maplewood

I recently inherited a 2007 RX 400 with 60,000 miles, It is only getting about 24 MPG. (I am a very easy-on-the-gas driver).

The power meter has never gone above 50 and usually maxes out just a tick or three above zero. Is that normal? (Not that I have a clue what that meter is showing).

I'm concerned that the hybrid is not doing what it is supposed to.

smassey321

With a gentle foot 50 is normal. If you floor to accelerate on to a highway how high does the power meter go? 24 is normal MPG for cold weather for me.

maplewood

"Floor it." That'll be a change. I'll try it and find out.

Good to know that my MPG is nothing out of the ordinary. (Good in that I'm not facing a huge repair bill. Not so good as to MPG. .

Thanks

maseace

The power gauge is pretty useless. I'd rather have a tachometer to see when the engine is running or not. I added one with the ScanGauge II.

The hybrid is doing what it's supposed to, or you would get all kinds of warning lights and codes. A better way to see what it's doing is to use the energy monitor screen on the center dash info display. There you can see the flow of power between battery and motor-generators, and when the battery is charging.

jakenbake

Agreed...the power gauge has no purpose. As for your mileage, it is an SUV and it has a V6...You aren't going to get the mileage of a Prius. I get 22 MPG in mine and that thrills me since I got somewhere between 11 and 16 MPG in every other SUV I have ever owned.

spacecraft

Actually, there's one situation where it's useful to keep an eye on the power meter, though I agree that having also the tacho would have been nice anyway.
In all occasions where you don't want the ICE to start, as for instance in a queue which moves slowly, or because you see that you are approaching a situation where you will have to slow down, like a red traffic light or a stop, it's difficult to guess up to which point you can press the accelerator without reaching the point where the ICE starts.
The power gauge helps in this respect, because in most cases the RX stays in EV mode up to the point where the energy demand exceeds the lower white segment behind the "0".
It takes a sensible foot, but if you are not in a hurry and you don't have other nervous drivers behind you, it's possible to reach up to 40mph or so in EV mode, just keeping the power meter gauge within the upper limit of that segment.

takeshi74

Is this your first hybrid? What you think may be easy-on-the-gas may not be as easy as you think. What's normal mostly depends on the driving conditions and one's driving technique. The power meter will vary depending on conditions and doesn't really help much in maximizing fuel economy IMO. You could try to keep the power meter as low as possible but I find the Energy Monitor & Consumption screens much more useful for this.

It's doing what it's supposed to do. You'll definitely see if you get a loaner 350 while yours is at the dealer for work.

I prefer using the Consumption screen. The big yellow instantaneous fuel consumption bar is much easier to monitor with peripheral vision though there is also a flow display available in the instrument cluster if one finds it useful.

24's generally not bad but that doesn't mean that more isn't possible. I probably average about 22 as well and while that's better than the equivalent RX 350 my wife can average a bit higher. I just don't have the patience to drive like her.

spacecraft

Well, if you don't use the center screen for navigation, you can as well do the other way round, i.e. leave the energy monitor on the screen and use the LCD display inside the speedo (IIRC it's called multi information display, in the manual) to show the current fuel consumption, right in front of you.

Btw, in the LCD display you can't understand if the ICE is running or not.
I mean, yes, when it's pulling the car you see the arrow from the ICE icon to the wheel, but when the ICE stays on without pulling the car (which can happen, depending mostly on temperature and batteries charge), you can only see that in the center screen.

jakenbake

I agree takeshi74...You can get higher MPG but the highest I have heard of anyone averaging is 26 MPG. The OP's wording makes it sound like they were expecting significantly higher MPG.

maseace

Time to repost this again:

Tips for better MPG in the RX400h:
- Keep your tire pressure at 38-40 PSI.
- Get low rolling resistance tires (LRR) if you don't have them. The OEM Michelin S8 tires are LRR (Green-X). These will add about 3 MPG to non-LRR tires.
- Turn off the A/C if possible (summer AND winter, in AUTO mode the AC is on by default at any set temp). Go to the climate screen and disable AC, and you can still keep it in AUTO without running the A/C compressor.
- Use the heat sparingly in winter. Having a high set temp will make the engine run longer, especially until the engine is warmed up (157° F and up). The heated seats can compensate for a lower cabin temp.
- Keep it under 42 mph to allow longer gliding on battery only. Feather the gas to keep it around 40 mph. Works great when the speed limit is 35 or 40. I can sometimes get up to 1-2 miles on battery only.
- A highway speed of 50-60 mph will get you MUCH better MPG than 60-80 mph. My experience in summer: 55 mph - 32 mpg, 75 mph - 26 mpg.
- Don't accelerate hard, coast as much as possible, and brake lightly to use regenerative braking instead of the friction brakes.
- Buy a ScanGauge computer so you can see the engine RPM and engine temp, so you can practice keeping it in battery only stealth mode at 0 rpm.
- Make sure to perform the ISC reset any time the 12V battery is disconnected for service or gets low on charge. The effectiveness of this is debatable but it can't hurt.

jakenbake

Those are all great tips...But I would rather be comfortable when I am driving. If you are going to turn everything off you might as well just drive a civic. Haha

But like I said, those are really good tips. A couple notes though...The heated seats take a good deal of power and the more power you use the less MPG you get. I notice a 1 MPG difference just from using the heated seats...So if mileage is that big of a concern, wear thick pants. Also...of all the tips, I would say the one about turning off the AC will get you the biggest MPG increase. Lastly, the ISC reset procedure is only applicable to the 2006 model.

jakenbake

One other thing that you can't really control but makes a difference in mileage is location. I have been getting about 2.5 MPG better living in Phoenix than I did when I lived in Portland. Largely because of the infrastructure of the city and partially because of the weather.

spacecraft

Not according to TSIB EG021-07, which explains the ISC learning procedure applicable to 2008 MY vehicles.
Btw, my understanding is that the procedure is actually the same also for other model years. I only kept this TSIB because my RX is a 2008.
Oh, and to be honest, I can't tell to have ever seen any perceivable difference after the ISC learning, but since I often leave my RX unused for several weeks and detach the 12V battery, I took the habit of doing it anyway...

jakenbake

You may be right but I am pretty positive the TSB I read on the TIS website said it was only applicable to the 2006. However, I am not paying $15.00 just to check. Haha. Either way, it isn't like it would hurt anything to do it on a 2007 or 2008. Just like you I haven't noticed a difference between before I did the procedure and after.

spacecraft

LOL, that's understandable, I didn't pay for them either, just downloaded from some website.
Can't remember where I actually found them, anyway I've got the PDF files of both the TSIB I previously mentioned, and the EG010-05 which is the one applicable to 2006 MY.
If anyone is interested, just pm me a mailbox and I will send them. They are actually pretty much the same stuff anyway.

Glad to hear that you also didn't notice a difference. Sometimes I'm wondering if the procedure actually works, because I'm not using the TIS Techstream, so I can't actually see the "COMPL" parameter which is supposed to appear at the end of ISC learning....