[Kryten]

I've had my RAV for just over a year now and it has a little over 16000 km on it. I still can't get 400 k on a tank of gas in city driving and barely 500 highway. Is this in anyway normal or should I take it in to get looked at?

I tend to like rev-matching my downshifts - does this use enough gas to account for my bad mileage?

Would there be any benefit to disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and then letting the ECU re-learn my driving habits?

 

[RAV4Don]

Steve, can you give us more info to go on? FWD or AWD? Manual or Auto? City driving or not? What is your driving style? Road conditions? All this has an affect of mileage.

Can you provide a rate of fuel usage? I mean practically speaking no one will determine their mileage by filling the tank and then emptying it to determine the total fuel used. Guessing use of fuel by the position of the fuel gauge is highly inaccurate at any level. What is your tested km/litre (or miles/gal for us south of the border)?

 

[SmellyTofu]

I heel toe all the time... it's not making much difference and I get 500+ easily in the city cycle but that's not bumper to bumper traffic. Highway is about the same range as well. Generally I achieve mid to high 8L/100km.

What I'm not sure is whether or not the engine cuts off the fuel supply when you aren't pressing the accelerator at anything >1700rpm. Well, that's what it was in the 3SFE but really have no way to work that one out.

 

[tainamom]

Bad mileage seems common. I still get 16-21 mpg. Let me see if i got it right.

gas fill-up avg. 11 gals = 41.8 litres
# miles traveled on 41.8L
high end 220 miles = 354.2 km
low end 185 miles = 297.85 km
high avg km/l = 354.2 km / 41.8 L = 8.47 km/l
high avg mpg = 220 m / 11 gal = 20 m/g
low avg km/l = 297.85 km / 41.8L = 7.13 km/l
low avg mpg = 185 m / 11 gal = 16.82 m/g

Lousy.

 

[EHinthe604]

Hmmm... I tend to average about 10.5-11 L/100 Km when I do a lot of city driving. However, I get 8-9 L/100 Km when I do a lot of highway driving. It has been like that since new. It is in accordance with Transport Canada numbers for the RAV4.

The 2.4L I-4 is defintely an efficient engine for the RAV4. My 1.5L 1995 Tercel was burning only slightly less gas than my RAV4 - but the RAV4 has almost double the HP of the Tercel.

 

[zoomie]

your low gas mileage seems impressive to me. I've only reached 310 miles (500 kilometers for all you english people) on a tank twice in the 3 yrs that i've had the car. i'm normally getting about 250 miles (400 km) for tank for my tank. this is a 4wd automatic on mostly freeway but a considerable amount of street driving.

 

[garfieldgurl]

wow zoomie 250 miles only :? ? And i thought that 300 mpg was bad. That's what i used to get before gas prices went up. Nowadays driving speed limit, most of it street driving, almost never highway, i get 325mpg, and pushing it with the gas light on, i get 345mpg.

 

[Kryten]

Well I guess maybe it's not that uncommon then. I just took a 6 hour road trip 3 down, 3 back. I haven't actually calculated my mileage from that yet, but on the way down I had the cruise set at about 120kph ~ 75 mph. By the time I got there I had less than 1/4 tank left. On the way back I set at about 112 kph ~ 70 mph and it made a pretty big difference. Still had almost 1/2 tank left when I got back. The way down my rpm was at about 3500, the way back it was just over 3000. That 500 rpm makes a big difference in fuel consumption. Why oh why don't more manufacturers make a 6-speed transmission?!

Oh and for those that asked, I have an AWD manual tranny.

 

[Slayer]

Well, they say that to get the best fuel consumption from your vehicle, you should drive it at 55mph. I'd do that if the speed limit were still at that speed. But now?? I don't think so....

 

[RAV4Don]

Well, they say that to get the best fuel consumption from your vehicle, you should drive it at 55mph. I'd do that if the speed limit were still at that speed. But now?? I don't think so....

You are on the right track. I believe 55 will get you close. But each vehicle's power train has different characteristics that would affect the speed where fuel efficiency is maximized. Engine wise, running in the final gear ratio with the engine RPMs where TQ peaks should get one optimal MPG. At highway speeds in the lower RPM ranges as with OD, engine TQ is more important than HP. Lower gearing such as 4.11:1 over 3:23:1 is in effect mutliplying engine TQ to the ground. So you can imagine different final drive gearing can have an enormous effect on what RPM produces the best mileage.

On a stock engine this may be easily determined if the manufacturer has accurate HP & TQ graphs along the RPM curve. With a modified engine, exhaust, etc one generally needs do a chassis dyno to determine at what RPM TQ is maximized. Most engine mods move peak HP and TQ curves higher on the RPM scale. This is why folks that do performance mods sometimes mistakenly feel they lost engine TQ or HP. They haven't. They simply raised the RPM level where TQ and HP are maximized. The engine in fact may have more HP and TQ but not at the lowest RPM levels as before.

I chassis dyno my vehicles, but have yet to chassis dyno the RAV as I only have about 3k miles on it. I want the engine broke-in before thrashing it on a dyno. :lol: Surely someone has this infor but it will vary by drive train set-up. Some day I will get this done and I will report what my stock FWD 5spd produces.

 

[Kryten]

Well, they say that to get the best fuel consumption from your vehicle, you should drive it at 55mph. I'd do that if the speed limit were still at that speed. But now?? I don't think so....

Yeah exactly. The speed limit on the highway here is 110 kph, or almost 70mph! And if you only do that, you get passed by everybody and they think you're an idiot for driving so slow.

 

[sibbo]

I routinely get over 500 kms per tank with my awd 5 speed, but always between 100-110 km/hr. I admittedly do not drive as fast as i used to with a new baby girl on board, but the short gears in the rav seem to be the problem if you want to drive fast, engine revs really high, not as efficient. cruising at 120-130km/hr my old Lexus GS300 got much better gas mileage, because the engine although larger and more powerful did not have to work nearly as hard to move the car. Also the rubber compound and width of replacement tires could be a factor although I don't know how much, I swear i got a little better mileage with the old 215's vs the new 235's i have now. When the insight and prius put on the rock hard pizza cutters you know there must be reason

 

[mensajero]

Try Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant with injector cleaner. You can check it out at any Pep Boys

http://www.autobarn.net/luc10003.html