Toyota Trucks: How's my mileage?

Gas mileage sounds good... those short trips add up and do cause mpg to go
down a small bit, but yours is only 1/2 mpg. Nothing to be concerned about.
Definitely pick up a grease gun and hit all those zerk fittings every time
you change the oil.
Change the spark plugs, just go with stock replacements. I have never had
any luck with all those platnium and other fancy ones.
Air filter is obvious, keep it clean.
What weight oil do you use? A 0w-30 or 5w-30 synthetic may help get an
extra mpg... No worries with switching to a synthetic at 80k, you will be
fine.
If you are interested in gettting an oil analysis, check out
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/
I have used their services before and they are quick and accurate. They will
send you a free test kit with everything you need to send a sample in.
Be sure to keep your tires inflated. My Tacoma mauual says 26 psi, which I
can't stand. Way too spongy. I keep them at 36 front and 32 rear.
Underinflated tires will drop your mpg too.
The best way to tell when you O2 sensor goes bad is that your mpg will
really take a drop, down to like 15 mpg or worse, yet the vehicle will run
fine and you will never know the difference. Obviously right now they are
fine, so you might as well wait it out for a bit, since they are not cheap.
A great maintenance item to do when you change the oil and plugs is to use a
combustion chamber cleaner. I like the Mopar brand that Dodge, Chrysler,
etc. sell at their parts dept. This is the best time because this stuff will
trash the oil and sometimes fouls up a plug or two.
Basically you warm up the car, spray the whole can directly into the
throttle body. Then turn off the engine and let it sit for a couple hours.
When you re-start, it will be rough and die a few times on you. Rev the
engine up and be amazed by the huge nasty cloud coming out of your vehicle.
You will probably get a check engine light, which will come on because of a
mis-fire condition, which is perfectly normal with this stuff. Take a run
around the block a few times, accelerate hard to get it out of the engine,
until its running smooth. When you get back home, disconnect the battery
cable to reset the check engine light while you go about changing the oil
and spark plugs.

My 96 V-6 gets only 10-13 in the city dealer said "Thats normal".

My 97 got about 19 hiway and 17 on country roads.
"Tbas11048" <com> wrote in message
news:aol.com... 

We keep the tires aired to specs, and check them any time we do more than a
short trip in town. Never used anything more than stock plugs, they've never
let me down (and we know all about checking the gap, etc.) I think I'll be
replacing the plug wires this year since the distributor cap's a little
corroded inside (cleaned up ok and works fine now, but no telling for how
long.)
I use 10w30 dino juice. I'm keen on the 'natural' stuff over synthetic, cost
being the main issue. My parents had a Ford escort go a good 350K on
synthetic (and farther if it weren't for an exhaust manifold leak, it's
currently parked.) So I do know the pros and cons of the different types of
oil (as much as it's on the forums, I'd like to avoid discussing it further,
LOL.) I'm figuring the oil to be the proper weight for our climate- very hot
dry summers (triple digit temps) and wet, foggy winters that don't go much
below freezing.
Air filter's a K&N, we keep an eye on it with the dry dusty conditions.
Don't need a lecture on their usefulness, it's already purchased and in use-
no troubles with it and we've gotten our money's worth so far.
On the combustion chamber cleaner... is that really neccessary with a well
maintained vehicle (especially a Toyota)? To me that just sounds like
overkill.
I was going thru the manual and there's a lot of repairs and maintenance
that sound more obsessive than necessary, like adjusting the pedal height
every 12 months/15K miles and steering wheel free play every 6 months. Are
there really any practical people out there that are *that* nitpicky with
their car upkeep? I'm pretty picky myself (my engine bay has to be clean,
even if the truck's exterior and interior are filthy) but I'm not out there
measuring things with a ruler or volt meter every 6 months. I would
genuinely like to keep it in top shape though, I plan for this to be my
'first and last' vehicle (hey, it could outlive me!) or keep it till it rots
and rusts away.
--
Dee
~Remove all preflight tags before replying by email.~

"dave89144" <net> wrote in message
news:WtkQb.16513$.. 
go 
about. 
will 
cheap. 
a 
will 
vehicle. 
a