vjdatt

I have a 04 ES330 with 72K miles on it. I am getting only 20mpg on highway on long trips. I was doing 75mph steady most of the time. I get 18mpg in the city where I rarely do highway miles.

Can someone please help me with the steps to troubleshoot the problem?
I have no check-engine lights on- so I am guessing I may not have a 02 sensor problem.
Should I change spark plugs at 72K miles?
I keep reading about fuel injector system cleaning- should I do that?

Any help would be highly appreciated!

Timothyj

Hello, are you checking the mpg by the cars display? It could be off. Check it by doing the math between fill ups. How is the car running? I have a 04 ES and get about 23 to 25 city and highway. On highway I get about 28. That's using the cars display. My car has 76000 miles. Plugs should last 100000 miles. What kind of gas are you using? If you get the fuel and injectors clean, do some research on what to use. Some of the in the tank cleaners are a waste of money. BG has a cleaning treatment that works well, cost around 150 to have that done. Do you have a good shop that you can trust to look at it? MY Lexus dealer is good, and also most Toyota dealers will work on your car. Hope its a simple problem. Good luck, and have a good day.

Tim

vjdatt

Thanks for the reply! I checked mileage by dividing the miles between fills by the number of gallons needed to top off the car. I use regular unleaded 89 octane gas. I filled at several pumps and got same mileage. I was hoping somebody who had a similar experience and success with rectifying the problem would please share their experience.

mooseboy84

Drive slower and carry less stuff in the car.

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

consider changing air filter, sparks, check psi in tires

Megafast13

That mpg sounds about right to me.

Check your tire psi. I also add a fuel injector treatment and/or octane booster which improves my miles per gallon. The faster you drive though the worse mileage your gonna get...

brooklynES

If you driver faster then 60 mph then you are wasting gas. Google this and you will find articles explaining this.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

^^ You will always be using more gas at 60mph than at 40mph, but the question is whether 20mpg is acceptable or not. In this case, the ES should be doing better than that.


vjdatt, you should try the basic tune up first. A bottle of fuel injector cleaner is a good idea since the car is getting older. And yes, there WILL be buildups regardless of whether you run Chevron, Shell, etc. There are only a handful of fuel injector cleaner that actually have cleaning abilities. Redline SI-1, Gumout REGANE, older BG-44k and older Chevron Techron comes to mind.

vntperform

iTrader: (15)

I get about 25mpg w/mixed driving habits (city/hwy) in my 04 ES330 w/67k Miles.

My o2 sensor is in need of replacement due to CEL. I run 87 regular octane in mine from Sam's Club, considering the manual states 87 is sufficient. I cruise on the hwy always at 70mph with cruise set. The harder/faster you drive these cars, the more they will tear up the fuel.