(1st Gen) What's your MPG?

Different tires, worn out tires and bad alignment can affect the mpg. With Sea Foam, you need to do it a several times by putting it in the gas tank and the intake to see the improvement.
Bad injector or coils or worn out timing belt and driver can also affect mpg.

 

Zombie poll!

 

What happens at 11?

 

I'll probably try more seafoam, the only issue I can really find is my tires are all a bit low on air but i doubt that'd cause a big difference but i'll fill them up when I get a chance. Everything else seems to be in good condition though.

 

11 is just what it was getting when I first bought the truck roughly a year ago.

 

Got ya. Winter gas is worse, too. If you get winters.

 

My last two tanks in city were 16.5mpg. I think that’s really good! Just stock everything and driving like a granny for the most part lol.

 

I average 15 mpg in Utah. I also have oversized tires. So I am getting what I expect from my Truck.

 

Getting 19 (calc) on the three fillups I've checked since buying it with about 146K. Have had an aluminum ladder rack on for half that time, and probably 300# of tools onboard. Mixed roadways.

 

Its possible to get up past 20 mpg, maybe 24mpg. I've done it with multiple vehicles. I got my outback from 19 mpg to 29 mpg. My 2000 tundra is around 20 now.
Full synthetic 5-30 or 5-20 for engine oil. Full synthetic in front and rear differentials (lighter weight if not towing). Get full synthetic grease, grease everything you can including all the U-joints, front cv shafts too. Also grease the wheel bearings with mobile synthetic grease. I've drilled and tapped zerk fittings into the wheel hubs on my outback. Inflate all tires to 45-50 PSI. (This is harder on your suspension, but saves enough to justify). Get a high flow air filter, oil filter, etc. Full synthetic trans fluid and filter as well.
Port and polish the the inside of your intake manifold if you want a big increase in power, typically efficiency as well, exhaust helps too. (I've done exhaust manifold but the intake always gave me a dramatic difference).
Do a neutral roll test and make sure none of your brake calipers are hanging up, grease the sliders, etc. Skinnier road tires will help as well, all terrain, not so good for efficiency.
If you have higher mileage, use "compression restore " in the bottle. It's actually proven to work if you look it up on YouTube, multiple people test it. There's also products that clean your 02 sensors and cat converters as well.
I also want to put the electric cooling fan in mine eventually, decrease engine drag. This is almost everything i can think of...
Never over 55-65 mph, use cruise control religiously. I'd love to eventually bolt up a manual transmission, that has a dramatic effect on mpg.

 

Necro reply with tons of misinformation there, @Travtastic411. If you're not a bot, say cheeseballs.

Toyota's OEM filters are already high-flow. Fuel, air, and oil. Testing shows they don't trap as much stuff as many aftermarket do, and that's exactly how Toyota designed them.

It's actually not at all possible with the V8s in these trucks, for 4WD at least, 2WD maybe you can hit 20, you're not getting 24.

The trans filter isn't actually a filter in many (if not all) years of these trucks. It's perforated metal. There is vertually no reason to drop the trans pan in these trucks (2000-2006), you're asking for problems in doing so, advising others to do so is irresponsible at best.

Intake manifold, at least for 2005-2006 is plastic and can't be ported/polished safely.

Cat cleaner is snake oil, gimmick in a bottle, compression restore is equally a joke.

The manual trans vs. auto trans myth has been busted, repeatedly. Modern electronic transmissions will win over a human shifting, with light trucks and cars, all day long. This has been true for 20-30 years now.

I can appreciate the sentiment of your first post here, assuming you're a human, but it's riddled with bad info.

 

Put on some 32” 10ply mud terrains last week and my mileage has been varying around 13mpg now. Ouch

 

Please, do share about this Outback. I'd love to know more...

 

Shifty, i totally agree with you about cheesball’s posting, but it does make me curious on just how many MPGs are realistically possible for our v8 trucks. Tire size makes a HUGE impact, and it’s very rare for anyone here on the forum to run-
-stock sized tires.
-a highway tread tire.
-P rated tires.
-narrower than stock tires.

I’d really like the know the mpg results from a 1st gen running that specific tire combo. Perhaps breaking past 20mpg is possible going that route? But i’m guessing you’d have to be driving down a headwind free flat highway with the cruise control set at 50mph.

 

Headwind, downhill, 16" wheel with skinny tires, overinflated, at 60mph avg, no braking, for 300 miles, on a V8/2WD, I could see someone potentially netting 22mpg.

 

New goal?

My personal best: 225mi/10.9gal = 20.6mpg (60mph, freeway, flat'ish land).

Above results from: 265/65r17 OEM size tires, 2wd v8 but a tonneau cover and 4.10 gears.

The gears and tonneau seem to net me about 1-1.5mpg more at freeway speeds.

 

There was a poster once here, may he RIP, that swore black trucks got the best gas mileage, factor that in also.