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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
Idling for 10 minutes no wonder you're only getting 11mpg. Put a small heater in the truck. When you'd normally go crank the truck up, turn the heater on. Let that sit for 10 minutes and you might even have a reshaped seat
my ulrea gauge tells me the gas i burn at idle in park too.. ill have to check next time it tells me essentially gallons per hour. kinda cool to see how much you actually waste when warming it up...
Do you have seat heaters? If not, $100 or so will solve that. My seats in my Mariner are nice and toasty before the vents are blowing hot air.
And as far as not wanting to NOT let it idle- that's all on you. You could spend thousands on mods to bring up the mpgs a few and roll stop signs and run red lights (which could end up costing you even more- and the cops see your dark tint and you get a fix-it-ticket, costing you even more) to get a few extra, but if you are going to let it idle excessively, it's not exactly worth it in the end.
Spend $1000 on a Civic, Sentra, S-series, Corolla, Metro...... and that 300 miles a week will take less than 10 gallons instead of the 26 that it's taking you now. That's $50 per week savings assuming $3.15/gal. You'll save $1000 in just 5 months.
you could plug your car in each night.. that would let it warm up faster. and your vents wont blow warm air until your truck engine reaches around 185 degrees..
with all the mods noted here if you did every single thing you would probably end up close to 3 thousand dollars and be getting like 20 mpg... you could spend 3 thousand and get another car that gets 30 lol and mod that one to get 33.. not to mention it would take less oil, cheeper tires, smaller batt, smaller alt, only need 4 plugs, 4 plug wires.. i think you got the drift! anyway... were all for you modding the hell out of your truck and we hope you do!! and report your findings of what worked, how much it costed, if it worked well, how long it took does it drive better etc... but the truth is these are 5000 pound square boxes that will never be modded to get good mpgs..
reliable and built ford tough but not eco friendly! short of the few things listed there isnt much else you can do... you could try cutting out your floor board and running fred flinstone on the bit.. he gets unlimited miles per gallon!!
I'm going to have to agree with those who suggested partially blocking the radiator, especially if you have an auxiliary transmission cooler. A couple weeks ago I blocked off my aux. transmission cooler (mounted in front of radiator). That way once the ATF reaches temperature (which does take awhile in this weather), it won't be overcooled. Less viscosity = less friction losses. And of course, less heat losses in the engine from overcooling as well.
I've got a scangauge 2 and during the summer /fall I averaged 17.9 combined city and highway. Enter the Northern New York cold and that average has been 13.3. I would estimate 1/2 of my driving is highway. Welcome to the world of V8 engines and sub zero cold. Although I do believe I may try the covering the grill trick and see what happens.
I've got a scangauge 2 and during the summer /fall I averaged 17.9 combined city and highway. Enter the Northern New York cold and that average has been 13.3. I would estimate 1/2 of my driving is highway. Welcome to the world of V8 engines and sub zero cold. Although I do believe I may try the covering the grill trick and see what happens.
Yeah, it's been pretty cold here in north GA the last couple of weeks (6 degrees last week) and i see the difference on my Exp V8 MPG, it had been around 17 combined and it's dropped to 15'ish. cool weather seems to give me the best MPG on winter formula gas, which is still not very good, but at least i don't have a car payment, my PP tax is next to nothing and insurance runs me about $220 a year.
Some sort of regulation on the cooling circuit, yes, but I'm not sure if it's a true thermostat. Since it's been below freezing, my ATF temperature didn't want to get above 140°F before I blocked off the cooler; now I can hit 160 in about 35-40 minutes of city driving.
Yeah, it's been pretty cold here in north GA the last couple of weeks (6 degrees last week) and i see the difference on my Exp V8 MPG, it had been around 17 combined and it's dropped to 15'ish. cool weather seems to give me the best MPG on winter formula gas, which is still not very good, but at least i don't have a car payment, my PP tax is next to nothing and insurance runs me about $220 a year.
being a young but not teen anymore is killing me.. i pay 720 a year in insurance or 60 a month... its full coverage but liability was like 700 so 20 bucks more for full coverage.. sign me up.. and taxes i only pay 40 for a year! so score one for an old beater without a car payment!!
my98nnj,
The tires are LT tires; Lite Truck; and not P-rated regular Passenger tires. - Like what's on a utility or service truck.
The sidewall reads Max PSI 85PSI. They have a very tall and solid sidewall.
Not even on the rim, I am about 300lbs and I can stand one up vertically and sit on it without it collapsing.
It is not like a P235/75R15 or 31x10.5R15 which are soft sidewalled.
I forget the exact load baring max but it's about double a 235/75R15
Right now you got a few issues killing the mpg -- idling to warm up, driving on snow rather than clear pavement, computer feeding more gas to the engine to reach closed loop operation. Cant do much about the snow, but you can fix the heat. Install a block heater ($50) so you can plug in the truck to warm up the engine instead of idling it, and get a grill tarp ($15) to help retain heat in the radiator.
