I just bought my 03' in October and I'm only getting around 14mpg. It's a 5.4, 4wd, 3.73s and has around 4000 miles on it. Is this normal? Will mileage get better w/ more miles?

 

Mine got better, but it's hard to say because I have also added a K&N, Magnaflow exhaust and a Superchips Tuner. The K&N and Magnaflow were done before 10k miles and the tuner was done around 17k miles.. I can say that I think mileage increased gradually as I approached and passed 10k miles. I am now touching 18+ on a good day, average around 15.5-16 and low ball around 14.5.. Towing is up, at around 12-13..

 

I'm getting right at 14 MPG with in town driving. I can get as high as 19 MPG on straight flat highway using cruize control at 60 MPH. Crank it up to 70-75 and it drops down to about 16.5 MPG.

I'm real conservative on the throttle and brakes. I have 25,500 miles on mine now. We are driving a 5500 lb 4x4 with a decent sized V-8.

I have a K&N drop in filter and the SuperTuner. Everything else is stock (that has anything to do with mileage).

You will see some posts here that claim to drive 85 and 90 MPH with a heavy load and getting great mileage. They either don't know how to divide miles by gallons or they are using the odometer miles instead of the trip odometer. Maybe they go down hill all the time.

You can do a lot of things to make it get better mileage. Add under pulleys, go to electric fans, supertuners, air induction sysems, etc. But.....it is going to cost you significantly to do all that stuff and you may never see the return on the investment in gas mileage.

Calculate the cost per month of what it would mean in dollars if you were to get 2 miles per gallon better mileage and then ask yourself if you would trade your truck for one that would actually achieve that mileage. For me that is about $16 per month. Enjoy your truck for what it is. It isn't going to get a lot better. I wouldn't trade mine for the difference in cost of two miles per gallon. I really enjoy my truck each day.

When we go off winter formula gas in another 3 weeks or so I expect to see my truck go back up to 14 for intown driving. On this winter formula gas I am currently down to 12.8MPG in town. So that will help.

One more thing - I found that my odometer was off my about 2.8%. Meaning I was actually going 2.8% farther than my odometer said I was going. That is with my stock tires, and 3.73s right from the factory. It all adds up bit by bit to a number that is acceptable to me.

My best,
Tom

 

I'll take the 17 mpg I'm getting .....I know a guy who bought a dodge 4 door truck w/ a hemi..(redneck voice) and he is getting around 10mpg.



Dear rednecks,

Please don't be offended by this post. Because I am a Redneck myself....

 

Hello, my name is Chris and I am a recovering redneck... LOL

 

I have a 2003 SCREW and a 97 XLT Reg Cab (both 4.6 engines).
I monitor my gas consumption and fill-up. For a long time i was getting right at 120-125 miles per first quarter of a tank (30 gallon in LB RegCab). Then slowly it crept downward to about 80-90 miles per first quarter. Background: the truck was a commuter truck for work (72 miles one way). Anyway to make a long story short, I started getting OBDII code for misfire and O2 sensors. Replaced both heated O2 sensors and plugs (at 100, 000 miles). SLight improvement. However I started to have rough idle and a terrible misfire with cruise on at 75 mph on way to work.

Anyway, took truck to dealership, they couldn't find anything using their diagnostics. They kept truck drove it and finally got the same behavior. Still no clue as to why this was occuring. FInally they put a new chip in the truck (cpu) , PCV and one other piece (have to look at receipt). ANyway after these changes when I got the truck back, i was getting 125-140 on the first quarter tank. Truck was no longer missing and gas mileage has been great since (truck has approx 145,000) now. I change the oil and filter every 5000 miles with 5W-30 Havoline and Motorcraft filter. I also have A.R.E. hard tonneau ontruck.