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Ford Freestyle Real World MPG

389 messages,  Last post on Dec 13, 2011 at 9:47 AM

You are in the Ford Freestyle Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford Freestyle, Fuel Efficiency (MPG), SUV

Messages Page 36 of 39

#350 of 389 Re: The 30 plus club [albook] by ateixeira

Jul 27, 2007 (1:26 pm)

Replying to: albook (Jul 27, 2007 1:22 pm)
Why just the over 30 people? That's going to skew the numbers, big time.
 
I'd like to hear from people that have ever seen less than 20mpg.
 
I'm sure that's every one at one point or another.

#351 of 389 Re: The 30 plus club [ateixeira] by stevedebi

Jul 28, 2007 (12:42 pm)

Replying to: ateixeira (Jul 27, 2007 1:26 pm)
"I'd like to hear from people that have ever seen less than 20mpg.
  
I'm sure that's every one at one point or another."
 
Aye again! If a tank is "all in-town" the FS is about 19 - 20. Driven hard, 17.

#352 of 389 Re: The 30 plus club [albook] by trevisgardner

Jul 31, 2007 (6:49 am)

Replying to: albook (Jul 27, 2007 1:22 pm)
I just returned from 900 mile road trip through Kentucky and West Tennessee. I initially doubted the accuracy of the built in mpg computer on my 06 FWD Limitied but it checks within about .18 mpg vs manual calculations.
 
I got a solid 26.7 with my average interstate speed at about 72 mph. (w/ cruise w/AC/ w/ 6 PAX-tires at 46 psi)
 
I got 31.8 with my average state highway speed at 55 mph.
 
As checked by a GPS unit-my speedo did indicate about 1.5 mph to 2 mph too fast (i.e. 70 mph was actually about 68 mph)

#353 of 389 At Last - 27 MPG by helton

Aug 07, 2007 (9:50 am)

It has taken a little longer than most, but at just short of 10,000 miles I finally managed to hit 27 MPG with my 2006 FWD Freestyle It was a 380-mile trip with cruise set at 70 MPH. I never thought it would happen.

#354 of 389 fuel gauge follies? by dcwestby

Sep 06, 2007 (9:45 am)

I got my freestyle SE [05] used at 7500 miles. It did not come with a message center. Over the course of adding 13000 more miles, I've had fair gas mileage. I can't tell you exactly what kind of mileage I've gotten tho, at least not yet. I'm one of those people who generally try to fill up the tank at about half.
 
Which brings me to the question...
 
I realize this is about MPG, but has anyone noticed any fuel gauge quirks? What I mean is... If the gauge reads half a tank but on filling it, the amount of gallons put in reads over 10 gallons?
 
Has anyone noticed that sort of thing happening?
 
Not withstanding the way I drive, the only way I have to really ascertain mpg results is the fuel gauge, which has a tendency to either stick or "crashmove"[suddenly drop unexplainedly a few notches]. Has anyone noticed this type of behaviour?
 
Also, is the message center measurement based on the data the sending unit part of the gas gauge transmits or is it a different measuring system?
 
The reason I ask is cause I had a old 92 Dodge dakota that I had to replace the fuel gauge sending unit, and after that was replaced, apparently several months later, acted like it needed replacing again. That truck had 160+k miles when I got it. there were some other problems that caused me to sell it.. But I digress.
 
I suppose its fairly apparent that I dont completely trust the fuel gauge of the Freestyle I have. I've asked the dealer to look at it several times and they've never found a problem. But I think there is one... Mostly in cooler weather, the fuel gauge seems to drop faster then the amount of gas actually in the tank. But dealer says theres no problem...
 
Someone mentioned about the brakes... on the freestyle I have, because it was used when I got it, though I'm not sure why. The dealer never informed me about the rear brakes being recalled or anything. And according to the dealer, they were good for free replacement under 12000 miles. I already had over 17kmiles when I was informed of this. I had to pay... the customer service of the dealer though is granting me a free oil change this next time I go in...
 
Another thing I've noticed.. With my freestyle [SE/FWD], on occasion the front end will make a sort of swishing? noise? I've particularly noticed this at speeds over 35mph and I've also noticed, but am not sure of, a reduction in MPG when this occurs [because the gas gauge drops faster with this odd noise going on]. As to what I speculate the noise to be...
 
It could be the design of the drivetrain system, or likely a possible quirk in the cvt itself. I'm not sure.
 
Because my freestyle lacks a message center, its hard for me to determine mpg. That, and I really dislike empty-lining the gas tank. All I know is the fuel gauge drops fairly fast from full to 3/4s, then usually drops at normal to half or 1/4th/E. It also tends to stick around at the halfway mark way past what is appropriate for a half tank amount at times. But then again, it might be that, in my head, I've divided the gauge into 4 gallon segments, treating it like a 16 gallon tank even though its a 19 gallon tank.
 
Anyway, I've rambled on enough.

#355 of 389 Re: fuel gauge follies? [dcwestby] by stevedebi

Sep 06, 2007 (12:53 pm)

Replying to: dcwestby (Sep 06, 2007 9:45 am)
"I realize this is about MPG, but has anyone noticed any fuel gauge quirks? What I mean is... If the gauge reads half a tank but on filling it, the amount of gallons put in reads over 10 gallons?"
 
My 2006 SEL has the trip computer, but I use the MPG listing there only for reference.
 
You can obtain your MPG by dividing the mileage used by the number of gallons used. This is how I do it. If you are filling up at 1/2 a tank, I'd suggest that you add up the total miles over several tanks and divide that by the total gallons of the fill ups.
 
The gas gauge on every Ford I have ever owned operates such that it goes down to 1/2 a tank fairly slowly, then goes rapidly down to empty. My (non scientific) estimate is that the gauge showed about 2/3 of the tank when it read 1/2, the the last 1/3 of the fuel capacity was indicated on the last 1/2 of the gauge. I think the FS is not quite that bad. However, filling up 10 gallons at 1/2 on the gauge is about right - the FS holds 19 gallons. My experience is that there is a 3 gallon reserve left in the tank when the gauge reads "E".
 
I don't really notice much. The trip computer also has a function to tell how many miles are remaining on the tank. When I get low on gas I use this feature to determine how much further I can travel.

#356 of 389 Ford Gas Gauges. by mschmal

Sep 07, 2007 (4:55 am)

First if you don't shut the engine off when you fill, the readings will be squirrly for about 20 mins.
 
2nd. If things seem really messed up, there may be sulfer contamination in the sender, try using a bottle of fuel system cleaner.
 
Mark

#357 of 389 experiment by bobw3

Sep 26, 2007 (6:28 am)

I’m now driving our ’05 FWD Freestyle miles to work every day. My commute is about 75% highway and 25% suburbs and round trip is 30 miles. As an experiment on the last tank, I drove easy in the suburbs and kept the speed at 65mph on the highways. My low-fuel light came on at just over 400 miles and I got 25.0mpg when filling up the tank. That’s really good mpg for mixed driving. And that’s been with the AC on pretty much all the time because it’s been hot lately.
 
On this tank I’m keeping the speed at a little over 70mph on the highway and I won’t pay attention to my suburb driving speed so much. I just want to see the difference.
 
Our other car is a Honda Fit and I did the same experiment as above. The mpg range was from about 34-37mpg depending on highway mpg and suburb driving style, so it was about 10% difference. We’ll see if the FS difference is also about 10%. If so, then I should expect to see about 22-23mpg.

#358 of 389 air filers? by dcwestby

Sep 28, 2007 (8:14 am)

Huh, sounds similar in the trip aspect. For me its about a total of 25 miles one way to work... 15 miles of that city driving if I go the slower way and probably about the same if I go freeway, however, my hours are changing so not sure. And too is the fact that I tend to refill the tank at half empty whenever possible.
 
Because I don't have a estimated fuel usage computer, I cant really give any estimates for mileage...
 
Wednesday at work, I met a carburator specialist.. he Said he could improve my mileage with some tinker to the computer and stuff for 100$ or so... But, I dunno.
 
A friend suggested I get a cold air filter but do they make them for freestyles? Has anyone ever tried alternate air filters or the like?
 
And the fuel system cleaner did help... I'm thinking I should probably do the cleaner every 3 months or so...

#359 of 389 Re: air filers? [dcwestby] by bobw3

Sep 28, 2007 (11:58 am)

Replying to: dcwestby (Sep 28, 2007 8:14 am)
Even if you fill up the tank at the 1/2 way point, you can still calculate the MPG manually. Just divide the miles you've driven (200 for example) by the gallons you put in (10 for example) to get 20mpg in this example. I don't have a trip computer either, but manual calculation is more accurate anyway.

Messages Page 36 of 39

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