The Nissan Path

Trying to figure this one out..... my 06 pathfinder le 4wd was in a front end collision with 2 toyotas. There was about $6500 in damage to the front end with minor frame damage. After a month I finally got it back and found my gas mileage had dropped from 18.8 mpg to about 16.4...... I've had the alignment checked twice, tires are properly inflated. The only difference to pre-accident is new bridgestone dueler tires (that are factory size). I had the fuel injection and 4wd serviced at the dealer a few months before the accident. The truck has 90k miles drives and runs just as well as it did before the accident just worse gas mileage. There are no warning lights on that would indicate any problem. One mechanic suggested ethanol in the gas would reduce fuel economy but I've had the truck 3 years using fuel from all over the northeast with no noticeble difference with fuel economy. Any ideas would be helpful...

The only thing that makes sense in my mind is the new tires up front are heavier than your tires you had prior to the accident.

That's a good way to take out two toyotas at once. How many tanks of gas have you gone through since you got it back? Colder weather can have a negative effect on gas mileage. Just something to consider.

Ive gone through 5 tanks of gas. tires are 265-65-17 with similar tread, nothing really aggressive. Last 2 winters I averaged in the mid 18 mpg. Whats odd is when 4wd auto is used my mpg would drop to the mid 17 mpg , now I get slightly better fuel economy in 4wd than than in 2wd. Thats why this is driving me crazy. During the repairs the nissan shop they used to replace the tpms sensors in one of the wheels didn't calibrate all sensors and it had to go back for calibration and they replaced some sensor in the steering column. I wondered if they may have inadvertantly changed some ecm program hat would affect fuel economy. I'm putting out on a couple forums before I take it to a dealer just in hopes of finding a possible cause.