Average Mpg

[sapeluso]

I have a new ES330 wtih 700 miles on it. It is rated for 21 mpg for the City. I'm getting under 16. Is there a break in period during which you get poor mpg? Is there another issue?

Thanks...

[lexus411]

21 mpg is under ideal conditions. I also found the better the grade gas the better the mpg. Use 91 octane and you should be able to get 17/18 around town.

[mburnickas]

21 mpg is under ideal conditions. I also found the better the grade gas the better the mpg. Use 91 octane and you should be able to get 17/18 around town.

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It should get better since you are still in break in. I use 89 for the summer and 87 for the winter.

Filled up today with my Es300 (98) 351 miles for 13.438 gallons...26.19 allgoing to work and in the city..... with AC on! :D :D :D

[RobsES330]

I have 3200+miles on mine and it still eats alot of gas. I do regular in the winter and super in the summer. I will admit, I have a heavy foot :whistles:. now that I am using super, the car accelerates better. My father-in-law's 2005 RX330 eats aot of gas also. This is his third RX3xx, and of the three the 2005 eats alot more gas. I got to drive my mother-in-laws 2001 ES300( 17,000miles) for a week in city driving. It got great mileage and NO LAG!! Tap the gas pedal and the car moves. No lag at any speed. I loved it! The car felt lighter, more responsive then my car. Which do i perfer?? The 2005 ES330 ofcourse. It is much smoother and quiter, but i would love the acceleration of the '01.

[sunman]

I have 132,000 miles on my 97 and getting 30 in the highway and 20 in the city.

[Toysrme]

It's broken in at the factory when it's put together. They just don't want that 100th of 1% of the buying public that would buy a new car, and immediately race it (HARD, like drifting, road, or auto-x - I don't consider drifting a sport... But nothing is as harsh on a car) to jar important hardware out. Like backing seat, or suspension bolts / nuts out. That's why the OEM books say to check such things.

Back on topic... No it will not break in and get better. That's what short, and long term fuel trims are for. Don't wait for it to get better, you're wasting gas money until someone figures it out!

Getting under 20mpg is bad... The cams are not setup to deliver large, very low-end punch anymore, they haven't been for a long time. - What I'm trying to say in a technical fashion... Is that the engine has no reason to be getting 16mpg at any time.

^

Because of that, I don't even have to ask how hard you drive the car... I know you're not racing it enough to average out 16mpg. If you were racing, you wouldn't wonder why you mileage absolutely sucks!

On a side note. Driving hard early in the life willpromote superior ring seal. The better the seal, the less blow-by. The stronger, smoother, and more efficient the engine will be. Unfortunately... By early, I mean early. The second it get's off the dealer. I mean the first 100miles on the odometer, because it's all-ready broken in.

Barring you're afraid to stress the *rest* of the car, drive it as hard as you want. Just be sure to change all your fluids on time for the life of the car.

Sounds to me like it's got a serious mpg affecting issue, like:

the octane of the fuel is too low - which could also be over sensitive knock sensors -> Fairly common problem many makers have been having for a good while now. If the knock sensor is sensitive, the ECU will pull timing when it shouldn't. You'll loose power, and loose economy in the process.

bad o2 sensor

a clogged cat

The o2 sensors and cats are common problems *eventually* on everything, but not on new vehicles. You haven't been dumping in some kind of fuel treatment, or pumped in something other than gasoline have you?

Like Ethanol, or Diesel.

I would start off by doing one or two things in whatever order you want.

1) Go to an autoparts store (Autozone), or a Lexus/ Toyota dealer. Don't shut the car off, leave it idling. Have the autoparts store check for any codes (They won't be stored yet). If you go to a Lexus/Toyota dealer have them plug up the big unit where they can look at the short, and long term fuel trims.

If you do that route, I would return to the purchasing dealer & complain. Ask the service guy if he'll just hook it up to the diagnostics unit real quick to check the fuel trims.

2) Forget all of that and pull the EFI fuse out for a second and replace it. That will reset stored ECU data, without playing with the other systems.

Yes... It's a long post with me basically telling you:

1) Don't wait on the engine break-in, it's never going to happen (you've long past it)

2A) You can't possibly be driving the thing so hard it's getting 16mpg... That's not very feasible LoL!

2B) There-hence-forth there is a mechanical problem

Reset the ECU, or go back to the dealer and ask them to hook it up to the diagnostic port.

[Tsquared]

Don't rely on the computer to give you the correct milage. Mine is always off by 2 to 4 miles per gal. I had it in for a re-flash of the computer and that helped for a short while. Check you mpg the old fashioned way and it will probably be in the 20 nmpg range.

I typically get 20.5 to 21.5 for city driving and the computer indicates 18.1 to 19.7. Recently on the highway running 75-85 mph, I checked and it was getting 27 to 29 mpg and the computer had me at 23-25.

The quality of gas will affect it as well. All gas comes from the same storage tanks - the additive package is different for the various brands and it is mixed in the truck. There are some regions of the country that have reformulated gas and regulated additives that will perform worse (Atlanta's will cost you 7 to 10% in mpg and HP). Higher octane is not always a good fix but it can sometimes help and other times hurt MPG. In Atlanta I have good results with Chevron and BP. When I travel to Florida the BP causes me some pinging on one of my other cars and I avoid it and use Exxon without any issues. I try to stay away from Race-track, Wal-Mart/Sam's/Cosco, and independant stations as it has been my experiance that the quality can differ on any given day.

T

[mburnickas]

It's broken in at the factory when it's put together. They just don't want that 100th of 1% of the buying public that would buy a new car, and immediately race it (HARD, like drifting, road, or auto-x - I don't consider drifting a sport... But nothing is as harsh on a car) to jar important hardware out. Like backing seat, or suspension bolts / nuts out. That's why the OEM books say to check such things.

I disagree here. Do any oil test on any new car with 500 miles then one with 5,000. Big delta in wear and some other levels. I have seen it, big time. Clear as day here. Iron higher on rings (& Moly), Silver from bearing might be a few PPM higher (along with Al) and lastly, you will have higher fuel in oil the first few miles.

From what I read in my scanner book, the codes stay in there for 45 car starts. Unless you pull the ECU fuse (bad move I feel) you are not solving anything. Even when you pull the fuse, you are not solving the problem. For a short time the light or ecu will learn then more the likely go back to his low MPG.

With a good scanner, you can test O2 sensors, fuel, idle, rpms, temps, speed, reset Mil codes (and DTC) , Non-Continuous Tests etc. I know I can and the scanners are cheap

[mburnickas]

I agree but my inlaws and close friends own gas stations and garages. Even my father-in-law worked for Gulf oil. There suppliers goes to them, then right down the road to other brand name stations. A lot of the no-name brands are Gulf from what I know…which is not much! J

[justin97]

I agree but my inlaws and close friends own gas stations and garages. Even my father-in-law worked for Gulf oil. There suppliers goes to them, then right down the road to other brand name stations. A lot of the no-name brands are Gulf from what I know…which is not much! J

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my 97 with 131000 miles get an average of 23-26 normal \, and i got 31 on a trip to cincinnati, but in the hill (wv) i get what i call decent, hell my tacoma gets 22 mpg.:)

[camlex]

Hello,

I have '97 with 156,000 miles, I did check once on freeway, got 27 miles/Gallon.

In city, goes how you drive...no comments

Hope this helps.

[DobieG]

My normal city driving is my 12 miles (roundtrip) to work. All side streets. I get about 18 mpg.

Last trip to Vegas (300 miles, all highway) I got 29 mpg.

1999 w/ 23,000 miles.

[juan01]

I get about 21 on Guam, rims, kit, lowered...bad road conditions, air-con all the time lol

[kyle0k]

i have a 1996 with 70K and myne gets 16.5 mpg to 19.5 depending on how much highway and how hard i drove it. Ive learned to deal with the painstaikengly horrible gas milage the es300 has. my friend always brags how he gets 35 mpg on his civic. damn hondas!

[alank22181]

Mpg is not as simple as it seems.

The mpg display is giving you a time based average of the MPG. If you wait at a stop light it averages in the time in with the actual consumption when the car is moving. Around town I average a driving speed of 21 mph... pretty slow. This figure has a significant influence on the displayed mpg. I accurately recorded a vast array of data at each fill up. It took me about 5 min to record everything in my little book.

If I want an accurate mpg-

I zero the trip meter, fill the tank and at the next fill up get the gallons figure. Simple division does the rest. If I really get anal I will record this in my book, and record the driving conditions when I used the car.

My 2004 ES 2004, is 15 months old, has 13,000 miles. I use 87 octane, in town and 89 highway. I typically avg 21 around town and 28 highway. I have a very light foot. So far, here in DC Metro area I have NOT noticed any difference between summer mileage and winter mileage.

Happy Motoring

[LexKid630]

I'm not sure what mpg my wife gets on her ES330, but i'm sure it's pretty bad. She does mostly all highway driving, but she has a REALLY heavy foot. I can imagine how much gas she's wasting when she FLOORS it from 0 - 40 in under 2 seconds LOL. just the grinding sound the engine makes must burn a lot...LOL

The way you drive can affect the mpg considerably.

[bartkat]

700 miles on the car? Not even enough to get an accurate MPG calculation, let alone start looking for problems.