Is their anyway to get better gas mileage the cheap way. I hear if you take out your air box and drill a lot of little holes in the bottom you get like 3 MPG.

 

Buy a moped or stay off the gas if you want to keep the truck is your best bet. It's been covered a million times over.

 

I threw back in my K&N (I prefer an OEM one) in my Runner and reset the computer and at the half way point my mileage is up 15 more miles than my last ten tankfuls but we'll see as it gets closer to empty.

 

I hate to also sound like an ass, but he's right. It's not meant to be a fuel efficent vehicle. That's why I have a secondary car as my daily driver. The truck is used on the weekends pretty much.

The truck though does amazing on the freeway as I took it a while back to San Francisco (about an hour and half with no traffic) and back and on my back used the a/c and got 19~20 MPG. that's freaking amazing for a V8.

 

Their is still a way to get better gas mileage.

 

It's been tried and tested, but most "inventions" have failed. The best way is to just keep your stock tires, keep off of the gas pedal, plan your stops ahead, keep up with maintenances, and possibly run synthetics althought it's questionable on whether or not you will get your money back from it.

 

I think with the way gas prices are these days, even a small improvement will get your money back out of synthetics. Remember, you aren't trying to recover the cost of the fluids, just the extra you pay for synthetic vs regular stuff. You should be changing fluids as a normal thing anyway. Also, AMSOIL synthetics really aren't that expensive and people have reported improvements using them. (I intend to switch to them soon, so we'll see...)

 

I have a little over 36,000 on my 04 Thundra, AccessCab, 4WD, V8, TRD, TowPkg, Stock everything, on the last fill up I did 281 miles and had to put 15.3 gallons in for a 18.3 MPG!!!!! My MPG has been slowly going up since I bought the truck and believe it or not, the faster I drive on the highway and use the A/C, the better MPG's I get! I do mostly highway, but the commute back and forth is mostly stop and go for 25 miles each way so it is anything but a steady cruise. I suspect that the engine enjoys a load on it with the A/C and that the higher RPM's that go with higher speed makes the engine run in an efficient part of the rev-range. I keep my tires at 35-36 cold all the way around and change my oil every 5,000 miles with either Toyota oil or plain Valvoline, changed the air filter with a stock one at around 30,000 miles and do the diff's whenever the book tells me to, like every 15,000 miles, other than that, I get anywhere from high 15's to 17's MPG's in mixed driving, not towing, towing is a whole nother story.

 

thanks

 

One of these days I'll sit down and calculate my mileage. But for now, Im content knowing- Starting with half a tank, driving to State Line (Las Vegas) from LA, I stop and fill-up in Victorville going & coming back.

And yes, I know it's bad, but... most, if not all hills, I push what I call "the go fast button" (overdrive) and let run 5k+ rpm's (85, 90mph)

 

dude at the half way point im hitting 220miles after my k+n drop in filter
thats freaking amazing in in maryland and the weather is about 60-70

 

K&N suck I hear.

 

Someone told me that Tundra require premium. Is this true?

 

I Have Never Heard Of That I Always Put 87 In Mine

 

I have never put premium in mine, and it runs just fine.

 

owners manual calls for regular. that's all i've ever used. i just added a 190lb topper on my bed for the dog and gear and all and was curious how it would affect mileage. after 1st tank used with 90% city driving i got 15.8 mpg. not much difference than before. for me on the highway I think my best has been about 17 and that's with larger than stock a/ts. it's a mystery. i'm running amsoil engine oil and am thinking i might just go back to factory oil. syn is piece of mind knowing you change it less, creating less waste, but don't know for a fact that it's truly helping the engine.

 

When you went to larger tires did you get your speedometer recalibrated? If not your mileage figures are off.

 

I have an '05 DC LTD Tundra 4x4. I get about 17mpg highway at 80+ mph and around 14-15 mpg city. My worst tank was 12 mpg and that was towing 6500 pounds with another 700 pounds or so in the bed. Also towing at 70 mph! If I just slowed down, I know I would see huge increases in mileage--but who has the time for that?!?!

The '05's with the VVTI does make good use of premium fuel as it squeeks out more power and efficiency so it *probably* recovers the extra dime or so a gallon, but who knows?

Keep the tires properly inflated and keep up with maintenance and you will be good to go.

 

Keep with the regular gas as the higher priced fuel does nothing for mileage or performance with your engine. The topper should cut a little into your highway mileage but I wouldn't think it would be much, unless it sticks above your cab a couple of inches. I'll cost you a little more if it does, especially if your bucking a wind. Stay with the synthetic motor oil - it doesn't do much, if anything, for mileage but your engine will have a lot more of a safety net on the extremes, which is a good thing if your engine ever needs that "extra" protection. What usually increases mileage a little is changing to synthetics in your differentials and transfer case. I've had several 4X4's and in every case I got around .5, that's a half mile per gallon better mileage. I didn't change for the mileage - I changed for the better protection in extreme cold (-30F) at startup and extreme heat (working the lockers in 90 degree outside temps). Bigger tires adds weight and decreases mileage some so that's a factor to consider. I found the best off-road 33" tires for mileage was the BFG 255X85X16's M/Ts. Sipe those puppies and they will last 50K plus.

 

[QUOTE=Joe]Keep with the regular gas as the higher priced fuel does nothing for mileage or performance with your engine. QUOTE]

On an '01, no, but the new VVTI motors do make more power with the higher octane. They will also run just fine with lower octane in my experience. I ran 89 octane while towing and 87 in Colorado with no issues.
My brother has an '02 Tundra and runs 85 octane exclusively-- lives at 6000 ft. in elevation so the higher octane would be a waste in his truck.