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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)
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... :confuse:
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.
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.
2nd. If things seem really messed up, there may be sulfer contamination in the sender, try using a bottle of fuel system cleaner.
Mark
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.
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...
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.
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...
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.
(hey ford put on a button for the awd) thanks :surprise:
a few weeks ago the right front wheel bearing on our 05 FS Ltd. (47kmls) started to make a loud klicking noise when turning. It was replaced under the extended warranty. Car is less noisy now (i thought the noise came only from the tires which are noisy too) and to my surprise the mpg went up significantly. Initially we had the usual 21-22mpg in mixed driving and 25-28mpg highway. In the last say half year it dropped down to 18-19 and 23-25mpg, respectively. I wondered about that and cleaned the air flow sensor a few times. That boosted the mpg by about 1mpg but only for a short time. Now with the new bearing it's back again where it was, monitored over 3 tank fills. Obviously the bearing caused alot of drag. Surprising to me because the car still rolled easily in neutral out of the garage from standstill. I am monitoring that behaviour because the car once had the dragging rear brake pads which i noticed that way. Anyways, maybe something to inspect if mpg is unusually low.
Could that have actually been the CV joint's bearings instead of the wheel bearing which went bad? They click when turning, when they are going bad.
I like your comment about the brakes dragging because I think its the cause of some people's complaints of bad fuel economy on these forums.
How did you clean the air flow sensor? I think thats a pressure sensor, so I'm wondering if I can just spray some Gumout on the sensor. I've got a big set of real Service Manuals from Helm (official Ford set), so I'll take a look at that later myself.
Nothing beats a Freestyle's combination of roominess and fuel economy. Except maybe a Ford500/Montego, the car version of this crossover, and of course it doesn't have the rear spaciousness.
In fact, I've never seen any other vehicle, I mean NO OTHER vehicle out there, that exceeds the Freestyle's fuel economy in a crossover that size. Some large sedans are only slightly better. I'm talking about something (crossover or minivan) that is at least as big as the Freestyle, or maybe only slightly smaller, that exceeds its fuel economy. Does anyone reading tthis know of anything that is better? I've found the Honda Odyssey minivan and Dodge Journey 4-cylinder crossover are about even with the Freestyle, but not really better.
I got tired of being repeatedly told it was how I drove it, not the car.
I loved the roominess but just traded it in for a smaller and (hopefully!) more fuel efficient car which still seats six (not seven).
Kudos to you all for getting better mileage, it's a great car if you can get those kinds of numbers!
p.s. for the person looking for a Freestyle with a middle row bench (25K miles) - there is one coming off lease in NJ - Carney Ford. But again, maybe it was just me, I never got the good gas mileage most everyone else seems to get.
Pickup trucks that size are lucky to get 16 highway.
I find light acceleration inefficient in the CVT. It feels as if the gear isn't catching until 2500 rpm and then the programming brings it down to 2000 rpm with your foot in the same accelerator position when you hit 35 mph. Coasting is where the CVT excels which at the same time requires increased brake use in heavy traffic. You can take your foot off the gas and slow down 2 mph while an automatic transmission would slow you down 10 mph in the same time.
I'd like to see mpg with a 4-speed automatic (geared for a car) and a 4.6L V8.
The highest I got in my 06 SEL was 35, all LA freeways.
City MPG is horrendous due to its weight.
We average traffic lights every 1/3 of a mile on main roads and unnecessary stop signs every 3 blocks on back streets. 14 MPG.
Highway MPG (60-65MPH with little or no braking) is wonderful at 30+.
Mathematically, even 15% city will KILL overall MPG.
At 15/85, 14mpg and 30mpg equal <26mpg.
We average traffic lights every 1/3 of a mile on main roads and unnecessary stop signs every 3 blocks on back streets. 14 MPG. "
I owned a 2006 FWD SEL. I regularly got 18-21 in town with careful acceleration, not speeding towards lights, and staying off the brakes. However the best I did on the highway was about 26-27 (at 75 MPH). I seldom had it on the road, and mine is one of the worst possible driving scenarios - short trips of less than 10 miles each way.
It is difficult, but possible.
I don't think it is quality control. There are simply a lot of variables. Keep the extra weight out of the car (which I did not do), keep the tires at or above 35 PSI, go very easy on the acceleration, use of the "fake shift" (remove foot from pedal at intervals while accelerating), and try not to speed to lights, but rather time the lights so that you don't have to stop. The huge MPG hit is in accelerating.
Also, winter is bad for MPG on any vehicle. I live in SoCal, so it is relatively warm here.
If you read these forums, you'll find that ALL cars have folks posting really low and really high MPG, not just the Freestyle. One reason is due to driver differences, and the other is due to mechanical variations in each car, so this is nothing unique with the Freestyle.
1st tank of fuel 24.3 mpg
did an air filter change (was very dirty) pumped up the tire pressure to 44psi and learned to keep the foot out of the pedal.
2nd tank of fuel 27.55 mpg
Combo of city 35% and highway 65%
We just returned from a round trip between Kentucky and Washington state. The MPG ranged from 21 to 28 on the same terrain and driving style. Yes, I do believe there was a quality control problem with the Freestyle. Maybe that is why they don’t make them anymore