So I've had my cruiser for about a week and a half. I'm really happy with it and feel like I got a killer deal. I have one concern though. I've read where others are getting around 15 to 19 mpg around town. I got 12 mpg on my first tank of gas. I'm not real sure why my gas mileage was so bad. It was all around town and wasn't loaded down with anything. I was a little heavy on the skinny pedal initially, but I can't imagine it could have made that big of a difference. My wife drives an 05 4Runner 4x4 which has the same engine and she has consistently averaged 19 mpg around town for the last five years. I don't expect identical mpg on the FJ, but a little better than 12mpg.

I'm going to replace the plugs, the oil, and service the air raid filter this week. I'm wondering if there are any other maintenance issues I might be over looking. Any thoughts?

 

Well, not much input...so I researched a little. I found a potential culprit in my MAF, it was filthy. Found a video for cleaning it over in the blue room and it was just that easy. Changed the oil earlier this evening also. Tomorrow I pick up my filter tune up kit for the CAI. Maybe between the three I will find a little improvement. I'll give it a week, then change the plugs. Still open to any other suggestions.

 

This won't happen if you don't over oil the CAI.

 

That is one of the things I learned as I poked around a couple of forums. As I said at he beginning, I've only had the cruiser a little over a week. I'm not sure what the guy before me did for maintenance. He said he had it all done at the dealership and I found a few receipts to support this. Although, the reports on the dealer tickets all said they didn't touch the air filter since it was a CAI unit. I would guess that if he did the filter cleaning himself he probably over oiled it. I'll see where it goes from here.

 

Have you measured the mileage using a GPS? The odometer is thrown off by the 285's. My '05 Taco on 285's was off a bit, measured with a gps and mpg wasn't as bad as I though.

 

Fink

 

Genius point! I know that the larger tires affect the speedometer, but always overlook what they do to the odometer. My stereo is gps enabled, I'll compare that with the next fill up. It probably isn't as bad as I'm thinking. And if I address some of the neglected maintenance, it will probably be closer to what some of these other owners are getting.

 

For what it is worth with my 285s I checked my speedometer against my indash navigation GPS and they were the same.

With my heavy rig I am averging around 15.5 with 50% city/highway.
I get better on non winter fuel.

 

Wow - that's impressive.

Fink

 

I've checked my speedo with my GPS and I have 285's and the speedo was pretty close to the GPS.(but I have 50,000 miles on my MTR's so they maybe the size of a 275 by now. LOL!!!!) I get around 16 compined MPG.
As for the Runner getting better MPG, remember that the FJ is not very arrow.
If you have seen the new TV add that describes an SUV as being as arrow as an Elephant, thats an FJ there talking about. LOL!!!!!

 

My speedo is pretty close to my GPS. Obviously the faster I go the bigger the gap. At 65 on the dash the GPS reads 67, nothing too crazy. The odometer looks to be working out to about 1 mile off for every 20 miles. So when the dash odometer reads 19 miles the actual mileage is 20. I'm sure that gap will grow over a tank of gas, will probably mean a little improvement.

I agree completely! The FJ is about as aerodynamic as a brick. My concern is that there is such a dramatic difference between my wife's and mine (19+ in the 4runner vs just under 12 in the FJ) and my FJ's gas mileage is well below what many others are getting. Having said all that, I think the maintenance items I addressed and the correct mileage with the GPS will no doubt get me in the 15 MPG range which would be great for me.

 

Well here's an update, for what it is worth. So far I have changed the oil, cleaned the MAF and serviced the air raid filter. That combined with getting the actual miles traveled via GPS worked out to an improvement of 15.0 MPG on the last tank of gas. I can live with that. The previous tank gave me just under 12 MPG, which is a little weak. I picked up some new spark plugs today. I'll install them tonight and see if that improves anything over the next tank.

 

Change the thermostat. I read an article where the thermostats get weak on the FJ and does not allow the temp to get up where it is suppose to which throws off the mixture. It is only a few degrees, but according to the article it causes the mileage to go south. Here is the article http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...l-mileage.html

 

I run an 08 FJ, auto tranny & routinely get from 14-24 mpg mixed city/hwy on high octane. An FJ is heavy no matter what you do and about as aerodynamic as a brick. I'm pulling my roof rack soon in order to avoid causing havoc with dumb-ass sprinklers in my new residence garage. I'll let you know if it makes any difference. I've gone to all synthetic's, done tire rotations, K'N air intake and leveled the truck with front spacers and 3" Air Lift air bags (rear)cause I pull a converted cargo trailer.

 

I switched back to Premium a few weeks ago, and my MPG has shot way up, close to 18 combined city/freeway, I am stunned.
I hear it is from them not adding as much additives to the Premium verses the Regular.

The number before where it say Regular or Premium in the MPG.
Fridays reading since I filled up that morning is the highest in eons.
I am going to stick with Premium for awhile.
Quote:
4/13/2012 42849.0 159.0 9.880 $4.049 $40.00 16.0931 Regular Safeway
4/20/2012 43011.0 162.0 10.177 $3.439 $35.00 15.9182 Regular Safeway
4/27/2012 43163.0 152.0 9.655 $4.039 $39.00 15.7431 Regular Safeway
5/4/2012 43345.0 182.0 11.502 $3.999 $46.00 15.8233 Regular Safeway
5/11/2012 43526.0 181.0 11.473 $3.399 $39.00 15.7762 Regular Safeway
5/18/2012 43685.0 159.0 9.468 $4.119 $39.00 16.7934 Regular Safeway
5/24/2012 43839.0 154.0 9.431 $4.029 $38.00 16.3291 Regular Safeway
6/1/2012 43969.0 130.0 8.238 $4.249 $35.00 15.7805 Regular Safeway
6/8/2012 44122.0 153.0 8.961 $4.129 $37.00 17.0740 Regular Safeway
6/15/2012 44290.0 168.0 11.438 $3.759 $43.00 14.6879 Regular Safeway
6/22/2012 44423.0 133.0 7.520 $3.989 $30.00 17.6862 Premium Safeway Put in Premium today for the first time in a long time, and also showing I got 17.68 MPG.
6/29/2012 44582.0 159.0 8.949 $3.799 $34.00 17.7673 Premium Safeway MPG has gone up with Premium

 

Nice FJ photos Corey. I'll read your blog entries with interest.

 

May have already been mentioned, but tire pressure will impact milage.

I get 13-15 avg, arb rack, front and rear bumper, bud builts, 33s, etc....it's about 10-12 when I'm towing the teardrop!

 

Help?!??!?! ?I am getting an average of 10 MPG?!?!!?! 2007 3"lift, 33" tires. WTF?!?!?!