Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
SUVs Ford Freestyle Ford Freestyle Real World MPG
372 messages, Last post on Aug 18, 2009 at 10:07 PM
You are in the Ford Freestyle Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Replying to: dcwestby (Sep 06, 2007 8:45 am) 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. |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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...
|
|
|
Replying to: dcwestby (Sep 28, 2007 7:14 am) |
|
|
Replying to: bobw3 (Sep 26, 2007 5:28 am) I filled up at a station with zero percent ethanol added, because I wanted to see if the normal 10% ethanol in most stations affects the MPG. So for this next tank I'll drive at 70mph on this type of gas to see the difference. The fact that the Freestyle gets 23-24mpg in mixed use driving is better than most vehicles of this size, especially considering the fact that I'm getting this while not "babying" the car. |
|
|
The car is just a bit heavy for its engine... gas gauge is certainly working now, but it seems the car goes a bit quickly thru the first 4 gallons of gas... And I drive as normally as I usually do. Of course, that is when I'm not having to take my mom to Colfax/Pullman area and even maybe to Lewiston on occasion. Hills, headwinds, grades, curves, slower vehicles, passing situations. It came out that I used 5 gallons or so down and 5 gallons getting back. Its about 70 miles from here to Pullman with another 35 to Lewiston. The grade out of Lewiston is about 5 miles or so of 5-7% grade and I hovered aaround 3000-3500rpm [65-69mph uphill]. It should be noted that I really enjoy the cvt's ability to stay relatively close to the speed limit without needing to cater to gravity's pull too much. But still, in my opinion, the freestyle has too much weight for the engine it has, tending to drink a bit more fuel then it should. With gas prices as high as they are, likely to go higher.... Well, its my opinion anyway...
|
|
|
Replying to: dcwestby (Oct 14, 2007 2:27 am) Also, have you tried using the cruise control going up the grade? Just set it for 68mph and you may find the RPMs actually go below 3000 after a few seconds on cruise, unless you have to start passing other folks. Same on the downhill back home. I drove through the Smokey Mountains several times on steep grades and found that the cruise going uphill works good at minimizing the RPMs. |
|
You are here:
Forums
SUVs Ford Freestyle Ford Freestyle Real World MPG
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2007 Ford Freestyle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
