92 4Runner gas mileage problems. HELP!!

Hi,

I recently purchased a 92 SR-5 4Runner, automatic with about 190,000 km's and 31" tires. Now I know, unfortunatley I found this out a bit too late, that this year isn't the strongest/most fuel efficient 3L V6 that Toyota has made, but I only getting 300 km's, to a 60 litre tank, which equates to about 187 miles to 16 gallons, or 11.7 MPG (no 4-wheeling or hard driving). The vehicle drives perfectly, shifts well, but idles a bit high. I have checked air filter and plugs and all looks normal there. Can anyone with a similar setup verify if this is an AVERAGE fuel consumption??? Sounds like it is way off from the information I have already seen or heard from other people.

Does this sound like a problem that the dealership should look at? ECU?Injectors?...

Also, what are some cheap mods or tricks to improve that mileage? Any luck with K&N filters (I dont want to whole intake), or maybe better spark plugs, snythetic oil?

If anyone has heard of this problem and has some possible solutions, I would love to hear about it. I would also be interested what kind of mileage you get with your setup

Thanks for all your help,
Christopher Lay

The peppy decent MPG V6 is the 3.4L


I have a 92 4X4 3.0L V6 as well and idle is about 900 RPM's....I too was getting about 11-12 MPG when I first got it....after cleaning throttle chamber , injectors , setting timing,NGK spark plugs,dist. cap and rotor,new fuel and air filters(stock)...it went up to about 12-13 1/2 MPG....

Had me stumped awhile til I had truck up on lift adjusting torsion arms and noticed I could not turn one front wheel at all and other took alot of force to turn....turned out the front calipers were locked up due to someone before me installing the *thin* smooth backed pads instead of the *humped* back ones....long story short I found out that the calipers sticking on these trucks(MPV's) is common....good part is, they were only 31.99 a pop for reman's and afterwards I starting getting 13-16 MPG.

Short of it is......13-16 from all I talk to is common on the 3.0L V6 4X4's like ours....still a great riding multi passenger hill climbing vehicle...goodluck

Here is a cheap mod that may add gas milage if you can keep your foot out of it and for sure helps it run a bit better...Take it down to a mufflershop and replace your stock muffler with a 2 baffle 2 1/4" in and out piped *turbo* oval muffler and replace pipe from muffler back with 2 1/4" pipe...it is still very quite and just a tad throatier than stock(still very quite) and after doing same I find that I can now pull hills in over drive I had to drop out of over drive to kill due to it lugging like a slug before.