Gas Mileage issues

I tried to do a short video clip but can't upload .mov files.

Just watch the Green Cruise control indicator. If you just push it once, you get the small "cruise" indicator (looks like a tachometer??) with the Car silhouette above it. If you HOLD down the push button (end of the cruise stick) and hold for about 3 seconds or so, that indicator changes to a larger "cruise" indicator without the Car Silhouette. That's when you know you've bypassed the radar sensor control and it works just like standard (old-school? LoL) cruise control. This has to be done every time you start the cruise control.

the stupid screen with the back arrow still pops up anytime you engage or change speeds - requiring you to push the back arrow button on the steering wheel, or wait for it to clear, but the radar does not cause the vehicle to slow, brake, or accelerate. Also, the increments when you use the stick to speed up are much finer (3 pushes to 1 mph, I believe)

 

Surely you jest, there is no meaty part of the torque band, haha. The 4.0 never hits peak TQ unless you drive it like you stole it.

 

That's the thing that annoys me most. It's a combo of lack of low end TQ and tall gearing in a relatively heavy vehicle.

If I'm approaching a grade I know will cause hunting, I find just pushing the shifter over into Sequential from Drive takes care of it. That will shift it down into 4th and lock out 5th, which usually is enough to climb the grade. I live on the coast where it's mildly hilly, not in the mountains.

Also yeah, wind. I find it can be the difference between a downshift or not on my commute, one particular grade I can tell I have a tailwind if it doesn't downshift, haha.

 

Mine has plenty from around 1800 RPM's and up. Peak torque is 4400, I think, but I only rev that high when merging or passing. Maybe there's something wrong with yours.

Sure, my '03 V8 had much better torque. But, the 6 is fine.

 

I saw a dyno chart somewhere, these only make around 150 ft lbs at 2000 RPM.

 

I've searched all over for one. I thought I read it was somewhere in the low to mid 200's at 2000.

I will say that it seems to lose power with altitude and in colder weather. If you're dealing with one, or both of those factors, you're probably not going to be ecstatic about the drivetrain. When I get into the mountains, I usually just leave it in S4. It doesn't seem to hurt fuel economy because it would be downshifting a lot anyway.

 

I stand corrected. Had thought it was 19gal, although now I'm really curious of reserve capacity once light comes on. On level ground.

 

I think the light comes on with about 5 gallons left. If you drive until the range is 0 miles, there's still 3 gallons or so. I guess they really don't want us to run out.

 

Wow! Thanks for the responses. Seems everyone is experiencing things a little differently based upon many factors as expected. My thoughts are to tune it up and run some fuel filter cleaner through it and see where that gets me. Also, I'm in MN. Spring is right around the corner...maybe. However, it'll be interesting to see what impact the weather will have on the mileage.

Thanks again for the responses. It truly helps me understand the various factors that go into it all.

 

I’m guessing it’s very cold over in your state, that’s a huge culprit. When it gets below freezing here for weeks, I can see a decline of 1-2MPG during winter. You should see a decent improvement during warmer weather.

 

I have in winter 17MPG ...I live in a rural area with a little traffic ..I go on the hywy 65-75 winter.
now in the summer the temps are 70-90f and 21 MPG ..
use the correct engine oil ...SN PLUS 0-20wt..
change all the drive train fluids .grease the drive shafts.check the brake pads they all wear the same.look up the air filter if its dirty or leaves in the rat nest air box LOL...

 

Lol

Seriously though, this is a big case of “it’s all relative”. Peoples opinion on how much power these things have is all over the place. I think it directly correlates to what vehicles people are coming.

Me…? I sold the fastest automobile I’ve ever owned to buy the 4runner…it was a 2006 Sienna, bought it new. The 4runner compares quite nicely thank you very much lol

The fastest vehicle I’ve ever owned was a 2004 Yamaha FZ1. Even though it’s slow by todays standards, 140ish HP in a motorcycle is nothing to laugh off. Once I felt comfortable letting that bike rip, that’s when I knew what power was. The mental confusion about how you got from here to there without the apparent passage of time was eye-opening…it’s hard to shake lol. It’s also when I stopped really considering automobile HP and torque numbers. As long as the power is sufficient for my purpose, it’s fine.

I dont consider the 4runner lacking in torque because I dont tow. So for me it’s sufficient. It’s definitely not a peaky engine that needs to be reved out hard compared to a typical japanese vehicle (i hear the laughter of all dodge ram owners in the distance lol).

The torque band in the 4R starts being usable down low. When i mentioned the “meat” of the powerband, I didnt mean peak torque…rather reaching the point where you start getting pushed into your seat a bit. In other words, not pussyfooting the gas pedal.

 

The 5th Gen has a 23 gallon tank. The fuel warning light comes on when about 3.5 gallons are left in the tank. So at 17 MPG that’s 50-60 miles until you’re really empty.

 

Tru dat. In my 14K miles of experience in a 2020 Limited, the 16-city is optimistic while the 19-highway is fair. I've gotten about 20 (hand measured at the pump) several times on trips of a hundred to several hundred miles, but they were all smooth trips in terms of traffic and weather. On one roundtrip of about 1800 miles, I still managed that despite mostly 70/75 mph, one long stretch of 80/85, a one-hour traffic jam, and the hills of Western PA. But 90% of that trip was under great conditions and me not hammering the throttle.

More typical would be the 401 mile trip I did between fill ups, with the fill up taking 20 gallons, matching the computer estimate of 20 mpg. And that trip was with four adults in the truck the whole way. Buuuuut, most of those miles were in the 45-55 mph range.

 

All excellent and every little thing adds up or down.

My runner is stock and at 10,900 miles. On my “Since Reset” im at like 97 hours of time and at 21.7 MPG. I anticipate it will go up now that weather improving. In fairness my daily commute is pretty much ideal.

Cold weather definitely a killer. Anyway, the one driving factor ive found that has had a big influence is looking ahead and anticipating and letting off and coasting. The runner is heavy and will coast a long way. It takes quite a bit of effort to make the adjustment to drive like this but ive found measurable gains. As for starts from a stop jack rabbit starts clearly bad however Ive also found that getting on with it vs prolonging coming up to speed also helps. Lastly, while driving periodically letting off and taking advantage of coasting has proved to matter positively. This takes some practice to not be driving like granny on and off on and off- has to do with timing of traffic, down hill grades and anticipation by looking well ahead at traffic.

 

21.7 mpg since reset? You definitely got the hybrid model. Im at low 16s over around 40 hours.

 

Ha ha
But as i said, in fairness my commute is favorable. At 1 hr into and 1 hr home from work i get 2 hours a day in this wonderful machine to practice and hone the driving technique. Ill be filling up tomorrow and post pics of the latest readings.

 

I did a long commute for 5 years many moons ago and do not miss it, not even a little. Now I drive 6 miles each way to work, it is great but I do miss audio books sometimes.

 

I kind of thought that one got better gas mileage at higher altitude. A few years ago I was in Moab, and we had a first gen Tacoma rental. I drove from Moab to Grand junction and back and averaged a little over 21 MPG with it. The next year we went back and had a (new) rental Suburban, and I kid you not, I had that thing at 24 MPG. We drove that thing from SLC to Moab, then drove around for most of a week before we needed to put fuel in it.

Side note, I absolutely LOVED driving that Suburban. I became the designated driver of it, the other two guys I was with didn't really care for it.

 

I love having a little time to wind down and listen to some tunes. But, it can suck sometimes when you just want to get home.

 

I drive a massive amount for work... usually 3000 - 3500 per month. I recently got into Audio Books with the Audible App. Fantastic. I'm a voracious reader, but tough to do when I'm on the road 8-10 hours most days. Between that and Spotify podcasts, I have decided not to renew my Sirius XM. The news just repeats itself and my musical tastes are bit different than most of the channels available there. Car Play is the way.

 

I dropped Sirius after a free year. Just does not carry anything that I like.

 

Even when I had the free subscription, I never used Sirius.

I have Amazon and a stack of CD's and that's plenty for me.

Actually, I really like Amazon. The ability to download songs to the phone is great when you tend to hang out in areas where reception might be sketchy.

 

I, too, have tons of CDs.. trouble is, you can't find a new car these days that has a CD player. They pretty much stopped offering them.

 

Luckily, Toyota is always a decade or so behind on technology. So, my '19 has a CD player.

My '03 had a tape deck!

 

I drive my rig the way Cholo's do a Lowrider. It helps that its only a leisure vehicle and when I need to use it, I am not in a rush to get to my destination. Im not planning on buying another rig for another 20 years so the goal is to make this one last and fix/rebuild as much as possible.

When it dies a slow and excruciating death, ill sell all of my gear and start using the money for trips to Thailand and KL.

 

I have Amazon Prime as well, never looked. I will now! Thanks

 

It rules! I have even downloaded entire playlists.

 

For the life of me I can’t understand gas mileage threads related to the 4Runner. It’s not even a new car that people don’t know about. Everybody and their mother knows it gets horrible mileage. But it seems like everyday there’s a thread in every forum, subreddit and everyplace else about this. It’s been around more than a decade. The mileage was poor when it launched and it is poor today. Sorry for the rant but I just don’t get it. My ‘21 gets horrible gas mileage. I knew this going in. I love it.

 

My ‘08 was 20.8 MPG today all interstate at 75MPH.

Downhill from there.