Ok, 96 F150 reg cab,4x4,auto,302. I have about 98k on it. What can I do to get back some good gas mileage? Will cleaning the injectors really help? don't know if it has ever been done, I acquired the truck at 75k. Mileage has been really bad. I even try to stay at 55 on the highway, still lousy.
Thannks for any advice,
Rich

PS: Anyone from Connecticut here in the group?

 

> Ok, 96 F150
>reg cab,4x4,auto,302. I have about
>98k on it.

Really bad mileage all depends. I don't own an F150 so I can't speak from experience. I own an F250 supercab 4x4 460 etc so my mileage will be different. I seem to recall looking at window stickers a few years back and I think trucks like yours wereen't rated all that high. Keep in mind trucks are heavier than cars, shaped like bricks, sit high off the ground, and with 4x4 hardware... Hardly a good combo for good mileage. I would guestimate based upon recollection and my experience with the 250, that you could expect maybe 15mpg to maybe 18. If you are getting anything near that, I would guess you are about average. My F250 gets 12mpg with no load on a good day. So if you are getting about 12 or less, then yes your mpg is bad.

With 98K on the clock you might have an engine that is "tired" or maybe just needs a major tuneup.

By tired I mean if you don't know the history of the engine, it is possible it is worn out and needs an overhaul. 98K of snowplowing and pulling heavy trailers might wear it out, or if the previous owner felt that just topping up the oil was enough, well...

More likely is that at 98K a lot of maintenance is coming due. on a 150 I would guess plugs, plug wires, maybe a new rotor, fuel filter, injector clean or replace, clean throttle body, air filter, EGR and O2 sensors are about due. You might also have a slipping tranny, sticky brakes, differential and transfer case fluids, probably time to regrease the spindle bearings.

You might also have catalytic converters clogging up, intake leaks or vacuum line leaks, but these are less likely.

I would start with the normal tuneup stuff and if you weren't sure of the history or were sure it has been more than 25K miles, I would check the O2 and EGR and throttle body. Any rotuine lubrication is good.

I could go on and on. Heck I keep forgetting, I coincidentally have my owner manual for 94 F series(including 150) handy. Around 100K miles +- 10K you should replace, clean, adjust, lubricate:
Oil, plugs, coolant, hoses, air filter, crankcase air filter, fuel filter, brakes, lube caliper slide rails, wheel bearings, hub locks, spindle bearings, front axle shaft slip yoke, axle lube. Lots of things besides, but these affect mileage. This is just for "normal" duty driving.

One gotcha that I just discovered for myself was lubing the brake caliper slide rails. I had no real idea what that was, but discovered that if you don't do it, the brakes will stick, and you will get bad mileage and wear out the pads, maybe ruining the rotors and damaging the caliper pistons. This needs to be done every 30K miles. I have never in 30 years of messing with cars done this, and so I just got to pay for my errors last month. I paid about $200 in parts with me doing the work to replace a lot of front brake components before their time. Just greasing the caliper slide rails would probably take 15 minutes per side and cost maybe 10 cents in grease, jeez. I'm gonna grease everything now.

Good Luck.

Jim Henderson

 

What are you getting? I have a 1989 F-150 4x4 302 Aod with a worn-out 302 that is getting around 15mpg on the highway.

 

Thank you Jim and Pastmaster. My Mileage is about 12 on the highway. As for all the stuff you described Jim, All of it has been done, except for injector cleaning. That includes 3 new O2 sensors. Must say though, she only uses about a half quart of oil every 3k miles. Not bad for a 98k engine I would Guess. Also, I have 3.55. I would say that has a factor in it.
Rich

 

From the Epa mileage page... http://www.epa.gov/oms/cert/mpg/96guide.txt about 2/3 of the way down the 1996 listings show


F150 PICKUP 4WD $ 1201 13 17 15 14 22 17 302( 5.0L) / 8(FFS) 4WD L4 AEOD CLKUP FI

Looks like the formatting is messed up but with an automatic 4 speed OD tranny, you could expect 13mpg city and 17mpg highway.

So it does look like your truck is on the low side.

Other things to check are...

correct oil viscosity? For mileage most mfgs recommend 5W30 in the engine and something like 75W-90 in the rear.

Did I mention maybe a throttle body cleanout?

Is the tranny fresh? Maybe needs adjustment or is slipping?

All the wheel bearings lubed preiodically?

Tire inflation correct?

Correct size tires? Tires that are too small or too big can give poor mileage since you may shift the engine speed away from the optimum, and you might be getting an incorrect miles reading. For examplt. Really big tires will have a tendancy to "bog" the engine down, causing it to work harder to maintain speed, especially under a load, in effect you may have shifted below the powerband. Big tires will also cause you to seem to travel fewer miles and slower than is actually the case. You would need to have the speedo recalibrated.

Is the engine pretty much stock? If it has been modified, then who knows what mileage you should get. Maybe better, usually worse.

SO hopefully these ideas also help.

Jim Henderson