Gas Mileage
 

I thought I'd try and get some feed back on this. I have an 07 tacoma 4 x 4 at the moment its all stock. Ever since I bought it (now has over 10,000 miles on it) the gas mileage has been terrible. I'm consistantly getting 14-15 mpg on a tank of gas. For those of you who are wondering, I don't have a lead foot. I even pulled out the manual and followed Toyotas recomendations on how to drive to maximize mileage. About half my driving is freeway and half is city. Right now its a big discouragment for mods, I'd hate to have to loose another 1-2 mpg for lift and tires. I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on this. Thanks

have you done a tune up?

Where do you live? You may be getting bad gas in your AO. I took mine to the stealership and complained about bad MPG (I even posted here about it). All things said and done, I still got crummy MPG. As of last fill up, everything is back to normal*. Go figure. Have the stealership hook up the computer and drive it around.

You could check your air filter, maybe you got into something nasty.

*I went from getting 280mi out of a tank (starting in feb) back to getting 340mi out of a tank, this in one week. I've got a friend who works for BG and he has a gas test kit, he says we have been getting crap gas here for months, the stealership has heard the same complaints.

Man, that sucks guys. My '05 4runner v6 (I assume heavier vehicle with FB frame and SUV body) consistently gets 20 mpg in the summer (I even drive in 4wd a lot) and fall months with 87 octane in it. I drive less than half highway, most is commuting in rush hour when I do. It has 43k on it, maybe that's why, it just takes longer to break in, although at 10k miles it should be normal.

That sucks bro, I get 20 mpg in my 4runner v6 during the warmer parts of the year. My driving is about half highway, and much of that is rush hour commuting. I have over 40k miles on mine right now. I also assume my vehicle is heavier with the FB frame and SUV body. Good luck, let us know what you to improve your mileage.

Hybrid Recommendations Seem to Apply
 

I used to own an 07 Civic Hybrid and no matter what I did, my overall mileage was 32 mpg. I went online and read suggestions on maximizing mileage and it seems that the same principles would apply to regular fuel vehicles. The recommendations were: travel at no more than 65 mph, use cruise control as much as possible, keep windows up, keep tires inflated to maximum pressure, anticipate stops and coast as much as possible, get up to speed vigorously and maintain constant speed. Needless to say, I SOLD that piece of s$*#!:bang: The #1 most effective thing I've ever done to maximize mileage in a 4x4 is change my air filter to a K&N. The easier it breathes, the less the engine works. The hybrid recommendations seemed sound though.

Ya, a lot of my friends with Tacomas can't believe it. I might as well drive a
V8 with this kind of gas mileage.

JGage, I've had my truck in CA and OR, and the mileage is the same....crap.
What did the stealership tell you when you complained about it?
Did they do anything for you?
How did you get your truck up to 340/gallon?

Thanks for the input. I'll probably make a trip to the stealership this weekend.
I'll post how it goes

P.S. The air filter is fine

I have an 06 Tacaoma V6 6speed manual 4x4 TRD O/R. 10K miles. I got about 280mi before the fuel light came on when it was new. I put a K&N intake on at 4K miles and my mileage dropped to 250mi before light. I then put on a 2TRD intake at 7K mi and mileage increased back to normal and still got same performance as K&N. At around 7500mi, my engine loosened up. I now get 300 mi before light. Basically I started with about 16.? mpg and now I'm at 17.3 mpg. By the way, I'm about half highway/city and I use shell 93 octane gas.

High Roller, I only use 87 octane. That's a noticable difference between the two air filters. Glad your MPG is up

i have found that i get really good mpg when i drive all highway and crap in the city or with mixed driving. see what happens when you burn 3/4 of a tank on the road driving 65-70. you should see 20+. i got 20-24mpg over a 3000 mile road trip when my truck consistently gets 15-16 around town. as posted before be sure never to use 85 octane and always use 87. good luck.

2007 tacoma, 4dr, 4wd, long bed, shell, auto

I didn't make it to the stealership this weekend due to U of O vs Cal football game, but I did get my CB antenna mount on:hillbill:
I'll have to wait till next weekend to deal with Toyota

ryland, I recently moved up to Portland and drove a few times from CA. The best MPG I got was low 15.? and that was all freeway 65-75 MPH. I think it was around 15.2 MPG which is still way lower then what I should be getting.

What makes you think your air filter is ok? If it's over 12,000 miles, I would change it if you're having mpg issues.
Also, this may be way out in left field but since your ride is relatively new, maybe unhooking the battery to reset the ecu might do something. I know it may worsen things initially but maybe after a tankful the ecu would adjust to the broken in engine.
What tire pressure do you run?

Hoopster I'm running my tires at 29psi in the front and 32psi in the rear. I actually disconnected my batterie when wiring my CD about a month ago, but nothing changed on the MPG.
The reason I don't think it's related to the air filter is because its been like this since I first bought the truck, when everything was brand new.

They said that they have gotten complaints from other drivers and it must be the gas in the area. The service writer tried to push new plugs on me, but one of the techs said that was stupid for my miles. They hooked up the computer to the truck and drove the sucker around, truck was fine. I replaced the airfilter with a TrueFlow. Same crappy MPG. About a month later, MPG went back to what it used to be. Go figure.

This is a V8 4Runner mind you. Heck, I was getting 380mi out of a tank before I threw the bigger Revos on (now mind you, my odo is a little off).

Maybe you drive like a crazy person... I always thought I was a "normal" driver until my exgirlfriend drove my truck for 3wks and got at least 1mpg better that when I drive it. <SG>

It may be just the gas or something else but I would guess that the truck is just now getting broken in and if the air filter has over 12,000 on it you may see a change with a new one. I would also raise the front tire pressure to 35psi or at least higher than the rear because they're supporting more weight. I usually run a little higher in the front of my trucks because an empty bed us pretty light.
good luck!

I put larger tires on my 4 runner and the milage fell off also.
I was told it was partly due to the increased weight of the tires.
I know the speedo is off a little w larger tires, but I was getting 380 out of a tank, now I'm closer to 340..
Just my .02 worth

Assuming the speedometer was accurate to start with, you need to find the percent difference in diameter between the new tires and the old tires and factor this into your MPG calculations.

Or you could just use a GPS.

So from this thread, can I assume that I can take the 26mpg Hwy for an 07 4x4 Taco w/ 6-spd Toyota claims, and throw it right out the window?

Not necessarily. Mine is rated for 21 highway and I got 20.98 on a recent trip, which was mostly interstate. I think that's good enough.

I get 19.5 city/highway and 21.47 highway/city 1600 on the odometer, 4x2 4 Liter-Rich http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...1_edited-2.jpg