2004 taurus gas mileage

I'm having trouble getting good gas mileage I'm getting 19.5 - 20.0 highway and i travel about 75MPH avg speed i have the 24douc engine v6
what can i do to get better gas mileage

problem 2

in the morning time my car ideals funny starts ok but i can feel the engine rocking for about a 1 min. after that it runs fine


my car has 90000 miles on it

Have you had a tune up performed on the car recently? With that many miles, you are probably ready for spark plugs, fuel filter, fuel injector cleaner, air filter, MAF sensor cleaning, throttle body cleaning, cylinder decarb, etc.

I'd suggest starting with the fuel injector cleaner and cleaning the MAF sensor for the fuel economy issue. Also, consider testing the coolant temperature sensor.

-Rod

This problem has been on the news. Most vehicles getting up to 5 MPG less this summer because of hot fuel. If you live in a warmer area, is a chronic problem. Expanded gasoline much less efficient.

My '99 24V gets horse$h!t mileage- mostly due to the ethanol fuel used here in MN. I've been tracking around 22-24mpg highway and maybe 17-18mpg stop and go.

"I've been tracking around 22-24 mpg highway and maybe 17-18 mpg stop and go." Sounds good to me, our 03 Vulcan gets 20 around town and 22 on the road. 90% of my driving is town and rural roads, almost 53K mi with excellent maintenance. I do understand where you're coming from because also have 05 Marquis that gets 16-18 around town and 22-23 mpg on the Interstate 80-85 mph. Some folks claim they get 25 out of Crown Vics and Marquis but they must be driving slower. Ours just turned 11K mi, so it's still breaking in.

"Most vehicles getting up to 5 MPG less this summer because of hot fuel."
Hmmm . . . Rings a bell because I heard you should buy gas early in the morning when the gas is cool because you get more gas. I don't know what the expansion rate is for gas at varying temps so I don't understand the cool gas thing. Here in SC it's been 95 and 100 degrees, but what puzzles me is our Bull gets the same mileage Winter & Summer . . . We're having a severe drought on the coast so maybe that's having some effect on mileage. Whatever the case, big oil companies turned in another record profit for the quarter so they could care less about you and me.

wow...I have a '04 Duratec that gets great mileage. Drive 90 miles a day to work...all highway miles and the last few months have slowed up to 60-65 mph and get over 30 most of the time....this past spring...cool weather got as high as 35. Yesterday I filled and got over 30 and it has been hot so AC is on all the time. Once you get up to 70-75 it drops a bunch but still usually 26 or better

You need to call Ford Motor Co in Detroit and let them use it and find out why it's getting such good mileage because I never heard of one getting that kind of mileage. Not saying it isn't possible, . . just saying I never heard of such. Heck, a 4 cylinder Honda realistically doesn't get but 30.

You need to call Ford Motor Co in Detroit and let them use it and find out why it's getting such good mileage because I never heard of one getting that kind of mileage.
Actually our '04 Duratec gets around 30 too :wink:

Yeah, 19 - 23 mpg is about average for my '04 (60,000 mi.) Under Optimum Highway conditions (read no traffic) I have squeezed 25 mpg out, but always averages out around 20.

The 2001 Taurus we just traded (RIP) in was getting 25 city 29 highway. Gas mileage on it was decent but much rather buy a little more gas for the new vehicle and have something more reliable.

Bikeman723 sez: "Yeah, 19 - 23 mpg is about average for my '04 (60,000 mi.) Under Optimum Highway conditions (read no traffic) I have squeezed 25 mpg out, but always averages out around 20." I think one tank I was really conscientious about not flooring it and got 22 or 23 half town and half road. Heck with it, I like to hook it up so I'll pay a dollar or two more a tank just for the cheap thrills. Vulcans Rule - Varoom Varooooom! :bananasmi Around town about all I can eek out is 18 and occasional 20. The ole gal runs sweet as can be and honks pretty good, so I guess she is what she is and that's the best she can do, . . . but I still love her. :smooch:

Checked my mileage yesterday and got 18 exclusively in town and rural roads. If heat has anything to do with it, been 100F heat index here everyday and few days got up to 105F & 109F very high humidity. Think I'll dump in another can of SeaFoam and drive it to Savannah this week end and blow it out good. The MAFS should be clean but takes ten minutes to clean so I'll do it again. Gas went back down to $2.53 here and suppose to drop on down. Saw on TV where the price of oil dropped so maybe we'll get a break. IMO, so many foreclosures and people don't have a lot of spare money so aren't diving as much. Good. Let OPEC starve. :grinyes:

Checked my mileage yesterday and got 18 exclusively in town and rural roads. If heat has anything to do with it, been 100F heat index here everyday and few days got up to 105F & 109F very high humidity. Think I'll dump in another can of SeaFoam and drive it to Savannah this week end and blow it out good. The MAFS should be clean but takes ten minutes to clean so I'll do it again. Gas went back down to $2.53 here and suppose to drop on down. Saw on TV where the price of oil dropped so maybe we'll get a break. IMO, so many foreclosures and people don't have a lot of spare money so aren't diving as much. Good. Let OPEC starve. :grinyes:

18mpg sounds really low to me. We are getting 18mpg with our 2000 Olds Bravada with All wheel drive. like I said, my 2001 Taurus Vulcan was getting about27mpg or so.
But the gas mileage between the Taurus and Bravada is a good trade off for me for dependability.

there are many pcm calibrations available from ford - I recently upgraded mine and raised my mileage from 19 to 24-26 depending on how I drive.

I have an '05 with the Duratec. I get 32 m/g on the highway - cruising at +-60mph - slightly less if I step it to 65mph.

I got 35 with my Taurus once, It was something like 30 34 35 33 29.

This was on vacation with the cruise control set at around 70 and the occasional sprints to 85 or so (going with traffic)

This was on vacation with the cruise control
I always thought that cruise control hurt milage...

I've never heard that. Cruise should help mileage as it attempts to maintain a constant speed. This is much of the reason highway economy with a gasoline engine is better than city driving. Highway driving is a more constant speed. City is a lot of stop and go, accelerate, slow down, etc.

-Rod

highway economy with a gasoline engine is better than city driving.
Yes I'm aware of that but the tech that explained it to me said it had something to do with the fact that the cruise takes vacuum away from the engine or puts it under more stress. Wish I could remember the exact details. He wasn't the only tech who told me this either. However it's not as if using cruise guzzles gas, so please don't misunderstand :) It just uses 'more' gas, but it may not be a lot more (maybe 5 or 10% more) but still at the prices gas is today, it could still add up over time :wink:

Cruise control is good on the flat, but I would kick it off anytime we came to a slight hill. When I would come to a slight hill, I'd get in the granny lane and go with the trucks, provided the trucks didn't slow down too much. I would save gas by giving up a few MPH going up the hill.

It just uses 'more' gas, but it may not be a lot more (maybe 5 or 10% more) but still at the prices gas is today, it could still add up over time :wink:

That's probably the key phrase, "uses more gas" has to be relative to something. As Millermagic suggested, it may be more gas when it comes to hills, but less gas during general cruising. Most cars on cruise control probably experience general cruising that hills, so overall cruise probably provides better fuel economy. I doubt many people could modulate the throttle better than the cruise control over a distance of several miles.

Sounds like this could be a good experiment for MythBusters. They did a segment on using A/C on the highway versus windows down and saw virtually no difference. The added wind resistance of having the windows down counteracted the loss in power from using the A/C IIRC.

-Rod

When I drive and don't use the cruise, I keep my foot at one spot and that's it. If I slow down so be it. If I speed up, I speed up.

2004 Duratec 1000 mile round trip, 4 adults, full trunk, 87 Octane fuel:
Cruising 70 to 75 mph = 25 MPG.
Coming home, cruising 60 to 65 mph = 27 MPG.

I did have an 86 Taurus with a Vulcan which regularly got 31 highway MPH. A great car with a great engine but....I LOVE the Duratec's power.

I LOVE the Duratec's power.
LOL :lol: I hear that :p

When we were first looking for our car the salesman asked us what engine we wanted, and we told him the stock engine was fine. I couldn't have been more wrong. Now that we've driven the Duratec I doubt we'll ever want any other engine ever again. The Duratec tends to spoil you rather quickly, pun intended :wink:

"I did have an 86 Taurus with a Vulcan which regularly got 31 highway MPH."
Like I said, call Ford Motor Company because they will want to look at that engine and see why your gas mileage is 50% better than the average Tauri. I'm sorry but unles I drove it for a tank of gas you will never convice me a Taurus will get 30 MPG. This here are figures for a Focus four cylinder and I doubt you can feed six cylinder for less than six. Simply put, I DO NOT BELIEVE IT. Focus - 21 city 27 highway 27 combined 23 mpg.

The Toyota Prius led people to belive 60 mpg when in rteality they get 50 which ain't bad. BUT, Toyota came out with the Yaris that gets 45 mpg on four cylinders and is a heck of a lot less expensive than the Prius. http://www.toyota.com/yaris/ Like to get one for my route vehicle but hard to justify because I don't put that many miles on it per year. Then to, 'prolly retire in four or five years anyway and get me a Mini Cooper Beamer. YEEHAW!
:bananasmi