Gen 1 MPG

Recently did a trip from Whidbey Island to Glacier National Park then down to Missoula and back home. Total of 1,321 miles and used 84 gallons of fuel for an average of 15.7 mpg.
First tank ran 258 miles at only 12.8 mpg but that included 82 miles of city driving prior to departing.
Second tank ran 222 miles at 17.3 mpg with a max of 65 mph.
Third tank ran 329 miles at 17.3 mpg but due to fog mostly went 50-60 mph.
Fourth tank ran 312.6 miles at 16.3 mpg, from Montana so ran 80-75 speed limit .
Fifth tank ran 200 miles at 15.4 mpg but included going up Snoqualmie pass in snow, 4WD, rain and a 30 minute delay with motor running due to accidents ahead of us.
With mostly highway miles 16.3-17.3 MPG. No difference between 65 and 70 mph as I initially thought. Running up to 80 only dropped MPG by 1 over the normal highway mpg. Truck gets much better mpg than I thought, if I stick to the highway!

 

These are around my average readings. Straight highway cruising in the 60-70 mph range and its about 16-17mpg.

City 9-12mpg. Towing or not.

 

Highway doing 70mph I get 14-15mpg

Doing 50-60 I get 17mpg

Mix of city and hwy I get 12

 

Interesting, as we got the same mpg going 70 full time...
Are the motors the same between 00 and 06?

 

Same block, but the 04+ have vvti and 30-40 more horsepower.

 

That is good info to know, I drove my 2004 access cab 4x4 off the lot in 2004 and have no idea what mileage I get, never measured it.

 

05-06 have vvti. 00-04 had 245hp.

 

Gotcha. I thought the vvti came with the refresh.

 

04 was the oddball year iirc. Better trans than 00-03, but no 5spd or vvti.

 

I’m new on here but I had an 04 DC before and then out of stupidity sold it (got a Cummins I don’t miss) and now have an 00 AC, my 04 was gutless compared to the one I have now. However it avg. 18, 19 was roomier wich was nice and the one I have now avg. 13, 14 I’ve been trying to see what I can do to get better fuel economy, gave the girl some fresh plugs, ran all new true dual exhaust plus headers, and a cold air intake haven’t seen a difference in fuel yet but hp was a nice little increase. Any suggestions to help?

 

I'm not convinced any of the "cheap" fixes add any meaningful increase to MPG. Not enough to measure IMO. The only person I've seen have success is @Brown Bear because he re-geared his.

 

Sell all the expensive parts you put on it and use that money to buy a lot of Fuel. Lol it’s a old V8 gas pickup they don’t get very good gas mileage no matter what. Shoot my 2005 4.0 tacoma only got 2-3 miles per gallon better and it had 2 less cylinders.

 

Uggghhhhh hate to see this!! I was just trying to convince the War Department (wife) to authorize FY 19 spending on the aforementioned aftermarket upgrades in search of the same elusive MPGs

 

I probably wouldn't waste money on many aftermarket gadgets but instead work on maintenance. Is there anything you've been putting off that should get done?

Many here recommend replacing the PCV valve and cleaning the MAF censor. Add in new plugs, air filter, new fluids etc. Fuel filter wouldn't hurt either.

Many of these may help your MPG slightly but if nothing else will prolong the life of the vehicle.

 

My ex father in law had an 05 4.7Land got the same if not slightly better mileage that I did in my 08 Tacoma 4.0L.
Even now with my 5.7L my mileage is only 3-4 worse than my Tacoma was. Totally worth it.

 

It's all about driving style guys. Good habits pay far better than any aftermarket parts. To Filthy's point a K&N intake costs around $325 new, that's about 4 tanks of gas and a ballpark of 1,100 miles driven for most. When I was obsessed with MPG I did a lot of data gathering and I did see an increase of just over 1 mpg highway using the K&N, but how many miles would I have to drive to realize benefit of the $325...

You'll never get amazing fuel economy from these trucks. You can get respectable figures but it has much more to do with driving habits than anything else.

 

Agree with darkness - you'll see decent numbers with tame driving habits.

 

Thanks for all the feedback I realize that it’s not all necessary I went with no name brand stuff for cost efficiencies in my war department @tacoguybill other than mufflers and I am satisfied with the purchase. I haven’t made it through my first tank since finishing everything. It is hard to judge because my truck has the notorious finicky gauge witch I would like to fix because I’m OCD as all get, @Darkness so far it seems to be better by a little given that with the new sound I’m on the pedal a little more, but still trying to be respectable to see if I gained anything. Haha @Filthyphil I had to get an exhaust regardless because I was throwing codes for multiple leakes including ones from a cracked manifold. The pipe was attempted to be fixed before me and ended up looking like Swiss cheese so I figured why not upgrade right? As of now I’ve been fixing things that need attention because I don’t have a payment so why not fix the old girl up. I plan on taking care of maintenance to help it run for a long time My initial question was meant if anyone had seen anything that they have done change their economy I realize I cant expect to have a BA truck and beautiful fuel mileage haha

 

Not really, OR ‘depends’ is your answer.

Not really unless you want to spend some ca$h!

‘Depends’ on how much you want to spend for negligible savings.

If you want to re-gear, install new or clean your existing injectors, etc then the answer is yes.

If you are doing the above to ‘save’ MPG then its a bad investment. If your are doing the above to enhance performance, then thats a good investment with a side benefit of saving MPG.

These trucks eat gas. Best mod to saving gas is to lighten your right foot.

 

Whenever a part needs to be replaced, getting an upgrade while at it isnt a bad idea.

 

That’s my thought process if I’m changing stuff out might as well put a better thing on I did add that stuff for performance as well as they’re things I wanted. Once the newness of the pipes wear off I’m sure my right foot will lighten

 

I have never been one to record my mileage because I'm gona drive what I'm gona drive and it wouldn't really matter because if I want to continue diving I'll continue to put gas in it. If your a conservative that's one thing, and your probably driving a Prius. Now with that in mind if I want to save gas, I go easy on the pedal. If I keep my Tundra on cruise control in overdrive it gets pretty good gas mileage for a V8, and I mean really good for a V8. Now when I come to a steep incline I turn my cruise control off and let the torque take me to the top. VS cruise control downshifting 2 gears and revving my engine. Then there's that little 4 cylinder behind me trying to keep up revving his engine to 6 grand..........now who is really getting the good gas mileage. I love the Toyota V8, and take it's purpose over principle...........Good gas mileage from a V8, enough to impress, and enough power well.

 

I have a Tundra, Prius, RAV4 and a Lexus SC 430. They all get better mileage when I keep my foot off the floor!
I'm not sure aftermarket add-ons are better than Toyota engineering...