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What's your gas mileage? Should I be worried?


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I have an 04 LE 3.5L

 

I live in north jersey, do tons of driving. Fight traffic at times. Lots of hills, and stop and go when not on the interstate.

 

My gas mileage.

 

Got the car at 50 K miles. Currently have 55k miles.

 

Highest recorded gas mileage to date was 18.6 mpg

 

Lowest was around 11.9

 

On average I get about 12.8-15.1 mpg.

 

Just filled the tank and driving about 100 miles tomorrow and mostly highway with about 30 mins of idle time. I'll post stats.

 

Could it be my idle times? I idle about 25-30 mins a day.

 

Should I use super or use more fuel additives? Air filter and muffler are new. Need to service the tranny tho or change the fluid cuz I still haven't done it yet.

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I get about 13.6 at the moment, Per tank average. but that's will cracked exhaust manifolds, screwing up the Air fuel ratio.

 

I would check O2 sensors, uhh i actually don't know much on the VQ motors. Maybe check dizzy, wait, they don't have that!! haha.

 

Yeah, i got nothing, sorry. ill sit here and wait for someone else to chime in. :lmao:

 

-Kyle

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I filled up yesterday.

 

I put 470KM on, and put 56L into the truck.

That nets to around 19.3 MPG.

I also put around 200KM of that just highway.

 

Previous fill-ups usually net me around between 16-18mpg.

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You can make it a little more efficient. Look into an exhaust. Karmann has a nice sounding mangnaflow? (I can't remember the brand) and I know the VG motors response very well to a cat back exhaust. Well have to ask him if he saw any MPG improvements from his exhaust.

 

You can replace the O2's if they are original (just fronts, rears don't affect milage) it might help.

 

And yeah, having drive train fluids served can marginally help too. Checking universal joints along the drive shaft can also be a worth while venture, if they are worn due to corrosion, for example, that can cause excessive strain on the engine.

 

But by far the best mpg mod for the pathfinder is manual front hubs. You lose the option of 4WD on the move. But I've had mine for a few years with no issues. I had about a 2 mpg increase before the exhaust issues.

 

So if I were you, I'd look into manual hubs, they definitely help.

 

-Kyle

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I will tomarrow and i very rarely hit 70 i stay around 60 but as a quick walk threw the po upgraded from the stock 1" 1/2? pipe with a custom 2" y pipe from the cats down then i replaced from shortly the y with 2"1/4 into a thrush turbo muffler then put a 2"3/4 tail pipe on ( bought it from jy thought it was 2"1/2 i didn't measure so i just made it work,

 

when i first put it on i wasent happy with the sound it wasnt loud enough but now that the interior of the muffler has broke down it has a good rumble at idle but dosent seem to resonate into the cabin much but i also have a sound system so i dont hear much of anything but that

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I get about 13.6 at the moment, Per tank average. but that's will cracked exhaust manifolds, screwing up the Air fuel ratio.

 

I would check O2 sensors, uhh i actually don't know much on the VQ motors. Maybe check dizzy, wait, they don't have that!! haha.

 

Yeah, i got nothing, sorry. ill sit here and wait for someone else to chime in. :lmao:

 

-Kyle

 

Unless your crack is super bad, or them nice looking meats your running on your rig make the difference, i just wanted to let you know i was getting 19mpg with mostly highway around 55mph / flatish driving conistantly with a crack all the way around the driver side manifold. upon inspection most of the spark plugs were worn to nubs like they were in there "i dont know, forever :happy: "

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High idle times and a lot of stop and go driving will make a big difference in mpg. when they started construction here, i went from 17 to 19 to 13 to 15, just from all of the stop and go and sitting idle in traffice. i am not sure what fuel is recommended for the VQ, but on the VG, regular unleaded is what the beasts like. the higher the octane the less combustion you get. So if the factory manual recommends regular use regular, if it recommends super use super. super is designed for higher compression engines where combustion chamber temps can become an issue. so you actually get more bang for your buck from regular. If you already knew all of the, sorry for wasting your time =). Just most people assume premium is better for your engine when that isnt actually the case.

i would judge whether or not i have a mechanical issue based on a few things. 1. does the ecu switch over to closed loop after warm up. 2. does your ride feel responsive and drive "correctly" no hesitation in acceleration and such. 3. all the fluids clean and at the correct level. most likely its normal if those 3 things are good to go. Not every time but most times.

 

Pat

Edited by fixinto
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Unless your crack is super bad, or them nice looking meats your running on your rig make the difference, i just wanted to let you know i was getting 19mpg with mostly highway around 55mph / flatish driving conistantly with a crack all the way around the driver side manifold. upon inspection most of the spark plugs were worn to nubs like they were in there "i dont know, forever :happy: "

Both manifolds between 4, 6, 3 and 5. All the common places. I recently got 15.6 with 60-70 mph Highway milage. I know the tires are not helping. But I saw no change in milage when I installed the tires. I want to swap my wheels out to some OEM aluminum wheels. And see if I can loose some rotating weight. Titan wheels would be awesome, but duratracs don't come in a 31x 18, which sucks!

 

I want to get an exhaust, but I don't really want to have to drone and make it so loud I can't hear myself think! But no one will post a video! Lol

 

-Kyle

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I will tomarrow and i very rarely hit 70 i stay around 60 but as a quick walk threw the po upgraded from the stock 1" 1/2? pipe with a custom 2" y pipe from the cats down then i replaced from shortly the y with 2"1/4 into a thrush turbo muffler then put a 2"3/4 tail pipe on ( bought it from jy thought it was 2"1/2 i didn't measure so i just made it work,

 

when i first put it on i wasent happy with the sound it wasnt loud enough but now that the interior of the muffler has broke down it has a good rumble at idle but dosent seem to resonate into the cabin much but i also have a sound system so i dont hear much of anything but that

Thank you! I have a stereo too, but sometimes I want to just drive peacefully and quietly. So a droning exhaust won't be something id I want.

 

A friend of mine had a sweet exhaust on his Xterra and did something similar to what you did, and I wanted to get his, surprisingly his wasn't really loud, but I never got to hear it at Highway speed. So I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger.

 

-Kyle

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Kyle,

sorry seems i overlooked the aftermarket wheels, steels. gotcha, i still have 15" factory, on 31's so could make a difference, 17 is good for 70 at hwy if i go 55 to 60 hwy i get almost 23, 65 to usually 15 to 18.

 

pat

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Yeah, I don't really like them, they look fine. But they are heavy, cheap, and don't seem like they want to balance. (probably the tire) I'm really thinking about getting some total wheels. Spacers, and some BFG T/A KO'S, but I love my duratracs too much at the moment.

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You can make it a little more efficient. Look into an exhaust. Karmann has a nice sounding mangnaflow? (I can't remember the brand) and I know the VG motors response very well to a cat back exhaust. Well have to ask him if he saw any MPG improvements from his exhaust.

 

You can replace the O2's if they are original (just fronts, rears don't affect milage) it might help.

 

And yeah, having drive train fluids served can marginally help too. Checking universal joints along the drive shaft can also be a worth while venture, if they are worn due to corrosion, for example, that can cause excessive strain on the engine.

 

But by far the best mpg mod for the pathfinder is manual front hubs. You lose the option of 4WD on the move. But I've had mine for a few years with no issues. I had about a 2 mpg increase before the exhaust issues.

 

So if I were you, I'd look into manual hubs, they definitely help.

 

-Kyle

 

Thank you :D And correct, I have an 18" magnaflow with the resonator removed. More or less a cat-back system. I would say if you want to pick up mileage, do the above maintenance, check your air filter or step to a cold air intake, and most importantly switch to manual locking hubs. These take wear off of your front end, increase MPG, and increase in my mind responsiveness. Plus they just look proper. Otherwise your mileage sounds normal, I just got 17.5 mpg this weekend with 450 miles of highway driving and 50 of off roading, loaded with gear.

Edited by Karmann
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Turn it off when you are at your "many stops" instead of idling. That would save you some fuel. 30 minutes of just sitting and burning gas will put a dent in your tank and then the remainder when it's rolling will indeed appear like poor(er) mileage. Plus x4 on the locking hubs!

Edited by CDN_S4
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  • 7 years later...

I recently did an outback trip to Farina via the Flinders Ranges from Near Victor Harbor in South Australia a total of 750 km one way. I used around 1 tank (slightly less) of fuel each way so if my maths is correct 750km/80 litres is 10.67km/100 km or 22 miles a gallon. Fully loaded with a 1000 Lb of gear and 2 adults, Variable terrain, long distances at a constant speed of 50 mph. Oh and this is in a 1999.5 Pathy with  273000+ miles on it, 2 inch lift 2 cb antennas and RT tyres on stock alloy rims. A lot of fuel can be found by controlling the right foot.The most expensive place for fuel was Leigh Creek at $2.24.9 a litre or (Au to USA conversion) $5.90/gallon. I want to improve the ecomomy further somehow, but that is after a lot of rectification of neglection by the previous owner eg replaced the front struts with ome units because the old struts had zero pressure in them (withdrawing under own weight), at least the timing belt was done for me.

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