After countless hours of researching forums, i've concluded that I'm about the ONLY person out there that has anything bad to say about the new f150. I've owned f150's from an '89, '91, 2001, 2005, and now 2010. I've always gotten the max for window sticker fuel mileage and never complained about their performance. I live in KS, it's flat, no unusual climate problems other than some wind here and there.

When i first bought my 2010, it's a 5.4L Lariat 4x4 crew w/ 3.55. It was getting 11 mpg in town and 14.5 mpg on highway. Mix 70% highway 30% city was about 13.5.

I've never babied my trucks until i got this one. I coast as far as i can and never "romp" on it, yet i get the worst mileage EVER. I've taken it to the dealer and it comes back clean. I've added magnaflow exhaust, k&n filter, sct tuner, and the gotts mod. As long as i don't fight a head wind, i can get about 16-16.5 on the interstate and about 12 in town. 70/30 average is still about 14-14.2 mpg.

Everybody else seems to get way better mileage and I know i'm not harder than anyone else on it. I also use 87 octane and have for all my trucks cause it gets best mileage.

the 6-speed will kick in and out of OD about 5 times a mile if i'm driving into a 20-30 mph wind on a FLAT highway. if no wind, it will kick down on any little incline such as bridge overpasses, which are basically flat. The truck doesn't even try to keep up, it just falls behind and kicks down a gear.

Anybody have any feedback? there's no way i should be getting this poor of mileage when everybody else reports mix averages of 15-16 and highway ratings of 17-18 mpg.

 

k-stater:

I also have a 2010 4X4 XLT Screw and I haven't had any issues with MPG's. I have been averaging 16.5-17.5 per the sticker. My drive to work is all back roads and hardly any stops along the way. I just hit 1,000 miles on the truck and I hope the MPG's don't drop once the motor is broke in. Good Luck.

 

the ONLY thing that i could possibly come up with was it was due to the factory 20's, but based on everybody's feedback, that's not it. I have 7,200 miles and no signs of improving.

 

Which SCT tuner?

Who wrote the tunes?

Have you tried setting the ECM back to stock and comparing MPG?

Have you verified your speedometer and odometer are accurate?

 

on a few trips, my gps is acurate to the speedometer. Never verified the odometer. never figured there could be a problem there, but it may be worth checking out

it's just a canned tune. Bill at PHP is writing a custom tune. There was a time inbetween my hypertech tuner and the SCT tuner that i was stock and the mileage decreased. The truck feels so sluggish, unless the dealer lied to me, i have no clue what the deal is. It's running the same as it did w/ 300 miles on it.

 

I would go back to stock for 3-4 tanks and get some solid (calculated) data. Then I'd try the tuner with the canned tunes and get some solid data.

This may not help, but here's a place to do some comparing between trucks:

http://www.fuelly.com/car/ford/f-150

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/shotgun/f150 (this is mine)

 

maybe a third thread on the same topic will make it better?

 

cool thanks.

i ran probably about 1,400 miles stock becore using a hypertech to see an instant 1mpg gain over about 1,000 miles. Than i went back to stock for about 1,000 miles and it went down by a little more than .5 mpg. At this point the weather was getting warmer, so getting rid of winter blend fuel and not as much harsh wind. The last 2,800 miles i've been running a canned SCT tune.

After talking to bill he metioned that when these trucks came out they were running a different ECM configuration and his findings were that the 2009's get better mileage than the 2010's due to the change to the air-fuel mixtures. He was pretty confident that i could get another 1 mpg out of his tune and thought w/ all my current mods, i could realistically see 17 mpg, which would make me thrilled.

 

Your not mistaken the 87 for E85 are you???
Thats the only explaination I can come up with such low mpg.

 

lol. yeah. they don't offer E85 in my area.




One thing i might try is cleaning the MAF sensor. I'm probably getting desperate here, but maybe some extra oil from the K&N coated the sensor up, and since i've had that filter in since the 800 mile mark, maybe it never had a chance.

 

K-Skate,
I have the same model truck as yours, except for the 3.73. The only mod I have done is the Gotts mod. I am avg about 14mpg's doing 50/50 road to highway. I have 3600 miles on it now and I too have seen a significant drop in mpg's since the truck hit about 2000 miles. Brand new I was seeing 18mpg's. I just chalked it up to the normal engine break-in, but am now starting to think that there may be an issue. I was going to try a K&N filter too. I also use 87 octane.

 

Just don't.

Will not increase either perf or econ. The OEM panel filter is huge, and far exceeds the engines airflow requirement - and actually keeps thw intake air clean.

Did the dealer check for dragging e-brakes, excessively dragging disc brake pads or wheel bearings? Alignment? Just a thought.

Sometimes it's just the bell curve in action - manufacturing tolerances.


MGD

 

This is my second identical f150. The dealer had to take my first 2010 back due to transmission issues and it was doing TERRIBLE on mileage...worse than my current truck. by about 1mpg highway. So i'd rule out the bell curve on that. However, that points to me as being the fault, but based on the fact that my other trucks got max sticker and that i drive easy, it's not me.

I had a chance to get rid of mine last week and got exactly what i paid for it back, so i'd only lose the sales tax and the $485 i paid in interest. If cleaning the MAF sensor doesn't help (which i'm doubtful), and that custom tune doesn't yield me 17 highway mpg, which is perfectly resonable for my driving habbits and location, i will probably trade it off.

i was kinda suprised w/ my truck. Just once i tried launching it off a stop sign w/out power breaking to see if it would chirp the tires, and it launched off the line like a festiva. It was kind of embarrasing. My 05 used to throw me back in the seat, this one just kind of makes me nod as i get into it.

We shall see, i'm confident that Bill's tune should fix it. Either my truck isn't getting enough air or it's dumping in too much fuel. Either way, it's not performing as it should.

 

Maybe there is something wrong, maybe there isnt. But you altered the truck therefore it will be impossible to tell what it is doing compared to a stock truck. Considering this is your second 2010, maybe the problem is you? I don't know.

 

I'd agree. I have the stock filter,exhaust, tune. Obviously i'm not going to put the stock exhaust back on, but i can return the rest of it to stock. I did all these things because the truck was doing sooooooo poorly. at one time i was getting 13.7 mpg on the highway w/ out a trailer or load. If those mods cost me mileage, i'd be about the first person that would have happened to.

I know for a fact it's not me, it'd be different if i never owned a truck before. It's quite possible there's nothing wrong with it, in which case they just made a junk product. Believe me, if i could get my 2005 back, i would in a heartbeat.

The only solution i can think of is to check my MAF sensor and try bills tune. if that doesn't put me at 17 hwy mpg than off to the dealer she goes.

I have to go on a trip this weekend. I'll clean the MAF sensor and air the tires up a bit more and see what my mileage is. I've made this run in these conditions several times, so i'll be able to report any mpg gains.