When I first purchased my PF, I was getting between 350-370 miles a tank. Then I took a 1200 mile round trip to Pensacola, all highway. Now for some reason, my truck is reading low fuel at around 300 miles a tank. Anyone have any idea what can attribute to this?

I've experienced the same thing. We came from a 98 honda civic, and were initially shocked at the fuel consumption on a larger SUV. So we drove accordingly.

However, having owned it for 5-6 years now, I am no longer 'driving accordingly' and have inadvertently been driving more and more aggressively over the past few years.

That is what I attribute my fuel economy drop to. If I'm really good and baby the throttle, I get right back to where I was when we bought it.

Also of note is that the gas gauges in these trucks leave plenty to be desired when it comes to accuracy. The only way to really measure drops or gains in fuel economy is to measure the fuel in vs miles driven. The gas gauge is not an accurate measurement of this.

disallow wrote: Also of note is that the gas gauges in these trucks leave plenty to be desired when it comes to accuracy. The only way to really measure drops or gains in fuel economy is to measure the fuel in vs miles driven. The gas gauge is not an accurate measurement of this.

I've found that the MPG gauge on my Path is somewhat accurate.

I use an Android app called Mileage - https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... lsZWFnZSJd

^ The Mileage App and the Pathfinder's MPG gauge are very close.

Here's a screencap of my History:



For my Civic 99% city driving. I only use my Pathfinder on the weekends.

FLiPMaRC wrote:I've found that the MPG gauge on my Path is somewhat accurate.

Actually I agree with you on this. The average fuel economy and average speed measurement are bang on.

But the gauge itself is not. For instance, today with DTE showing 29kms and my gas gauge right at the bottom, I filled up. The truck took 64L. It has an 80L tank. But the gauge showed it was right empty. (traveled 430km on that much fuel, which equates to 14.8L/100km or 15.8MPG)

My average fuel economy (which I only reset occasionally) shows 15.9L/100km. That is remarkably close to what I calculate based on kms travelled vs L put in the tank, when coinsidered over several tanks.

We will be doing a road trip this weekend to Fargo (400km one way) so as long as its not too windy, I will be doing some more measurements. And with cheaper gas! $1.229/L here in Winnipeg today, in Fargo its $3.49/gal or $0.92/L.

t

For instance, I'm at 263 miles on this tank, my screen says 28 miles til empty, what could be the cause for almost 100 miles less??? I don't drive too aggressive either, nothing more or less than what I was doing when I was getting 350.

FLpathFinder wrote:For instance, I'm at 263 miles on this tank, my screen says 28 miles til empty, what could be the cause for almost 100 miles less??? I don't drive too aggressive either, nothing more or less than what I was doing when I was getting 350.

When you were getting 350 for real? As in manually calculated? Or going by the digital readout below the speedo?

disallow wrote:
We will be doing a road trip this weekend to Fargo (400km one way) so as long as its not too windy, I will be doing some more measurements. And with cheaper gas! $1.229/L here in Winnipeg today, in Fargo its $3.49/gal or $0.92/L.

t

Yes, I agree that the gas gauge itself is not accurate. I don't really concern myself with it since I fill up whenever it goes down to half.


Fargo sounds fun

NVSteve wrote:

FLpathFinder wrote:For instance, I'm at 263 miles on this tank, my screen says 28 miles til empty, what could be the cause for almost 100 miles less??? I don't drive too aggressive either, nothing more or less than what I was doing when I was getting 350.

When you were getting 350 for real? As in manually calculated? Or going by the digital readout below the speedo?

No way you're getting 350 for real.

According to the gauge under the speedo, 350 honest!

My gauge and DTE display are pretty accurate as well. The DTE is conservative by a factor of a couple gallons but that's quite normal. My wife's Acura is far more conservative on the miles to empty.

I've been getting in the 19mpg range lately. Today I have 309 miles on this tank and DTE is showing 45 miles to go. I'll fill up when I get back home which will put me at 335 miles and I'll pump 17-18 gallons.

I've gone 40 additional miles AFTER the DTE hit's zero (or **) and still had a gallon in the tank.

So for the sake of argument....what's your actual mpg if you divide miles driven by gallons pumped?

disallow wrote: But the gauge itself is not. For instance, today with DTE showing 29kms and my gas gauge right at the bottom, I filled up. The truck took 64L. It has an 80L tank. But the gauge showed it was right empty. (traveled 430km on that much fuel, which equates to 14.8L/100km or 15.8MPG)

i've found that i can put it right on the empty line and still have 2-3 gallons left (so 30-45mi hwy range for me). i'm good with the gauge working like that. while i generally fill up sometime between 1/4 and when the low fuel light comes on, my wife likes to see just how far she can go with it on E. i'd rather have a couple gallons left with it on E, than it hitting E and be stranded.

My recent trip from PA: Filled the tank with regular, drive 310 miles to my house on same tank of gas and still showed 1/8th of a tank left. That was with hills, pouring rain at times, and an average overall speed of 58 MPH (was doing 80 MPH on I-81). MPG gauge showed 18.6 MPG. So, I can see it being possible to get 350 miles out of a tank.

smj999smj wrote:So, I can see it being possible to get 350 miles out of a tank.

I've hit 412 and had 1 gallon remaining (40 miles past the DTE hitting zero). Only did that once and not really on purpose. I regularly do 370-380 if I'm doing that commute though. Almost all highway, 140 miles a day at 75mph or so. I've wondered how much better it would do at 65mph but I just can't drive that slow.

skinny2 wrote:

smj999smj wrote:So, I can see it being possible to get 350 miles out of a tank.

I've hit 412 and had 1 gallon remaining (40 miles past the DTE hitting zero). Only did that once and not really on purpose. I regularly do 370-380 if I'm doing that commute though. Almost all highway, 140 miles a day at 75mph or so. I've wondered how much better it would do at 65mph but I just can't drive that slow.

I have gone a few past the DTE showing 0 but never 40, that's def pushing it man. Good to know though...

Also, I have never gotten more than 330-340 out of a tank and I drive like Grandma.

staynlean wrote: Also, I have never gotten more than 330-340 out of a tank and I drive like Grandma.

Well if I mix more than a couple miles of town driving it all goes out the window. That commute has me pulling out of my development onto a 55mph 4-lane road, driving 3 miles to a highway, around 65 miles on highway, two miles off the ramp and maybe stop at two lights as they're all timed quite well. As long as traffic doesn't clog up somewhere it's pretty easy to top 20mpg average. I would bet I could do 21-22mpg if I stuck to 65mph because this thing is a sail.....

Honestly, 330-340 isn't bad at all if you're refilling before the light is on or your DTE goes blank. When I'm doing my more typical commute that returns 19mpg I'm usually right in that mileage window to fill before it gets too low.