Just got back from dealer. Dealer said nothing is wrong with the truck. Said that by filling up the truck at the pump and refilling at SAME pump could skew the numbers by many mpg. Told me that doing it that way has NO ACCURACY at all. Also told me to stay out of the gas and made it sound like I am a speed demon.

What bothers me is that I am not a lead food, what-so-ever. It really bothers me that my numbers keep getting worse and worse. (Probably lowest on this board!). I can't continue to pay for $40 truck and dropping $150 - $191 in fuel every 1,000 miles. It is NOT financially right.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this truck and they did a wonderful job with it. You guys have awesome vehicles. (Motor Trend can't be wrong) I will not, however, continue to pay this type of fuel cost. I should have paid the extra money (or probably close to the same with all of the rebates or incentives to get rid of them) and purchased an F250 with a Diesel. Would have gotten a lot better fuel economy and the engine has a much larger warranty and you can do quite a bit more with it...etc. (however I haven't even towed anything yet) You get the point.

Suggestions, comments (helpful ones please). I will run this tank to 27-28 gal and post my results.

Thoughts are unfortunately running thru my mind of trading and I don't want to continue to stare at the gas gage and wonder if I will be able to go over 100 mile befor the guage hits 1/2. This truck has lost a lot of my attention because of this problem and it bothers me. I LOVE THIS TRUCK!

 

Since I am not familiar with what you are getting for gas milage
may I ask what you are getting? I get about 12 to 13mpg with a 04 Scab 5.4l and guess I knew before hand that it would be the case with this truck. Do you have any engine mods or exhaust mods on the truck? I am hoping that I will get in the neighborhood of 15-16mpg when I finish putting the exhaust, tuner, and the engine fully breaks in (3k) in milage so far.

 

How many RPMs are you turning at 60 mph? Is the truck shifting into overdrive? You have 18" wheels and 3.73 gears like mine right? My lowest mpg is around 13 and my highest is 18.4 so there has to be something wrong somewhere and its not the yellow paint weighting it down. ;)

 

Hey Yellowfx4screw
I see that you live in Minnesota.Do you live in or close to a large city. Most large cities get winter gas. Winter gas is not to help with cold weather running. It is for emissions. Winter gas can drop milage 2 to 4 miles per gallon. Im from chicago il. and my current milage is 12.4 over two tanks.This is mostly stop an go driving. More stop than go.I hope you do not need to trade your truck but i dont see 04 F150 ever getting over 15 mpg average.
Also dont warm up the truck for half an hour on cold days.
This can take off 2 to 4 tenths every time you do it.

Mike

 

I will probably get abused for this, but......This is a truck...it is going to get lousy gas mileage. I knew that when I purchased it. My gas mileage has gone down a little since I purchased it. If I was concerned about gas mileage I would have purhcased a Honda Civic. 10 to 15 mpg is normal in a truck...especially city driving...

just my .02 worth

 

How many of you are getting 8 mpg? City and 10 mpg highway with cruise set at 65 mph? Probably not many. I know it is a truck, BUT? People get better than that towing (pushing) a trailer up an incline backwards.

I do live in a larger city (100K pop) I understand that they use winter gas. However, lastnight I filled up one more time, .3 miles later I was on the highway. Set cruise at 65 and went down and turned around. Cruise again at 65 and then 55. Filled back up at the same pump. Put 17.4 miles on it and used 1.703 gal. This equates to 10 mpg.

That is a little below "18 mpg" even with the winter blend.

My rpms at 65 were sitting at about 1350-1400 (as far as 60 I don't know. I don't drive 60.) Yes, that's in overdrive.

No engine or exhause mods...

 

YellowFX4Srew...

Sorry to hear of your continued problems and current frustration with the truck and dealer. Your mpg is not acceptable by any means. It is common for mpg to go down in the winter, especially over the week or so with how cold it has been up here in the north country. But I have personally never seen it drop more than 1-2 mpg.

Winter fuel is not an issue up here either, it used to be that we would get a 10% blend of ethanol in the winter for emissions reasons. But now the use of ethanol is mandated year-round in MN and many other states.

I believe your mpg numbers, but I would question your last mpg calculation, the one where you drove only 17 miles. That is simply just too small a sample to figure it accurately.

Here is the reason: It is never going to be possible to fill up the tank to the same level every time. You can get close, but when you do it with a larger sample (27-28 gallons) the difference is negligible when figuring mpg.

Example: You put on 17.4 miles and you filled up 1.703 gallons. Lets say you actually only used 1 gallon...that would mean that you got 17 mpg. It is pretty easy to be .703 gallons off.

This is where the bigger sample comes in. Lets say you went 350 miles on a tank. If you fill up 27 gallons, you would get 12.96 mpg. If you were to fill up 27.703 gallons, you would get 12.63 mpg. See the difference in accuracy?

My advice, start keeping a logbook. Include miles driven, and gallons needed to fill. You could also include description of the distance traveled, city or hwy and average speeds. Once you have a detailed record I would take it into the dealer again and show him.

If he continues with the same response I think it might be time to find a different dealer. Even if it means driving up to the cities. Im only guessing here but do you live in Rochester? I suppose there is only one Ford dealer in town. See if you can find another one nearby, there is no rule that your truck has to be serviced by the same dealer that you bought it from. And from stories I have heard from other members, there can be a big difference between different dealerships.

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps you out.

Good luck!

 

YellowFX4Srew...

Sorry to hear of your continued problems and current frustration with the truck and dealer. Your mpg is not acceptable by any means. It is common for mpg to go down in the winter, especially over the week or so with how cold it has been up here in the north country. But I have personally never seen it drop more than 1-2 mpg.

Winter fuel is not an issue up here either, it used to be that we would get a 10% blend of ethanol in the winter for emissions reasons. But now the use of ethanol is mandated year-round in MN and many other states.

I believe your mpg numbers, but I would question your last mpg calculation, the one where you drove only 17 miles. That is simply just too small a sample to figure it accurately.

Here is the reason: It is never going to be possible to fill up the tank to the same level every time. You can get close, but when you do it with a larger sample (27-28 gallons) the difference is negligible when figuring mpg.

Example: You put on 17.4 miles and you filled up 1.703 gallons. Lets say you actually only used 1 gallon...that would mean that you got 17 mpg. It is pretty easy to be .703 gallons off.

This is where the bigger sample comes in. Lets say you went 350 miles on a tank. If you fill up 27 gallons, you would get 12.96 mpg. If you were to fill up 27.703 gallons, you would get 12.63 mpg. See the difference in accuracy?

My advice, start keeping a logbook. Include miles driven, and gallons needed to fill. You could also include description of the distance traveled, city or hwy and average speeds. Once you have a detailed record I would take it into the dealer again and show him.

If he continues with the same response I think it might be time to find a different dealer. Even if it means driving up to the cities. Im only guessing here but do you live in Rochester? I suppose there is only one Ford dealer in town. See if you can find another one nearby, there is no rule that your truck has to be serviced by the same dealer that you bought it from. And from stories I have heard from other members, there can be a big difference between different dealerships.

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps you out.

Good luck!

 

Sorry for the double post, my computer has issues. :o

 

For what it is worth I run @1200rpm at 65mph. 1400rpm@65mph
with the overdrive off. I live in Wisconsin go Packers!!

Sorry could not resist that. I think we probably have the same type of gas we are running in our trucks, as does Dr. NO from
chicago (Go Packers Again) sorry. I am running 3:55 gears
so that might be the difference in the RPM's.

 

I would keep the log as described above AND find a new service deparment that knew how to read and do math. Because the one your going to now can't do either.

 

Silly question but what type of gas are you using. I know that if I use Hess gas I lose about 2 mpg, and if I use Mobil I get that 2-mpg back. I mostly do highway driving and I have and 03 with the 5.4 3.55 limited slip. Like I was saying I get between 16-17.5 with Mobil and I only get maybe 14 or 15 is the best with the Hess gas (I only use 86 octane since that is the only gas the company will pay for.) I have also have stopped topping the tank off when the pump stops. I hope this is of some help. I know someone will say there is no differance in the gas types but all I know is I get better mpgs with the Mobil.

 

Are you saying it's financially right to trade in a brand new truck you just got and lose several thousand dollars?

 

YellowFX4Screw -

Sorry to hear about your problem, but don't get too discouraged. There are many 2004 F150 owners on this forum, including me, who can tell you that there is something wrong with your truck. It is not normal. It is not right. That means it can be fixed. I don't get great mileage - 12 on short trips, 16 or so on longer highway trips - but it sure beats the heck out of 8 and 10. You may need to visit another dealer's service department to find someone interested enough to help you, but there has got to be something that is causing this problem. I'm no mechanic, but I bet there are some mechanics and/or service managers on the forum that can give you an informed opinion and some good advice. How about it, guys?

I'd hate to see you give up and settle for some other truck. Even a 250.

 

I've filled it up twice and got 12 mpg on the first tank and 13 mpg on the second. This included mostly city driving with about 200 miles on the freeway on the second tank. I have the 5.4 with 3.73 rear end.