently it had been through slush and snow in 4wd. Makes me long for the days of 11mpg in the summer!

 

[jayhawkexplorer]

Geez that's horrible MPG. Hard to believe all that maintenance didn't fix anything.

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

Geez that's horrible MPG. Hard to believe all that maintenance didn't fix anything.

I've owned it since 11/01 and never got over 13 combined driving (15 hwy). I've done plugs & wires twice, O2 sensors, synthetic oil changes (3000 mi.), egr, dpfe (x2), evr, pcv, flowmaster cat-back, kkm, bbk (newly installed), t-stat, coolant flush&fill routinely, and i'm sure there's more. EDIT: Ran a can or two of seafoam, too! FPR is fine and the injectors hold pressure the way they should.

I can't imagine that my fiberglas top and ground effects kit weight THAT much more that a stock v6, but they say every 100lbs = 1mpg. Based on that theory, i even tried removing the subs and no difference. If that is truly the case, and i have 250-300 extra lbs, there's 2.5-3mpg off the bat.

I tried babying it (featherfooting) for a full tank and NOThing! I think i got 150miles on 18g last fillup. During the summer, with combined driving, i got excited when the tripmeter got to 200mi. Now i'm just hoping that i can reach 150 b4 a fillup. This TRULY sucks!

 

[sabatosh]

I've got a few VW's..

This explorer was my mothers who gave it to my grandmother, and I promised her I'd fix it. My experience of course is with VW's and I've found the Ford unpleasant to work on in comparison. It is easy, it's bulky, the engines are too big, and a lot of things badly designed for service. The mpg is terrible, and I promised her I'd get the mpg up up up. Oxy sensors go bad about 60k-100k so if you haven't swapped your's out yet, that's a big part of the problem.

They won't nessacarily throw a code, because the computer thinks the sensor is working, but they lose resistance, and stop regulating the fuel metering relative to the o2 level. It's just flatlined...

Well I appreciate all the tips everyone is offering and the low down on these trucks. VW's for how old they are have always had great handling and I think everyone should own one, they run great in the snow for all practicality and are sure roomy despite being compact. You can get big hp on them too if you know what you're doing.

 

[sabatosh]

I'm currently putting new exhaust from manifold back in the bronze car. Has new JBL audio cd system...overhauling the engine as well and making everything pretty under the hood, paint and polish. Here's a picture of the intake manifold coming along.