acquired myself a '00 4runner sport 5-speed about 7 months ago. I've been doing alot of reading here and have a couple questions for those of you that have actually done some mods. although hearsay is welcome.

Im currently getting a pretty consistant 21-22 mpg, with a highest of about 24, and yes, i've checked and verified everything is reading correctly. Im currently sitting at about 300 miles on about 1/4 tank left.

Im mostly interested in the mods that i can do myself, and possibly something far more sinister in the future (S/C or turbo ).

to all that have done the various airbox and intake mods, what happened to your gas mileage? i'd hate to lose 5-8 mpg for just a negligible HP gain.

I also wanted to know from anyone who has done just headers if that killed or helped MPG?

The biggest question i guess would be...... how does the S/C affect mileage, with my old gas guzzlin V8 jeep grand cherokee, the vortec actually gained me a couple MPG.

Im guessing this will probably turn into a work in progress, and some things may lose initial MPG, but when combined with something else actually net me better mileage. gas mileage isnt the only thing im looking for, but i'd hate to dump a ton of cash and/or time on something only to be kicking myself later because im getting a whopping 12 MPG, for my 2 HP gain.

thanks in advance for any answers or ideas.

 

I've done just about every mod on the 3.4. The SC'r with Free FMU mod killed my mpg by about 2. When I finally got it tuned (new injectors and global fuel trim adjustment), I got my 2 mpg back.

I've done just about every mod (click my link below for more info). The only reason any of the mods ever affected my mpg in a negative fashion was because of me putting my foot in it all the time. When I drove normal, mpg was normal.

Deckplate, ISR, headers, exhaust: No change.

SC'r w/free FMU and various ping mods: 15.5 mpg
SC'r w/o free FMU, new injectors, ping mods, tune: 17.5 mpg (which is pretty much what I always got, and yes I am a leadfoot)

 

fullman, is your gas gauge working correctly?

other things you can do which helped me out was keeping esc on and using seafoam......i'm still amazed at my highway mpg's....25mpg most of the time

 

im lucky to get 260 miles out of a full tank

 

I drive a '96 4Runner with the 1st generation TRD 'charger. When I bought it 3 years ago, with 75,000 miles on it, I got 19 in town & 22 on the highway.
Now, with 94,000, the deck mod and the free FMU mod I'm getting 16-17 in town, depending on how I baby the pedal. I haven't been on the highway in quite a while....not into traveling much when premium fuel was $ 3.00+ a gallon.

 

You guys are killing me! I get about 190 miles per 15 gallon tank in the winter and about 205 in the summer with no mods on my 3.4 99 sr5 runner.

Arrgh!

That really is ridiculous, maybe I should sell my truck...

 

no lie, when i am on road trips out of town with non ethenol based fuel using cruis set at 60-65, i get about 21-22 mpg, not corrected with my 295's and the rack on top. i thought it was a fluke, but after 6 tanks, i figured it was right. i didnt figure it corrected, but it would be like 7% better i would guess.

 

I'm getting about 210 on a full tank.... 18.5 capacity. (is this correct??). I have a 2000 V6 SR5 4Runner 5spd.
The only mods I have are the Injen IS intake and the TRD Mid Pipe & Exhaust.
I also have the notorious "faulty gas gauge"... My gas needle points empty and my orange "Low Fuel" light comes ON when I have about 1/4 of a tank left. So I track my gas consumption with my trip meters.
Is my 210 miles of mostly city driving normal?? This is about 11.5 miles/gallon, which kind of sucks!!!

maguirre
00' SR5, 5spd

 

^

How are you calculating your mpg?

If I do a lot of city driving and drive hard, I get around 220mi per tank. What matters though is the gallons used. I'm usually around 16 mpg in that scenario. If I do more highway driving and go easy, I can get 260 - 280 per tank, calculating to about a 18mpg average.

 

I would leave that runner well enough alone if your getting that good of gas mileage.

My 99 runner got 17-21 depending ...back around the 50,000 mark but the last 20,000 has been all downhill.

I just did a 02 sensor, plugs,throttle body clean, silencer box removal , battery disconnect,and I literally watched my gas gauge drop 1/4 tank while driving 40 miles yesterday.
I can't explain it...........I'm baffled.

I used to get great mileage. Any suggestions???

 

I just checked mine after all those tune up services and I got 17.9 MPG
in cool weather mostly on the hwy, 1 person in the car.
Not too good in my book.

Maybe The computer will take a while to readjust..who knows. Kenny S>

 

Well I can say this: Every time I reset the ECU, my mileage plummets to the 14mpg range until the computer adjusts. It usually takes a 1/4 tank before it starts to come back to normal, which ends up skewing my overall mpg for that tank anyway.

I am not sure if you guys track your mpg in Excel or not, but I do, and it really helps get to the root cause of mpg losses because you can see step functions on the graph and investigate. I always put root causes to bad mileage on my graphs for future reference. Yeah, I am dork but it might just be that I work in Quality Control for a living too.

I've noticed that things like ambient temp, weather (wind), and blends of gasoline really have an influence on mileage results.

Do you guys use your defroster a lot? If so, it could that the drop in mileage is because the AC is on when your DEF is on with RECIRC. Combine that with winter blend gas and you never know...

 

Thanks Christain, I'll track my mileage further since that last reding was taken right after the 02 sensor and tune up services reset.
Hopefully it will rise again!!


PS.........great wheel video christain
what happens during wheel balancing (which I have to do 3 to 4 times a year)

I'm hot to do that paint on my rims.
I wonder if you could black out the chrome bumpers the same way.

 

Thanks! I plan to make more videos and make them better each time. That was my first shot.

Generally all that happens for wheel balancing is that Discount Tire (or similar) nicks the edge of the wheel. I just touch it up if that happens. No bigee. Same for rock chips.

Nice pic!

 

Give me quick rundown on the herculiner stuff and how you prepped the chrome..
I've seen it in Pep boys.

I'd like t odo my wheel wells with something thats washable.
undercoating just seems to collect the dirt and discolor.

How does the herculiner clean since its krinkled in texture.

P.S>--- it looks like you live right near me in North Phoenix but I may be wrong.
Just by the background photos..Kenny S>

 

gas mileage?? what is that?? i just put in another 14.xx gallons and had 145 miles.. so that comes out to crappy... with MI winter gas, and a little bit more of idling around to warm up, so im guessing 11-12ish mpg... arghhh

time to order new plugs and wires, and maybe a front o2

 

Im with you!

 

Kenny -

Let's go to PM about this if you want. We should keep this thread on the mpg topic.