20 MPG on a Toyota 4Runner, Yes you can! 4 Easy and Simple Steps

Yes you Can you get 20 MPG out of a Toyota 4Runner.
Here’s my 4 easy steps to accomplish that.
What’s your method to save on gas?
What’s the best fuel additive?
Thank you for watching! And
Thank you to all that participated on the Giveaway.

As seen in this episode

OEM Cargo Net

Roof Cargo Basket

TRD bronze wheels

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Tire pressure Gauge

Throttle Body Cleaner

Fuel Additive (Techron Chevron)

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T-Shirts worn in this episode:

The Rolling Stones

#4runner #savegas #tips #tipsandtrick #toyota #mustwatch

[pbr]

Another tip: only use Top Tier fuel (google for full list of stations, but the ones in my area are Shell, Costco, Marathon, Valero, Chevron and Sunoco). Note that BP is no longer on the list. Toyota (and others) recommend. The detergent additives in Top Tier fuels help keep fuel systems clean and it’s legit.

[jeffames]

Greetings from New Jersey! New subscriber here and I'm really enjoying your down to earth approach. I have a stock 2016 SR5 4WD with 130k miles and have routinely gotten 19+ MPG (70/30 Highway/City) since new. I have gotten as much as 23 MPG on moderately loaded 350 mile highway trips. I add Techron every 6 months. I'll be cleaning the throttle body and MAF sensor at my next oil change and will do the idle reset routine at that time. I'm 68 years old and I can honestly say this vehicle is THE BEST I've ever owned! I LOVE MY 4RUNNER! Thanks for your awesome channel!

[cmamaz]

2018 SR5 Premium here. I can get over 22MPG on the highway consistently with light truck tires. Agree that tire pressure makes a difference (38PSI cold for me) but speed also makes a HUGE difference. I stay around 60-65MPH and find that going to 75MPH+ can drop me well under 20MPG. These 4runners are basically boxes on wheels so they're not great aerodynamically. Aerodynamic drag increases exponentially with speed so you need to find *your* balance to get there fast vs getting better fuel efficiency. When I'm in a hurry, I drive 75-80MPH and get around 18-19MPG. All conditions are lightly loaded with one passenger and two suitcases.

[doughamilton]

Take off that roof rack and crossbars until you need them. Having that up there for "looks" is a big aero dynamitic drag.

[capricess]

In West Coast cities if you don't clean out your car regularly some of the more helpful residents will do it for you overnight

[allenmadathil]

I just accelerate slowly and maintain the ECO light (which I didn’t know was annoying to a lot of owners 😂) as I accelerate. When driving on the highway, I’ll let off the gas a little on uphill sections and let it coast downhill. With no wind or tailwind, I can get up to 23 mpg. With a head wind that number drops back down to 18 or 19 mpg; still better than 15 with rough driving in the wind.

[nmda]

Another trick (for those who live in hilly regions) is to give it gas when going downhill and let off the gas when going uphill. It sounds counterintuitive because you'd think you want to coast going downhill. But actually, if you accelerate on the downhill sections, you're gaining momentum with the help of gravity and thus using less gas overall. By slowing down on the uphill, you're not wasting gas by fighting gravity. I get great mpg this way.

[joeythedime]

On my wife's 2019 Limited AWD I changed out the 20" factory wheels and tires to 17" TRD wheels and BFGoodrich's Advantage T/A Sport LT tires - much more of a highway tire. The Limited's 20" wheels and tires weighted in at 76lbs. The 17" TRD wheels and tires weight 61lbs. I dropped 15lbs at each corner plus changed the dynamics of the rotational mass by moving more mass towards the center of the wheel. I have always noticed my Limited to be more sluggish and brake a bit slower then my TRD ORP - the parasitic drag of the AWD system and those 20" heavy wheels. My TRD ORP is still a bit more responsive but drivability of the Limited is much better now. As an additional benefit I picked-up on average 1.5 to 2 MPG better on the Limited. On the highway at 65 to 70 MPH the Limited averages ~21.5MPG where before I was at ~19.5MPG.

[billg]

Im getting 21.5 in my 22 4runner TRD. Pour a can of BG Fuel System Cleaner every 4 months - its does a great job cleaning carbon build up.

[silverrunner]

I also clean the MAF sensor every oil change. Maybe overkill? But easy to do and takes literally a few minutes.
Now going to add throttle body cleaning to next round of maintenance. 👍🏻

[TobyCostaRica]

It’s amazing what a throttle body cleaning does

[genxiong]

That fuel treatment (which is basically Techron) is the same thing Chevron put into their premium 93 octane at the pump. A clean air filter and fuel injectors are a must for MPG.

[AZRubicon]

Have done the throttle body on both the 4runner and GX470. Baseline your idle # with something like a BlueDriver Pro OBD2 reader. Make the changes and see what happens. Last year on an 1800mi round trip with a loaded basket on the back of the 4Runner, 2 ppl and a 80lb dog, @36psi, we averaged 18mpg. Doing same trip this year and will see how these changes impact MPG. Tip on the throttle body butterfly, be GENTLE when you move it to clean the inside and edges. You can break the motor on it. You can also just remove the 4 bolts and it pops off easily to do both sides. The computer will reset itself, no need to do the battery. Just take it for a drive for 10-15 min and it'll figure it out.

[trailrunnah]

Great tips with the throttle body cleaning and idle reset. I'm going to have to give that a shot, I'm about to hit 140k and I don't know if that's ever been done. As it is, I consistently get 20.0 - 20.5 with mine during my daily commute, and on road trips I can get about 22.5. before I added steel skids, rock sliders, and all terrain tires, I could get 22 pretty easily, and I once got 24.5 on a 400 mi road trip. That's hand calculated, not going by the vehicles readout.

I find the biggest thing with these is driving with a light foot, and keeping it under 70 mph.

[clairecolbert]

Just followed the tips here on my new-to-me 2016 Trail Premium and it instantly went from showing 380 cruising distance to 425 miles… will be interesting to see how this bears out! Reading through the comments for other tips too 🤓

[bradheemma]

Everything you mentioned is spot on, but what works for is changing my driving habits, and not being too harsh on the gas, that got me around 23mpg on highways,

[maryjones-rkmm]

I just found your channel, and I love it. Great job. I have 2005 4Runner/154K miles and have owed it since it was new. I located some of the things you have mentioned in other videos: trash can, glove box, etc. Holy cow; what a nice surprise after all of these years. Thank you,

[ernestpaul]

My wife has a stock 2019 XP Edition 4Runner with 12, 000+ miles on it. I have a 2003 Z71 Tahoe with 320, 000+ miles on it with a leveling kit that is setup to duplicate the "OEM rake", 285/75r16 Cooper S/T Maxx tires on Cragar 16x8, 5" BS Soft 8 steel rims. The only modifications my truck has is an AIRRAID full-flow throttle body intake tube, an AEM dry air filter (after noticing oil residue buildup on my previous Durango in the mass air sensor and the throttle body, I stopped using the K&N oil filters), a set of Gibson headers, new down pipes due to the old ones having the catalytic bricks break apart and sounded like rocks rattling around and a Cherrybomb Vortex 3"in/3"out muffler. So I have decent intake and exhaust. I do also have a Curt extended cargo rack on top with a 32" curved light bar facing to the rear for trailer operations and backing down my 80' "driveway". Oh yeah, one final thing, I have a military HMMWV rear bumper WITH a HMMWV tire carrier. The reason I mention all of these it that my 19 year old Tahoe gets similar gas mileage to her 3 year old 4Runner, about 14mpg in town on short runs that involve some stop and go with traffic lights and just nudging 16.5mpg at highway speeds 65mph max to her 17mpg. Her 4Runner is a slick roof, no cross rails even on the "roof rack". She still gets it serviced at the Yoyo dealership, so I am hesitant to do any of the mods mentioned in the comments right now. Her warranty should be coming up real soon so maybe with a bit of slight of hand I can start switching some things out to improve her fuel mileage. We are both in our senior years and yet have different mindsets on vehicle prep.

[vincentcaronia]

#1 question.. How often should the Transmission be flushed ? with or with out filter is just cleaning the filter be sufficient?
#2 question, will changing the serpentine main belt on a 2015 4Runner help the engine Idle that seems to be switching my transmission gears to quickly back and forth at the 35 to 45 MPH range or do you think its the transmission directly causing the gear change strangely.

[johnk.d.]

2020 offroad premium, bought new. Stock, I'd routinely see over 20mpg. Best was a little over 23 while drafting traffic at 70-75. EPA estimations are quite low imo.
Currently I'm running a stage 3 ironman 4x4 foam cell pro suspension system, 3.5" in front, 2.5" lift in rear on 33" wildpeaks. Ditch lights can't help the wind resistance either... I now average about 17mpg. On 55mph back roads and during faster highway drafting, I'll occasionally flash into the low-mid 19s.
Never touched the throttle body but I'll probably give it a try as I'm at about 37k miles. K&N filter did improve mileage ever so slightly as well. I'd say after the lift and tires, I'm closer to the stock EPA estimations. If a stock 5th gen isn't getting 20+ on the highway, it's either a right foot problem, weight, or a nasty air filter/TB. Just my .02