Tacoma gas mileage

chuckoverland

chuckoverland

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So we love our new taco, its a 2018 trd off road. Advertised mileage was 18 city 22 hwy. Granted we live in a colder area, but we get as bad as 15 hwy and 11 city.
We put K02's on and have messed with inflating the tires cold but not much hekp.
Is anyone else having issues? Would an ecu mod help? Any thoughts appreciated, we are newbs.
 
Have you got a cap on the back? I hear mesh tailgates help. Not sure if thats an option for you. Also, keep that airfilter clean. I read somewhere that running your truck for 10 seconds usesthe same gas as starting it, so maybe watch the warm up times and idle time too? I have an fj with the 4L v6, 3 "lift and duratracks. Im doing about the same milage wise. Seems like common numbers.
 
Doesn't say whether you're loaded or empty, but I'll assume empty. My '14 Taco Regular cab (4 cyl), fully stocked and loaded with exo-cage, RTT and 4.88 r&p is consistently between 15.25 and 16.5 mpg in 80-20 mixed driving. This is over the course of 40k-plus miles since it reached "finished stage."
Tire size / width can make a HUGE difference.
Interestingly, I also got worse highway mileage both with the tailgate down and with the tailgate removed than I did with the tailgate up.
Cap / tonneau can help on some trucks, but that wasn't my experience on the Tacoma. I actually got lower fuel mileage with the streamline cap that I had mounted (an ARE CX model).
 
When I got my 2018 I asked about that and the dealer said the altitude will effect the MGP. We live in Denver and depending on the speed and length of a drive, I can get 15-21 mpg. I once got 35 mpg going downhill ha, but I paid for it going up that same hill (Rockies)
 
Lots of things will affect the gas milage. Keep in mind that the advertised MPG tends to be the most fuel efficient combination they can build.

When I had my F-150, the "advertised" fuel economy was 10.5L/100k... In the wee tiny fine print it also read, completely unloaded, 2wd, short bed, reg cab, smallest engine- you get the picture.

Altitude, mods, weight, tires, they will all affect your fuel milage in any vehicle. But personally the only taco' I have ever seen break the magical 22mpg was a reg cab, short box 2wd driven like grandma on perfectly flat terrain, with a tailwind. It also had a pretty big under bumper air dam and a cap.

So far as I have seen the tailgate nets do little for fuel economy. Part of that is why most modern trucks have a small lip on the tailgate to help the "bubble" effect. A cap will help, but its often negated by the weight of the cap.
 
@chuckoverland
chuckoverland said:
So we love our new taco, its a 2018 trd off road. Advertised mileage was 18 city 22 hwy. Granted we live in a colder area, but we get as bad as 15 hwy and 11 city. We put K02's on and have messed with inflating the tires cold but not much hekp.
Is anyone else having issues? Would an ecu mod help? Any thoughts appreciated, we are newbs.
Click to expand...

That sounds good for the newer (read Bigger/Heavier) Tacomas. My 1997, single cab, v6, 5 speed, with stock size Michelin tires, a shell and 325k on the clock still gets 19-20 MPG on my back and forth to work (~60 RT, 15 Miles Hwy, 10 Miles at 30-55 MPH, and a few miles side streets at either end), Used to get 20-21 and I could push it to 22-23 on long trips, driving carefully, with no load.

The 2.5" lift and KO2's cost me about 1-1.5MPG on the v8 4runner. Averaged 14.3 pulling the popup from Colorado over to Sierras and back in Oct.

I can't speak to an ecu mod but you can get a ScanGauge II, calibrate it, then set MPG as one of the 4 gauges to watch. This helped me retrain my lead foot for better economy by providing real time feedback on what my driving was doing on any given terrain.

Boort
 
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dmurph1996 said:
When I got my 2018 I asked about that and the dealer said the altitude will effect the MGP. We live in Denver and depending on the speed and length of a drive, I can get 15-21 mpg. I once got 35 mpg going downhill ha, but I paid for it going up that same hill (Rockies)
Click to expand...
Good to know. Thanks!
 
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Boort said:
This helped me retrain my lead foot for better economy by providing real time feedback on what my driving was doing on any given terrain.
Click to expand...

I like that. Years ago I put a vacuum gauge on my dash and used it to keep my foot steady when driving. Made a big difference. Ive owned a bunch of Toyota trucks over the years and one thing I can say is common, They last forever but their fuel mileage sucks.

Scott
 
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What does it get driving mostly freeway for a full tank like on a long trip in dry weather? At what average moh? That is more telling of what the truck can do. Your average daily driving mpg could be drastically lower if you have a very short commute (less than 10 miles), pre-heat the truck before driving it, idle a lot, drive in heavy rain frequently etc..
 
Try getting gas from a different place. My taco will guzzle the gas from one place. And do good on gas from another.
Also try higher or lower octane. Other than that keep an eye on tire pressure and air filter.
 
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