jrt13

I know this topic is around in all different shapes and sizes, but nothing specific to the 2006 es330.

my es 330 is getting about 260 to the tank, although I never drive it nearly that much before I fill it, I usually fill it at about half a tank and i drive about 140 miles on that amount. I drive half city and half highway. I use regular unleaded, it calls for premium but I have no issues with the regular (no pinging, shortness of power).

it is an 06 es330 it has 33k miles on it and thats it, it has barely been driven in the 6 years.

Today I changed the air filter, it didnt look to bad to me (didnt look bad enough to make my gas milage as bad as it is) I also cleaned the MF sensors, they didnt seem dirty at all, so what is next if this isnt the issue, there is no way this car should get that bad of milage. I hope this does help some, if not what is next?

hypervish

Welcome to Club Lexus!

You have to first calculate the mpg, this way we know how much you are getting per gallon.

Take the number of miles you traveled on the tank and then divide by how many gallons it took to fill up.
For example:
338 miles driven, and 15.9 gallons filled up
338/15.9= 21.2 MPG Average

Cleaning the MAF sensor and changing the air filter should have improved gas mileage. And, running premium fuel will increase mpg as well. But, like I said we first need to find out how many mpg you are currently getting.

jrt13

it was 15.96, but it is usually a little higher, I had it idling for a while at a football game.

I will try the premium gas next, I just filled it up today

speedkar9

Driving style has a lot to do with fuel economy. Go easy on both pedals. Use cruise on the highway. Keep a farther distance behind cars and coast to stops.

Also, check your tire pressures, and remove unnecessary weight from the car.

Last on the list would be spark plugs and cleaning the throttle body, but I doubt that will help given the car's only done 33K miles.

jrt13

Its definitely not the way I drive, I had a 2010 g37 that has a much larger engine and got 21 a gallon city, so there is something wrong with the car somewhere.

hypervish

How long are your trips? Does the car get to full operating temperature?

Does the car seem to coast well? If you let go of the gas, will the car continue rolling?

If you go drive around the block and touch your hand to the hub of the wheel does one wheel seem hotter than the rest? (be careful, please don't burn yourself) This could indicate an issue with frozen brakes. Which could be a possibility due to the low mileage.

I suggest running some fuel injector cleaner. Preferably, Redline SL-1. It is top of the line, and actually works very well.

Are there any check engine lights on? Maybe scan for any pending ones as well.

jrt13

It seems to coast fine, I did put a fuel injector cleaner in it (didnt know about the one you specified) I make about an 11 mile trip each way to work, half is highway and half is city. I will check the wheels today, and there are no check engine lites on at all. I seem to read about the computer tends to learn the way someone drives, is it possible that it needs to be reset because maybe it has not deviated from the last person, I dont know just a long shot I guess lol

hypervish

Yes, it's very possible that the ECU is still used to the other owner's driving habits.

Pull the battery cables for 15 minutes and that will reset the adaptive learning.

11 miles should be enough to get the car up to full operating temperature. Is your temperature gauge in the middle once you reach your destination? The car will waste a lot of gas till it is warmed up.

Es300Lover

USE PREMIUM GAS, you're crazy if you don't. You're driving a Lexus, not a little Honda.

jrt13

ok, I have an update, going on my thought about the computer stuck in a mode of a previous driver I decided to unplug the battery and reset it. I filled the car up yesterday and put 70miles on it when it started out it was the usual 260, so this morning I reset the computer and when i started it up, it said I had 281 miles to empty, and I had already put on 70, so that put me around 350ish, I decided to fill it up again and it now reads 336 till empty, so obviously resetting the computer did the trick along with cleaning the maf sensors and replacing the air filter (nothing made a difference until I reset the computer)

very interesting to say the least

PlatES300

iTrader: (1)

You don't need premium gas in an ES. Regular gas will work just fine for a long time.

hypervish

That's just not true. These engines are high compression, they do need premium gas. Although you may temporarily use 87 octane.

andybisnut

I can attest to that in my '03 ES300. I normally use premium (92 octane is what I usually can find; sometimes 91). I get great mileage in mine; 400 miles out of a tank usually in mixed driving, with a moderate lead foot.

I accidentally put in 87 octane once a noticed a pretty major decline in mileage. I want to say like 40 fewer miles overall or something.

jrt13 - it's interesting that the computer reset has potentially fixed this problem. You'll have to tell us if real-world usage lines up with the anticipated mileage.

Es300Lover

That's like saying smoking Reggie is just as good as kush.

285exp

The only thing you've really done is reset the avg mpg calculation to the factory default. The new air filter and cleaning the MAF sensor shouldn't have any significant effect on the current miles to empty calculation because you haven't driven it enough to have the computer adjust to your current real avg mpg. If you keep driving your usual style it will gradually settle on a more accurate estimate. As mentioned above, if you really want to know your real fuel economy you need to manually calculate it based on miles/gal or at least set the display to read average mpg instead of miles to empty, and reset it each fill up. Based on the type of driving you do, you should probably get around 20-21 mpg average in combined city/hwy driving.

And you shouldn't believe either side of the premium/regular gas debate. Fill it with premium for several tanks and keep track of the mileage and then do the same for regular. And make sure to compare apples to apples, it won't mean a thing if you compare the mileage of a tankful that was primarily highway to one that was primarily city or combined or if you spend a lot of time in one tank with the engine running at a football game. That's why you need to run several tanks of each through at a consistent driving style to get an accurate average. Remember that the gas stations are starting to sell winter blend fuel, which will get less mpg than summer blend. As it gets colder the mileage will also go down because the engine will run rich longer to warm up, and the lubricants in the transmission and diff will take longer to warm to operating temp. It won't hurt the car at all to run it on regular because it has a knock sensor to retard the timing to prevent detonation. There will be a slight decrease in power and fuel economy, but probably not enough for you to notice. When you do your manual calculation, be sure to also calculate your cents/mile as well as mpg, that will tell you whether the slight increase in fuel economy is worth the extra you will pay for premium. I have done this with my 04 ES330, and found that buying premium to get better mpg is a waste of money. Remember, you're asking a bunch of anonymous people on the internet, and you will find that many are misinformed, haven't bothered to really calculate their real mpg, or just not telling you the truth. Check it yourself.