My name is Mackenzie. I recently bought a 2008 Toyota Tundra. It's a V8, 5.7L, double cab. I really want to lift it, but I am severely worried about gas mileage. I am already getting only 11.5 mpg in town and 10 mpg on highway with the leveling kit I have on it now. I want to get opinions on things I could do to help the gas mileage before I lift it. I have heard of a programmer, cold air intake, and exhaust. Also, anybody who has lifted their Tundra, what kind of gas mileage do you have and any opinions or ideas?
Prepare to be made fun of, lol. But u might get some slack because your a girl. There are NO mods to get better gas mileage unless your running tires bigger than 35". If your tires are bigger than 35" (which they don't look that big) then u can run hypertech programmer and 4.88 gears. But the tundra ecu will not let anything do much improvement. You can also do a SABM (stock air box mod) and get a BAmuffler to maybe get a cpl more mpgs but that not set in stone. Or u can fill your tires with helium and drive backwards, lol!
My name is Mackenzie. I recently bought a 2008 Toyota Tundra. It's a V8, 5.7L, double cab. I really want to lift it, but I am severely worried about gas mileage. I am already getting only 11.5 mpg in town and 10 mpg on highway with the leveling kit I have on it now. I want to get opinions on things I could do to help the gas mileage before I lift it. I have heard of a programmer, cold air intake, and exhaust. Also, anybody who has lifted their Tundra, what kind of gas mileage do you have and any opinions or ideas?
How can you get 10 mpg on highway and 11.5 in the city?
If you are worried about your mpg, do not lift your truck. Further you move away from the stock, worse your mpg becomes. I do not know of any product that is universally acknowledged as mpg booster. There are some products that are championed by some members (but not accepted by others), but none of it will work wonders, as far as I could see.
I did try a little experiment, though. I was averaging about 13.7 mpg (CM, 5.7L, 4x4) on 87 octane and decided to give 93 octane a shot to see if there really is a difference. The price difference meant that I needed to average 1.5 mpg more than with 87. I am happy to report that I am getting 15.8 mpg on 93 octane. It took a few fill ups to completely cycle everything through, but there is a difference.
That being said, it is worth noting that I fill up at the same gas station, BP, in front of my house every time. While gas is the same; additives that each company put in the gas is not.
When I was lifted (6" lift and 35" tires, I was getting an average of 11mpg city and 15mpg hwy. Now with my current setup, I'm seeing an average of 16mpg and 21mpg hwy. It was nice to see that 21mpg, I thought the digital display was broken.
Mackenzie...You can actually get a little better gas mileage. Mine has improved about 2.5-3 MPG doing the following:
G-Tec Fab stock air box mod
TRD or K&N drop in filter (do NOT put in a cold air intake) I got the TRD air filter
BA Muffler - budget system
Only run 100% gas (non-ethanol). I run 87 octane, but it's 100% gas
Treat the gas pedal with care
Filled tires with nitrogen
I do not have a lift...yet. But this should help you.
Just an fyi, we don't benefit from 100% nitrogen in our tires. If you can get it for free, do it, but don't pay for it. Compressed air is 78% nitrogen and 99% of people won't get their tires up to the extreme temperatures to benefit from it.
With a lift I don't think you'll be able to get any "better gas mileage" only advice for that is to go back to stock. However, those numbers seem low, and there is no way you're getting 10 on the highway but 11.5 in town that doesn't even make sense. I get 14.5 mixed driving with a level and 295/70/18 Trail Grapplers and I'm happy with that
The MPG numbers you are starting from seem much lower than they should be. For reference my truck is leveled with 35x12.5 M/T tires that weigh ~80 lbs each (Big and heavy). I average around 13 MPG on this setup with not much highway driving. 10-12 MPGs is lower than what you should be seeing on a primarily stock truck with just a level.
I would start by taking the truck to a dealership or mechanic and making sure there is nothing mechanically wrong with the truck. Have them check if the truck is or has thrown any codes. Have them take a good look at the spark plugs, depending on mileage they may need replacing and it hasn't been done. Have them look for exhaust leaks and check the cats. Replace/clean the air filter when it should be done and get a good filter. Since you haven't owned the truck very long who knows what kind of gas has been run through it, I would run a good fuel system cleaner through as well. I use Chevron Techron Concentrate Plus fuel system cleaner every oil change. Gunk in the fuel system may not throw codes but can kill gas mileage.
As far as mods that improve gas mileage there are very few that are effective on the Tundra. Most mods do the opposite. There are several mods that have been talked about above that may help but YMMV. The two largest items from what I have experienced are proper maintenance and driving habits. In general, lifting and leveling do bad things to your aerodynamics and reduce MPGs. Larger, heavier tires take more power to get rolling and keep rolling so reduce your MPGs.
Gas mileage is subjective, and you can't compare one person to the other. I see threads with people all the time wondering why they don't get the mileage so n so does. First you don't k ow what grade gas they are running, but mainly u don't k ow what speed they are checking there highway mileage at. My mileage at 78mph is 12mpg. If I drop that down to the speed limit, I get 4mpg's better at 16mpg. I have even dropped my speed down to 67/68 and been almost 18mpg. So if her 11 is at 78, or 80 that's about normal. All I'm saying is just remember this when u read someone say they are lifted, and get 18mpg... ;-)
Plus I don't think it is an automated system. As I posted a new thread and I still had to wait nearly 24 to 36 hours before I could reply anywhere else.
Thought that might be it. It's been a good experience. I was admin on a totally different board and we had it automated after so many posts or a paid membership.
Getting back to the thread. I'm getting around 18 MPG sometimes better, but I drive like an old lady, try not to go over 55 mph, and there is one stop sign on the way to work. Just stopping will drop my mpg by 0.1 and towing or hauling worse. I heard a bed cover can help too.
I agree that gas mileage is subjective. My truck has varied in mileage since it was new. It is stock except for an Extang Solid Fold tonneau cover added earlier this year. When the truck was newer it followed the 16mpg at 65mph, 15 at 70 and 14 at 80 trend, but I didn't care about others speed.
Since I added the tonneau it doesn't seem to follow that curve but I have changed my driving habits as well. Now I am more concerned with flowing with traffic. Between the cover and flowing (following behind with a reasonable distance) with traffic I have seen 16+ at 75, 80 and 85.
My overall mileage for the past ~27k miles has been 15.8mpg
look at his Average mpg on his dash, the numbers don't lie and I can honestly say i get the same.... 20 MPG all i have is volant CIA and custom exhaust. also i have 33" tires and level kit. regular cab.
It's all good.
I'm still wondering how the OP is getting 11.5 city and 10 on the hwy.
I'm wondering if she's got in "S" mode and redlining in 4th gear on the hwy.
Or, hand calculating the math and screwing it up.
I hate when I click on a thread and it takes me to the first page and I respond to the OP, .......then after I hit submit, I realize the thread is 5 pages long, or the OP is 3 yrs old.
I already knew that I wouldn't gain any mpg by adding a cover , someone please tell me that I am not losing any mpg by adding a cover.
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