If remove those two crossbars which i assume are roof racks will i should get better gas millage according to a magazine I read awhile back. Anyone with actual experience?

 

I removed mine from my 05 RX on the first day I bought the car. I'd say it's got to help.

 

Probably will never notice the differance

 

Depends what kind of driving you do.....if all urban slow speed stuff then the difference will be negligable if any at all, on the other hand if you do a lot of motorway higher speed cruising then you will indeed notice a difference.....it might be only small but it makes a difference!

Best regards David

 

probably wont help much. the car no matter what gets crappy mpg. i usually average around 13-14 mpg city and no more then 16 highway.

 

You probably use regular. Once the guy at the pump put in regular when I explicitly said 93! ....damn NJ pumps....technically in nj we are not allowed to but now i do so anyways....

Back to my point...when i had that happen i got around the same you were getting then i went back to 93 and i got the 18/24 that as spec indicates...

 

thanks for the tip ill be taking those racks off this weekend. I also do highway driving so it should help abit.

 

You'll find that a steady throttle foot will improve gas mileage more than any mod you can perform. Your RX can respond smartly to inputs to the engine room, but it will do so at the cost of fuel consumption. On the freeway or the Interstate, try keeping the cruise control off and keeping the throttle steady - allowing the vehicle to slow 2-3 mph on grades before slowly rolling on a bit of gas. If you do this after a fill up, you can see a pretty dramatic difference in fuel consumption over just punching the cruise control on. I've seen a difference of 4-5 mpg in a lightly-trafficked 25 mile run.

The issue seems to be one of the ECM being programmed to slavishly maintain speed, even when it is not necessary. Punching the throttle to maintain one or two mph destroys mileage, while a steady throttle position while allowing your RX to lose a few mph (and gain them back, plus a couple more on the downhill side) can make a big difference in your trip computer's cumulative mileage figures.
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Re: use of 93 vs. 87 octane - I've seen the same effect - to the point that my mileage increase on 93 almost always offsets the difference in cost. You have to look at cost-per-mile. The slightly improved response time to rather spirited throttle inputs (i.e. holeshot) is simply a bonus.

 

We took the bars off in our other SUV because we never use them and I like the way it looks without the bars, plus it make cleaning the snow off the roof easier. As far as gas mileage is concerned, forget it, it will not be much difference. If you want better mileage, change your air filter annually, pump your tires up to 35 PSI and use drive conservatively and stay under 65 MPH.

 

2004 AWD - 22.3 avg. measured MPG over the vehicle's life. As high as 27.2 freeway at 75-80 mph constant for around 300 miles with cruise engaged most of the time. Typically 24-26 MPG freeway and 21-23 MPG city. The average mileage has continued to improve over the four years I've owned it. I had the transmission re-flashed last April and since have never gotten less than 22 MPG. You can easily see when I take cross country road trips in the graph. Quite impressive performance for a two ton SUV, IMO.

 

When my wife drives with mostly highway driving, we get 23-24 mpg. I get 1-2 mpg less and we both get around 18-19 in town. To the poster with 13 mpg, I would guess that driving technique plays a far greater role than removing the roof rack. I would venture that the roof rack doesn't make even a .5 mpg difference.

When we first got the 05 330, I measured every tank of gas, both regular and premium. The difference was statistically zero! Same thing with my new BMW 328. I measured five full tank fulls each of premium, mid, and regular grade - no statistical difference.

 

I think there is another small plus in removing the bars from the roof rack.
That's a little less wind noise!

 

How can one get better mileage just by removing the cross roof rack? Very interesting...

But it may cut down the wind noise.

 

I found the same with my 350 -- a light and steady touch on the gas pedal helps get better mileage. I can get almost 20 mg with mixed highway and city driving using 89 octane. Rapid acceleration just kills the mileage.
The AWD transmission adds a lot of drag which can be used to glide up to a stop light, thus saving on brakes and gas. With energy prices going up, we can all adopt techniques to conserve fuel and limit the wear and tear on the vehicle. Now if I can just get those morons riding my tail to see that I'm gliding up to a red light!

 

I think your garph is more impressive than your RX's gas mileage