CRD Highway Mileage Check

oldnavy · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:52 pm

CRD4ME wrote:

I live just north of you in Lafayette, and I can tell you my 2005 Limited CRD is only getting 19-22 at best right now.

Does anyone know if the emissions setup for Pennsylvania would have anything to do with it? I moved to Colorado and my truck seems to be falling apart. Used to average 24-28 without a problem - with the winterized diesel fuel.

It has nothing to do with emissions setup, you had better quality diesel where you were buying in CO is the only real difference. It was probably higher cetane then what you are getting now.

CRD4ME · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:55 pm

Oldnavy, would adding some power service additive help this? Also note, I buy diesel from a variety of places here, and have even run a few tanks of B20 to see how that would work. Thank you.

oldnavy · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:12 pm

CRD4ME wrote:

Oldnavy, would adding some power service additive help this? Also note, I buy diesel from a variety of places here, and have even run a few tanks of B20 to see how that would work. Thank you.

It all depends on the fuel the station is recieving. If the fuel was only refined to say 38 cetane, you will help it with the Power Service in the gray bottle, but you will still only probably get it up to 43/44 cetane and your engine is designed for 50 cetane fuel. Most likely the B20 fuel will be the higher cetane fuel, but not always. After the first of the year all diesel sold will have been switched over too the 46 cetane ULSD fuel and the CRD's should start reporting better mpg's.

I'm lucky and buy 49 cetane diesel B2 or B20, it is refined to 46 cetane and treated to be average 49 cetane with additives and the biodiesel.

All that said I can go to the nearby BP and buy 40 cetane D2 and the CRD rattles like crazy and the mpg's take a nose dive. nIt is all about find a good source and sticking with it as best you can.

MOSFET · **Joined:** Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:40 pm **Posts:** 295

dog_party · **Posted:** Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:14 pm

Welcome to LOST MOSFET! Nice chart. Thanks for sharing that! I just gotta love a big heavy truck consistently getting over 20 MPG! And to get over 20MPG all the time and have this kind of torque...amazing!

omniphil · **Posted:** Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:32 pm

What I find interesting about MOSFET's chart is that the MPG didnt seem to get better with break-in, or say a few thousand miles... I keep hoping ours would get better over time as we only have about 2900 miles on ours so far...

Here's our current chart...

jinstall · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:10 am

Nice sheets were did you get them from?

Reggie · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:53 am

oldnavy wrote:

CRD4ME wrote:

I live just north of you in Lafayette, and I can tell you my 2005 Limited CRD is only getting 19-22 at best right now.

Does anyone know if the emissions setup for Pennsylvania would have anything to do with it? I moved to Colorado and my truck seems to be falling apart. Used to average 24-28 without a problem - with the winterized diesel fuel.

It has nothing to do with emissions setup, you had better quality diesel where you were buying in CO is the only real difference. It was probably higher cetane then what you are getting now.

Mine only gets 20.5 mpg which is hand calculated. I sent a sample of fuel in for analysis to AV Lube and it came back with a cetane of 52.45 so my poor fuel economy is not because of crappy fuel. Tires are inflated to 36 psi, air filter looks good. My check engine just went on - again - so maybe it's the egr this time. I hope there is a "fix" for those of us that have crappy fuel economy.

omniphil · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:39 am

jinstall wrote:

Nice sheets were did you get them from?

www.omniphil.com/cartrack

Its a package I wrote to track car service stuff...

I like knowing miles per gallon, but more impotantly with different cars using different types of fuel, I wanted to see Cents per Mile, that way I can make a direct comparison to other cars...

Endurance · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:18 am

Got 21 on the last tank. My CRD has 2200 miles now. I drive approximately half highway, cruising 60-65 and have city with few stop and goes. I dont know if that is normal or not, but mpg dont really increase when I make long Highway trips.

omniphil · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:34 am

Endurance wrote:

Got 21 on the last tank. My CRD has 2200 miles now. I drive approximately half highway, cruising 60-65 and have city with few stop and goes. I dont know if that is normal or not, but mpg dont really increase when I make long Highway trips.

Its normal for 2200 miles. We have 3300 on ours now and we almost got 25mpg on the last tank, it seems to get just a hair better each tank...

MudTrac · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:12 pm

Ive seen my mpg drop every tank it seems, I can barley get about 300 miles out of one tank and thats mostly highway miles @ 60-70mph and very little round town stuff.... I do have tons of oil in the intercooler hose though, who doesnt right... I do have bigger tires but I dont think they kill it that bad the mph are right on target with my gps. Any thoughts?

BCool · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:33 pm

Doesn't sound good at all. Towing fairly decent weights I can get 400 miles per tank. I would take it in and tell them you are having poor mileage.

omniphil · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:39 pm

MudTrac wrote:

Ive seen my mpg drop every tank it seems, I can barley get about 300 miles out of one tank and thats mostly highway miles @ 60-70mph and very little round town stuff.... I do have tons of oil in the intercooler hose though, who doesnt right... I do have bigger tires but I dont think they kill it that bad the mph are right on target with my gps. Any thoughts?

Hmm, depends on your driving style too i suppose. I would assume the lift and the larger times to hurt you to some degree. Oil in the intercooler pipes wont hurt anything as longs as its not huge puddles...

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 8:41 pm

When I added the lift and MTR's I dropped at least 3 mpg 21-22 to 18 on the same daily drive ( 10 miles 80% highway each way) - as a test yesterday I put the stock tires back on for 1 tank to see if it's the tires or lift (yes it looks funny) - if the tires do make the difference - I may look at keeping a set of off-road tires and a set of road tires. I'm still debating that.
FYI - I added the Magnaflow after the lift and that jumped 18-to slightly over 20

spencevans · **Posted:** Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:25 am

ATXKJ wrote:

When I added the lift and MTR's I dropped at least 3 mpg 21-22 to 18 on the same daily drive ( 10 miles 80% highway each way) - as a test yesterday I put the stock tires back on for 1 tank to see if it's the tires or lift (yes it looks funny) - if the tires do make the difference - I may look at keeping a set of off-road tires and a set of road tires. I'm still debating that.
FYI - I added the Magnaflow after the lift and that jumped 18-to slightly over 20

I bought mine new from the dealer with a 3" lift and MTR's so I never saw the decrease in fuel milage. I use it as a daily driver and I have never had less than 21 mpg even in fulltime four wheel and I have to let it idle for long periods of time before I drive it when it is 30 below outside. Also last week on my way home from Moab I got 30.1 mpg which included several long steep climbs through the mountains. My guess is most owners of CRD's on this forum have never owned a turbo diesel vehicle before and don't know how to optimize fuel economy. The secret is keeping your foot out of the turbo. From my experience the optimum speed for maximizing fuel economy on the CRD is driving between 58-62 mph. If you set the cruise in this range you will see excellent fuel economy. If I wind out the turbo and go 75 mph on the freeway I will only get 22 mph on the freeway. It's all how you drive it. Also be patient and let the engine breakin. It will take at least 25k-30k miles. Diesel engines do not break in in 5k miles like gas engines. Good luck.

Reggie · **Posted:** Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:55 am

"My guess is most owners of CRD's on this forum have never owned a turbo diesel vehicle before and don't know how to optimize fuel economy. The secret is keeping your foot out of the turbo."

I've owned plenty of turbo diesels before and know how to drive for economy. This one is a pig and the best it gets is 20.5 mpg. I've even went through the trouble of checking my fuel and it came out fine with a centane value of over 50. It seems to me that there are two different CRDs - those that run well and get good fuel economy and those that visit the dealership every three weeks and get crap for mileage. It's my bad luck that I've got the second version. Hopefully it will be bad enough to lemon so I can go back to a Dodge Cummins. The one I traded was a lot more vehicle with just a little less mileage.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:09 pm

No question driving technique is a factor - I know I get better mileage running at the engine torque peak ~1800 rpm - I just don't do it. I drive fast, I like feeling the turbo kick in. I'm just trying to quantify how much it's costing me. Actually in stock form when I've been patient - I've gotten 26-27 , I was starting to think I could do anything and it'd stay above 20 so the 18 really surprised me.

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

Just returned from a 150 mile trip. On winter fuel blend, entire trip average was 30 mpg. I have been averaging 22 mpg in city driving the last couple of tankfuls. Running B20.

oldnavy · **Posted:** Sun Apr 02, 2006 9:19 am

Ranger1 wrote:

Just returned from a 150 mile trip. On winter fuel blend, entire trip average was 30 mpg. I have been averaging 22 mpg in city driving the last couple of tankfuls. Running B20.

Sounds like our experience with the CRD, averaging 22 mpg in town and 30 mpg highway.

B10 50 cetane fuel

Flowmaster 40 series muffler

Mobil 1 5w-40

OEM tires nitrogen filled to 42 PSI

All Factory skids except fuel tank

CRD Highway Mileage Check

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