Please post your mpg for comparison. I have a 4.6L with tow package. The EPA rating is 19 highway, I have drove conservatively and got 15mpg on pretty flat highways. 10mpg towing 6600 lbs.
When I first got my 07 (5.7, DC, 4X4, 4.30 gears) the mileage was pretty bad, roughly getting around 12mpg combined (mostly highway). After a couple of thousand miles, it got alot better.
It seems the gas is switching over to that "winter blend" crap....
I have the 4.6L as well and so far its getting no where near what the rated fuel economy is listed at. However I think I have stumbled onto part of the problem here in the last couple of weeks. My check engine light had come on a couple of times and when I took it in to see what the code was the tech said it was related to the engine timing. Nothing serious so I am going to bring it back for a full check up in a couple of weeks.
The other thing I noticed is that the shifting seemed a little bit off, like it really tended to upshift gears quickly and if you were crusing along and wanted to accelerate moderately it would hesitate on kicking down and when it finally did it was a violent drop of gears and engine revving acceleration.
Anyhow, the check engine light and this shifting got me thinking. My last tank of fuel I put in I filled up full of premium. Mileage, power and shifting are all much better now as well my mileage seems to have improved. I was getting close to 19mpg driving into the wind on a trip home yesterday. My check engine light turned off soon after that fill up as well. I also noted that it would kick down better climbing small hills or when I needed to speed up to make a pass.
Our regular gas around here is about 87 octane which is what the manual says is required but I think the advertised 87 on the pump might be a bit low and that was what was causing the issues as well as the poor fuel economy. My few tanks of gas previous were all burned off in the city and I was averaging about 13mpg which is down right terrible and I was by no means driving hard.
Anyhow, try mid-grade or premium once and just see what you think.
I too have a 2010 Tundra; 4.6 liter; One thing I noticed is that the trip computer is not accurate. While it says I may be getting 16.5 mpg, using a calculator after fill ups yields 18.7 mpg. I still have under 2000 miles, so I expect it to get better after break in......hope this helps!
I too have a 2010 Tundra; 4.6 liter; One thing I noticed is that the trip computer is not accurate. While it says I may be getting 16.5 mpg, using a calculator after fill ups yields 18.7 mpg. I still have under 2000 miles, so I expect it to get better after break in......hope this helps!
Thats a really good point. I only have about 800miles (1300km) on my truck so far. It has a ways to go before breaking in. However, given that I was still surprised at how poor mileage was. It only makes sense though, if the octane is off the computer is going to retard timing to compensate and prevent detonation. This comes at the expense of fuel ecomony and performance. It also seems the 87 octane fuel I had put in was low enough octance I was getting the check engine light on. Definately not a good thing.
I'll have a chat with my Toyota dealer the next chance I get and feel out their thoughts. The 4.6L's are brand new in the Tundras so its good we have a place here to share our experiences.
I have a 2010 5.7L CrewMax. I have less than 2k miles and I am averaging 16.8mpg (according to on dash display) with 75% highway and 25% urban driving. I also had a check engine light come on at about 1150 miles...took it to the dealer...ran code...and that someone in California flagged my service tech via his hand held device used for linking to the on-board CPU wanting to run some more tests and get more information. (Side Note: my service advisor told me that for California to call my local dealership was EXTREMELY rare.) Service advisor came to me in the waiting room and told me they were going to keep my Truck for a while and that I could have a rental car. About 3-1/2 hrs later, they called and said that it was ready. All they would tell me is that "California told them to change the oil and filter". The service advisor also told me that the trouble code was for "CAM over-retarding".
Given what I have read hear...it may just be an octane thing. I am using the recommended 87 octane per the owner's manual.
I have an 08 with about 26K miles... When I check my road mileage, it is always on a trip on the interstate, for consistency... When I use my cruise control, I get about 1 MPG less, depending upon type of terrain, flat vs hilly to mountainous grades. I have noticed that the slightest grade change will force a downshift almost every time, despite the available torque our 5.7 engine provides. If I do not use cruise, I can prevent the downshifts, thus better mileage.
My last trip to TN, crusing 70-80 resulted in an average of about 15.2, or so.
On my return trip, I cut the crusing speed down to 65-70 and got same results, about 15.2 to 15.5. On these fillups, I put auto-cutoff on first detent each time and never added more fuel. I do not believe you get same results each time, due to diff pump pressures from station to station.
On one small trip, I topped off each time to visible level in fill-tube. Usually took at least 3 more gallons, what a bitch ! that takes forever ! Anyway, I got about 16.0 to 16.3 for road mileage at 60-65MPG...
Around town, it seems be be around 12.5 to 13.5....
dang. I hoping it would be closer to the 18.5mpg I'm averaging with my 08 taco ..running a 3 inch lift and 285 MT Mudders! Stock, in the summer I couldn't get worse than 19.5mpg and sometimes got 21-22 mpg on long easy rides.
take care. ouch to all you tundy owners.
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08 Taco 4.0 DC LB 4*4 TRD Sport, OME 3" lift, 1.5 AAL, 285 Hankook MTs, AC/Foglight mods, Rockford Fosgate Punch 601s pushing 2 10P3s in a Supercrew box
09 Crewmax 4x4 5.7, 4:30s, tow package, SR5, 18 inch stock wheels. Factory tires, no mods or heavy accessories.
Best of 18.7 highway, Spring time, cruise set just a tad under 65, flat roads, avoiding heavy throttle AT ALL COSTS, over a 300 mile stretch. I even timed my merges carefully so as not to have to floor it. Calculated the old fashioned way, by hand. This was with about 400 pounds of passenger and gear in the truck. Oh yeah and there was 500 miles on the clock when I started since I bought it brand new the night before. I imagine if it was just me in an empty truck doing 55 mid 19s would be a very realistic goal. Too bad I have never driven like that since in the 15 months that have followed and probably never will.
For the second half of the trip I bumped it up to about 70 mph, OCCASIONAL heavy throttle, mostly easy cruising, and saw about 17. 75-80 mph and up put me at low 16s and below strictly highway.
Things people don't understand:
Look at your window sticker again. I don't care WHAT you think or claim, your truck is NOT guarenteed for 15 city, 20 highway. It has achieved that under TESTING, but will return anywhere from x to y-mpg city and anywhere between x-mpg and y-mpg highway.
13 or 14 mpg city IS NOT that bad for any half ton truck. You're getting 0 mpg every time you stop and probably single digits everytime you accelerate away from a stop working up through the lowest gears. This can drag your average down quite a bit.
On vehicles this size, just a few heavy throttle runs per tank makes a BIG difference. For best results to see what your truck can really do you have to approach every situation figuring out how to minimize throttle application. Time your merges. Don't race TO the light or AWAY from the light.
Taking it easy doesn't meant 70 mph, it means 55-60. Mileage goes down noticably for every 5-10 mph over 60 as wind drag starts to take its toll. The fact that you cannot stomach driving like this in order to get the mileage your truck is rated for, or that you're looking for, doesn't change the fact that it's probably necessary and that is how those numbers were achieved in testing.
Mileage goes down in the Winter as more of the ethanol garbage that they keep telling us we should learn to love gets mixed into our gas. Cold weather hurts it even more. Winter mileage is not a good way to judge what your truck is really capable of in ideal conditions. On my old 04 Dakota it typically went from about 14 mixed in warm weather down to as low as high 11s or low 12s when the temps were in the teens. I expect it's the same with the Tundra.
Instantaneous mileage readout is meaningless for anything other than guiding how you use your right foot for best mileage in a given situation. Great, for 5 seconds coasting downhill with your foot off the gas with a tail wind you got 30 mpg and you want to boast about it on the boards. Congratulations, but make sure you pay attention when you stop and that gets dragged down to zero, or when you accelerate from a stop and you're getting 5 or 6. I really don't even trust the average readout all that much either. I don't take your calculations seriously unless have divided number of miles travelled over number of gallons you can put back into the tank. It's really what you have to do before you start looking for mechanical problems. Go ahead, try it. It's not that much work at all. Just requires re-setting the trip odometer and doing some quick math on your cell phone. I really don't know why so many refuse to try it.
With big heavy truck-type vehicles, real world mileage going from small engine to big engine works differently than say, if you were to choose the 4 cyl. Vs. V6 Camry. With all that weight, driveline drag, and barn-door aerodynamics, the motor that does not work as hard to move the truck wins.
One guy who lives in rural North Carolina where it's never below 60 degress outside who drives downhill both ways to work may get 19 mpg all day every day. It doesn't automatically mean you are supposed to when you live in a different climate and drive in different traffic conditions. There are ALOT of variables so mileage will vary. The fact that you aren't within 1/10th of 1 mpg of everyone else doesn't necessarily mean you have to run to the dealer and make them plug in the code reader.
Careful throttle application or a spare 30 mpg beater go much further to making a difference mileage wise than spending 1000 dollars or more on aftermarket add-ons to make a difference that may not actually put money back in your pocket for several years.
Am I missing something ? Please share your reason for not topping off ...
Thanks,
Continuing to top off at each fill up will eventually fill up your fuel vapor evaporative container which will turn on your "service engine" light. This may require replacing this unit that is filled with a charcoal filter material. This unit captures the fuel fumes that would otherwise to into the atmosphere and can no longer get rid of them by reintroducing them into the system because the filter material is soaked. Expensive....
I have a 2010 5.7L CrewMax. I have less than 2k miles and I am averaging 16.8mpg (according to on dash display) with 75% highway and 25% urban driving. I also had a check engine light come on at about 1150 miles...took it to the dealer...ran code...and that someone in California flagged my service tech via his hand held device used for linking to the on-board CPU wanting to run some more tests and get more information. (Side Note: my service advisor told me that for California to call my local dealership was EXTREMELY rare.) Service advisor came to me in the waiting room and told me they were going to keep my Truck for a while and that I could have a rental car. About 3-1/2 hrs later, they called and said that it was ready. All they would tell me is that "California told them to change the oil and filter". The service advisor also told me that the trouble code was for "CAM over-retarding".
Given what I have read hear...it may just be an octane thing. I am using the recommended 87 octane per the owner's manual.
I have owned mine since the first week in June '10 and seem to average 14 or so in the city and 18-20 mpg on the highway with no load. I have 2,700 miles on her.
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